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IMDbPro

Mrs. Soffel

  • 19841984
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
6.1/10
3.3K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
18,652
5,278
Mrs. Soffel (1984)
Diane Keaton stars as a prison warden's wife who falls in love with a death row convict (Mel Gibson.) Believing he's innocent, she helps him and his convicted brother escape.
Play trailer2:23
1 Video
21 Photos
DramaRomance
Diane Keaton stars as a prison warden's wife who falls in love with a death row convict (Mel Gibson.) Believing he's innocent, she helps him and his convicted brother escape.Diane Keaton stars as a prison warden's wife who falls in love with a death row convict (Mel Gibson.) Believing he's innocent, she helps him and his convicted brother escape.Diane Keaton stars as a prison warden's wife who falls in love with a death row convict (Mel Gibson.) Believing he's innocent, she helps him and his convicted brother escape.
IMDb RATING
6.1/10
3.3K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
18,652
5,278
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Gillian Armstrong
    • Writer
      • Ron Nyswaner
    • Stars
      • Diane Keaton
      • Mel Gibson
      • Matthew Modine
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Gillian Armstrong
    • Writer
      • Ron Nyswaner
    • Stars
      • Diane Keaton
      • Mel Gibson
      • Matthew Modine
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 25User reviews
    • 7Critic reviews
    • Awards
      • 3 nominations

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:23
    Trailer

    Photos21

    Mrs. Soffel (1984)
    Never Cry Wolf (1983)
    Mrs. Soffel (1984)
    Mrs. Soffel (1984)
    Mrs. Soffel (1984)
    Diane Keaton in Mrs. Soffel (1984)
    Mel Gibson and Diane Keaton in Mrs. Soffel (1984)
    Diane Keaton in Mrs. Soffel (1984)
    Mel Gibson, Diane Keaton, and Matthew Modine in Mrs. Soffel (1984)
    Mel Gibson, Diane Keaton, and Matthew Modine in Mrs. Soffel (1984)
    Mel Gibson, Diane Keaton, Matthew Modine, and Maury Chaykin in Mrs. Soffel (1984)
    Mel Gibson in Mrs. Soffel (1984)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Diane Keaton
    Diane Keaton
    • Kate Soffel
    Mel Gibson
    Mel Gibson
    • Ed Biddle
    Matthew Modine
    Matthew Modine
    • Jack Biddle
    Edward Herrmann
    Edward Herrmann
    • Warden Peter Soffel
    Trini Alvarado
    Trini Alvarado
    • Irene Soffel
    Jennifer Dundas
    Jennifer Dundas
    • Margaret Soffel
    • (as Jennie Dundas)
    Danny Corkill
    Danny Corkill
    • Eddie Soffel
    Harley Cross
    Harley Cross
    • Clarence Soffel
    Terry O'Quinn
    Terry O'Quinn
    • Detective Buck McGovern
    Pippa Pearthree
    Pippa Pearthree
    • Maggie
    William Youmans
    William Youmans
    • Guard George Koslow
    Maury Chaykin
    Maury Chaykin
    • Guard Charlie Reynolds
    Joyce Ebert
    • Matron Agnes Garvey
    Wayne Robson
    Wayne Robson
    • Halliday
    Dana Wheeler-Nicholson
    Dana Wheeler-Nicholson
    • Jessie Bodyne
    Les Rubie
    • Mr. Stevenson
    Paula Trueman
    Paula Trueman
    • Mrs. Stevenson
    Nancy Chesney
    • Mrs. Fitzgerald
    • Director
      • Gillian Armstrong
    • Writer
      • Ron Nyswaner
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      A very old, closed, unused bridge in the village of Elora, Ontario, was refurbished for the movie, and now serves as a pedestrian bridge there.
    • Goofs
      A toy electric train shown running around a Christmas tree is of a post-1950 design, as is the track. The train is based on 19th-century locomotive and passenger car prototypes, making it more plausible. However, toy electric trains that even remotely resembled the one shown did not exist by 1901.
    • Quotes

      Kate Soffel: Don't you let them take me alive, Ed. Promise me. Promise me, Ed.

      Ed Biddle: I won't, I promise. I won't let them take you.

