Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here – today – we talk about movie Editors! Not the movies they edited that were legendary but the less legendary ones in between.
Today we speak with the great editor Darrin Navarro about the lauded editor Sam O’Steen, who worked on such masterpieces as The Graduate, Rosemary’s Baby, and Chinatown. The O’Steen-edited films we cover today are: The Day of the Dolphin, Straight Time, Nadine, and A Dry White Season.
Navarro talks about the editing process with William Friedkin (and how it changed a bit with The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial), how knowing when not to cut is as important as knowing when to cut when editing a film, O’Steen’s essential book Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America’s Favourite Movies (written with his wife Bobbie O’Steen), and what a gem of a film Nadine is.
Highlights include...
Today we speak with the great editor Darrin Navarro about the lauded editor Sam O’Steen, who worked on such masterpieces as The Graduate, Rosemary’s Baby, and Chinatown. The O’Steen-edited films we cover today are: The Day of the Dolphin, Straight Time, Nadine, and A Dry White Season.
Navarro talks about the editing process with William Friedkin (and how it changed a bit with The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial), how knowing when not to cut is as important as knowing when to cut when editing a film, O’Steen’s essential book Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America’s Favourite Movies (written with his wife Bobbie O’Steen), and what a gem of a film Nadine is.
Highlights include...
- 12/28/2023
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
One week after his unannounced appearance at Farm Aid, where he stunned the crowd by playing three 1965 classics with 3/5th of the Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan resumed his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour at the Midland Theater in Kansas City, Missouri. And even though he was back with his standard touring band, the surprises kept coming when he opened the show with Leiber and Stoller’s 1952 classic “Kansas City.”
It was the first time he’d played the song since a 1986 show with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in Bonner Springs,...
It was the first time he’d played the song since a 1986 show with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in Bonner Springs,...
- 10/9/2023
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Exclusive: Wolfe Releasing has acquired North American rights to Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ first narrative feature, It Is In Us All, in which she stars alongside Cosmo Jarvis (Peaky Blinders), Claes Bang (The Northman) and newcomer Rhys Mannion, slating it for release in theaters and on digital this fall.
The thriller picked up from Sphere Films centers on Hamish (Jarvis), who is forced to confront his self-destructive core when a violent car crash involving precocious teenager, Evan (Mannion), challenges him to face his truth. It made its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival, there winning a Special Jury Prize for Extraordinary Cinematic Vision. Emma Foley and Tamryn Reinecke of Pale Rebel Productions produced the pic, with Conor Barry of Savage Productions exec producing.
“It Is In Us All embraces a setting that is without geography. It was integral for me that this story sit in the universal and the ambiguous,” said Campbell-Hughes.
The thriller picked up from Sphere Films centers on Hamish (Jarvis), who is forced to confront his self-destructive core when a violent car crash involving precocious teenager, Evan (Mannion), challenges him to face his truth. It made its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival, there winning a Special Jury Prize for Extraordinary Cinematic Vision. Emma Foley and Tamryn Reinecke of Pale Rebel Productions produced the pic, with Conor Barry of Savage Productions exec producing.
“It Is In Us All embraces a setting that is without geography. It was integral for me that this story sit in the universal and the ambiguous,” said Campbell-Hughes.
- 5/17/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Wolfe Releasing has acquired all North American rights for director Magnus Gertten’s feature documentary “Nelly & Nadine” ahead of its North American premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on April 30. Wolfe Releasing has slated the documentary for a theatrical and streaming release in late 2022.
Produced by Ove Rishøj Jensen from Auto Images, “Nelly & Nadine” had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the Teddy Jury Award, the highest honor for an LGBTQ+ film.
“Nelly & Nadine” is the story of two women who fall in love on Christmas Eve 1944 in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Despite being separated in the last months of the war, Nelly and Nadine manage to later reunite and spend the rest of their lives together. For many years their love story was kept a secret, even to some of their closest family. Now Nelly’s granddaughter, Sylvie,...
Produced by Ove Rishøj Jensen from Auto Images, “Nelly & Nadine” had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the Teddy Jury Award, the highest honor for an LGBTQ+ film.
“Nelly & Nadine” is the story of two women who fall in love on Christmas Eve 1944 in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Despite being separated in the last months of the war, Nelly and Nadine manage to later reunite and spend the rest of their lives together. For many years their love story was kept a secret, even to some of their closest family. Now Nelly’s granddaughter, Sylvie,...
- 4/26/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
’Wolf Warrior 2’, ’The Wandering Earth’ and ‘Capernaum’ are among the titles being screened to lure audiences back to cinemas.
A total of 507 cinemas had reopened in China as of Monday, March 23, representing 4.5% of theatres across the country, according to online ticketing agency Maoyan. However, box office revenues remain small.
China’s cinemas have been shuttered since January 23 to help prevent the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, but are starting to slowly reopen as the country reports a huge decline in infection numbers. On March 22, China reported just 46 new cases, all but one attributed to travellers arriving from overseas.
Over the weekend,...
A total of 507 cinemas had reopened in China as of Monday, March 23, representing 4.5% of theatres across the country, according to online ticketing agency Maoyan. However, box office revenues remain small.
China’s cinemas have been shuttered since January 23 to help prevent the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, but are starting to slowly reopen as the country reports a huge decline in infection numbers. On March 22, China reported just 46 new cases, all but one attributed to travellers arriving from overseas.
Over the weekend,...
- 3/23/2020
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Rare and classic footage of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, and others covering Chuck Berry tunes will be compiled in a new tribute to the rock & roll legend, Brown Eyed Handsome Man, set to air February 29th on PBS.
The film collects several decades’ worth of performances, including two very early ones from the Beatles and the Stones from 1964: In one, the Beatles play “Roll Over Beethoven” at their first U.S. concert, at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and in the other,...
The film collects several decades’ worth of performances, including two very early ones from the Beatles and the Stones from 1964: In one, the Beatles play “Roll Over Beethoven” at their first U.S. concert, at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and in the other,...
- 2/4/2020
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
The 2018 Grammy Awards remembered the legendary Chuck Berry and Fats Domino during Sunday night’s live broadcast.
Berry died of natural causes at the age of 90 on March 18, 2017. Domino, who is best known as one of the fathers of rock and roll, died in October and was known as a pioneer in the genre. He was 89.
Jon Batiste, Gary Clark Jr. and Joe Saylor sang Berry’s “Maybelline” and Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame” in remembrance of the two artists.
With a litany of hit singles such as “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” “Johnny B. Goode,...
Berry died of natural causes at the age of 90 on March 18, 2017. Domino, who is best known as one of the fathers of rock and roll, died in October and was known as a pioneer in the genre. He was 89.
Jon Batiste, Gary Clark Jr. and Joe Saylor sang Berry’s “Maybelline” and Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame” in remembrance of the two artists.
With a litany of hit singles such as “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” “Johnny B. Goode,...
- 1/29/2018
- by Alexia Fernandez
- PEOPLE.com
By Todd Garbarini
Curtis Hanson’s Academy Award-nominated film, L.A. Confidential (1997), celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and is the subject of an exclusive screening at Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre. The 138-minute film, which stars Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kim Basinger, will be screened on Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 7:30 pm.
Please Note: Actress Kim Basinger, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to the Golden Globe and Screen Actor’s Guild Award for her role as Lynn Bracken, is scheduled to appear in person for a Q & A following the screening.
From the press release:
Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.
L.A. Confidential (1997)
20th Anniversary Screening and Tribute to Oscar-winning writer-director Curtis Hanson
Q & A with Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger
Tuesday, May 9, at 7:30 Pm at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre
Laemmle Theatres...
Curtis Hanson’s Academy Award-nominated film, L.A. Confidential (1997), celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and is the subject of an exclusive screening at Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre. The 138-minute film, which stars Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kim Basinger, will be screened on Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 7:30 pm.
Please Note: Actress Kim Basinger, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to the Golden Globe and Screen Actor’s Guild Award for her role as Lynn Bracken, is scheduled to appear in person for a Q & A following the screening.