    • Connections
      Featured in The Making of 'Mrs. Soffel' (1984)

    User reviews25

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    9/10
    One of the best American films of the 1980's
    This is one of the best American films of the 1980's. It is based on the true story of the wife of the Allegheny County Jail warden, Kate Soffel (Diane Keaton) who falls in love with a sexually alluring working class inmate, Ed Biddle (Mel Gibosn) in turn of the century Pittsburgh and plots to help him and his brother, Jack (Matthew Modine) escape. Director Gillian Armstrong and screenwriter Ron Nyswaner brilliantly decided to deal with the story in an elliptical and indirect way. We aren't telegraphed anything. We don't know if the Biddle's are innocent. We don't really understand why Kate falls in love with Ed. We aren't directly told why Kate is so disappointed in her life. The filmmakers takes this personal story and turns it into a progressive feminist mood poem. It is extraordinary to see a post 1970's American film this complex and this progressive.

    Diane Keaton gives a remarkably complex and nuanced performance. The film is almost unimaginable with her in the leading role. Early in the film she communicates the torment and longing of Kate in a way that warrants comparisons with the greatest acting of the silent cinema. We see the depression and desperation in Kate's face in a way that rivals Maria Falconetti in Dryer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC and Lilian Gish in Victor Sjöström's THE WIND and D.W. Griffith's BROKEN BLOSSOM'S. One of the remarkably subversive aspects of the film is its relationship to Kate's Christianity (which becomes particularly pointed watched in the contemporary context and thinking about Mel Gibson's PASSION OF THE Christ fundamentalism). She is a bit scary creeping about the prison trying to sell doomed men on a faith that will set them free. The suggestion is that it is this same faith, or more precisely the way Christianity is used as a structuring device of patriarchy, that has trapped Kate into her own life sentence. When she becomes aroused by Ed everything shifts, she looks different, some kind of remarkable radiance shines forth from Keaton's face. Her bible lessons become a pretext for sexual release. She literally makes love to Ed through the bars with his brother nearby, which adds a remarkable charge of voyeurism to the proceedings.

    Mel Gibson has never been photographed more sensually then in this film. There is a scene late in the film, in which, he is lying in bed with the sunlight playing on his face that in which his beauty is almost angelic. He's photographed and contextualized the way male directors have often shot young classically beautiful women (think of Julie Christie in David Lean's Dr. ZHIVAGO, Joseph Losey's THE GO BETWEEN, or Donald Cammell's DEMONSEED or Faye Dunaway in Roman Polanski's CHINATOWN or Sydney Pollock's 3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR). Armstong also allows Gibson's sense of humor to peek out to suggest layers to this character. We never totally trust Ed, yet we root for him or at least root for Kate's vision of him.

    The cinematography by Russell Boyd is exceptionally original and the production design emphasizes the grimy oppressive nature of an industrial town. this was actually a critique of the film at the time of its release. It was too dark, mainstream reviewers said. Well actually its historically accurate. Pittsburgh was so soot filled and grimy that the street lights had to stay on all day long! This is the great environmental tragedy of the industrial revolution. Armstrong uses this look for strong dramatic effect and creates a kind of mood poem here that reminds me of the best work of Antonioni and of Werner Herzog remarkable NOSFERATU. Like in that great film we can never quiet situate ourselves, the oppressive dim look of the film suggests we might be in a kind of waking nightmare. Is the environment part of Kate's psychic and physical affliction? Who could be happy or healthy living in this kind of relentlessly dismal environ? When we finally leave Pittsburgh Boyd and Armstrong present us with some of the most lovingly photographed images of sun and snow in American cinema. The viewer so ready for these brighter images that they alter our the way we connect to the story.

    That this film was neither a critical nor a commercial success is a tragedy for the contemporary Hollywood cinema. Its failure became one of the many excuses for the overwhelming turn to the banal cookie cutter cinema that Hollywood is known for today. One hopes that cinephiles everywhere will reclaim ambitious films like MRS. SOFFEL as an example
    helpful•45
    5
    • Rigor
    • Jan 25, 2005

    FAQ1

    • What famous New Age composer wrote the score for Mrs.Soffel?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 8, 1985 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Flucht zu dritt
    • Filming locations
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
    • Production companies
      • Edgar J. Scherick Associates
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $11,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $4,385,312
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $86,280
      • Jan 1, 1985
    • Gross worldwide
      • $4,385,312
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 50 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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