From the press release:
Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.
L.A. Confidential (1997)
20th Anniversary Screening and Tribute to Oscar-winning writer-director Curtis Hanson
Q & A with Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger
Tuesday, May 9, at 7:30 Pm at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre
Laemmle Theatres...
- 5/8/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Rebecca Clough Jan 20, 2017
As America gets its new President, we look at some excellent political drama films that may have slipped under your radar...
Political dramas can be entertaining, informative and even educational, opening up debates and offering new points of view. (When experiencing a year of tumultuous change like the one we’ve just had, they can also be a comforting reminder that, no matter what your situation, it could always be worse...) With the full whack of corruption, war, and conspiracy, here are 25 political dramas which deserve to be better known.
See related 25 underrated political thrillers 17 new TV shows to watch in 2017 Taboo episode 3 review The Girl On The Train review 25. The Marchers/La Marche (2013)
When teenager Mohamed (Tewfik Jallab) is shot by police, his friends want revenge, but he has a better idea: peaceful protest. Marching from Marseille to Paris, they band together with quite an assortment of characters along the way.
As America gets its new President, we look at some excellent political drama films that may have slipped under your radar...
Political dramas can be entertaining, informative and even educational, opening up debates and offering new points of view. (When experiencing a year of tumultuous change like the one we’ve just had, they can also be a comforting reminder that, no matter what your situation, it could always be worse...) With the full whack of corruption, war, and conspiracy, here are 25 political dramas which deserve to be better known.
See related 25 underrated political thrillers 17 new TV shows to watch in 2017 Taboo episode 3 review The Girl On The Train review 25. The Marchers/La Marche (2013)
When teenager Mohamed (Tewfik Jallab) is shot by police, his friends want revenge, but he has a better idea: peaceful protest. Marching from Marseille to Paris, they band together with quite an assortment of characters along the way.
- 12/22/2016
- Den of Geek
Hailee Steinfeld in ‘Edge of Seventeen’ (Courtesy: Stx Entertainment)
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
Just when you thought the best actress category seemed like a lock, Hailee Steinfeld has just entered the Oscar race with Edge of Seventeen. The young starlet has already broken barriers in the best supporting actress category but now it seems like she may have successfully made the jump to leading lady. Will Steinfeld make history in the best actress category this go ‘round?
Steinfeld received her first (and so far only) Oscar nomination for the role of Mattie Ross in 2010’s True Grit — in which she starred alongside Jeff Bridges. While the Ethan Coen– and Joel Coen-directed film didn’t result in a win (it went to Melissa Leo from The Fighter), Steinfeld earned a spot in the history books as the ninth youngest nominee in Oscar history — thus far, at least — having been 14 years and 45 days old.
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
Just when you thought the best actress category seemed like a lock, Hailee Steinfeld has just entered the Oscar race with Edge of Seventeen. The young starlet has already broken barriers in the best supporting actress category but now it seems like she may have successfully made the jump to leading lady. Will Steinfeld make history in the best actress category this go ‘round?
Steinfeld received her first (and so far only) Oscar nomination for the role of Mattie Ross in 2010’s True Grit — in which she starred alongside Jeff Bridges. While the Ethan Coen– and Joel Coen-directed film didn’t result in a win (it went to Melissa Leo from The Fighter), Steinfeld earned a spot in the history books as the ninth youngest nominee in Oscar history — thus far, at least — having been 14 years and 45 days old.
- 11/30/2016
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
Beauty and the Beast, Valerian, Fantastic Beasts and more cover our weekly round-upBeauty and the Beast, Valerian, Fantastic Beasts and more cover our weekly round-upGarrett McCormick11/11/2016 1:23:00 Pm
Check out this week's round-up of movie news, trailers and more!
Collateral Beauty
Get your box of tissues ready; Collateral Beauty promises to bring the waterworks in this new trailer.
Howard (Will Smith) is a man who feels as if he’s lost everything after the passing of his young daughter. Life has become meaningless for him and it’s affecting his work, friendships and his overall quality of being.
Kate Winslet and Edward Norton join this ensemble cast in Collateral Beauty, hitting Cineplex theatres December 16th.
Check out the trailer below:
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Special operatives Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) have one job: they must maintain order throughout the universe.
Valerian and...
Check out this week's round-up of movie news, trailers and more!
Collateral Beauty
Get your box of tissues ready; Collateral Beauty promises to bring the waterworks in this new trailer.
Howard (Will Smith) is a man who feels as if he’s lost everything after the passing of his young daughter. Life has become meaningless for him and it’s affecting his work, friendships and his overall quality of being.
Kate Winslet and Edward Norton join this ensemble cast in Collateral Beauty, hitting Cineplex theatres December 16th.
Check out the trailer below:
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Special operatives Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) have one job: they must maintain order throughout the universe.
Valerian and...
- 11/11/2016
- by Garrett McCormick
- Cineplex
Kirsten Howard Jul 19, 2016
From Blonde And Blonder and You Stupid Man, through to Edmond: we go through the recent straight-to-dvd films of Denise Richards...
So far in this series of pieces that look at the straight-to-dvd or VOD movies of some of our favourite actors who have fallen on hard times, we’ve only looked at men (to date: Bruce Willis, Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Travolta). That’s because, mostly, actresses find themselves almost completely out of the game once they hit 30ish – an unnecessary full stop that a lot of us would like to see removed in the future.
Denise Richards, sadly, is no different. After marrying a man she found herself in an abusive relationship with, her career climb stumbled and she was forced back down into TV roles, where she’s currently still putting in the hours.
Richards had a sparkling, American Dream-like start in life.
From Blonde And Blonder and You Stupid Man, through to Edmond: we go through the recent straight-to-dvd films of Denise Richards...
So far in this series of pieces that look at the straight-to-dvd or VOD movies of some of our favourite actors who have fallen on hard times, we’ve only looked at men (to date: Bruce Willis, Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Travolta). That’s because, mostly, actresses find themselves almost completely out of the game once they hit 30ish – an unnecessary full stop that a lot of us would like to see removed in the future.
Denise Richards, sadly, is no different. After marrying a man she found herself in an abusive relationship with, her career climb stumbled and she was forced back down into TV roles, where she’s currently still putting in the hours.
Richards had a sparkling, American Dream-like start in life.
- 7/17/2016
- Den of Geek
There were high hopes for the Austin-made comedy Nadine when it was released in 1987.
The filmmaker, Robert Benton, had an impressive track record as a screenwriter (Bonnie and Clyde, What's Up, Doc and Superman) and writer/director (The Late Show, Kramer vs. Kramer and Places in the Heart). Nadine also had two white-hot stars (Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger) and a strong supporting cast (Rip Torn, Glenne Headly, Jerry Stiller and a host of other great character actors).
But sadly, Nadine was a flop -- and for the most part, deservedly so.
Nadine is the story of the titular Nadine Hightower (Basinger), a struggling hairstylist in 1954 Austin. Strapped for cash, she poses for some nude "art studies" but now has second thoughts about the photos. When she visits photographer Raymond Escobar (Stiller) to retrieve them, she witnesses his murder. She also mistakenly steals secret plans for a new road --...
The filmmaker, Robert Benton, had an impressive track record as a screenwriter (Bonnie and Clyde, What's Up, Doc and Superman) and writer/director (The Late Show, Kramer vs. Kramer and Places in the Heart). Nadine also had two white-hot stars (Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger) and a strong supporting cast (Rip Torn, Glenne Headly, Jerry Stiller and a host of other great character actors).
But sadly, Nadine was a flop -- and for the most part, deservedly so.
Nadine is the story of the titular Nadine Hightower (Basinger), a struggling hairstylist in 1954 Austin. Strapped for cash, she poses for some nude "art studies" but now has second thoughts about the photos. When she visits photographer Raymond Escobar (Stiller) to retrieve them, she witnesses his murder. She also mistakenly steals secret plans for a new road --...
- 6/25/2014
- by Don Clinchy
- Slackerwood
Last weekend I was at the Detroit Fanfare (which is why I wasn’t here) and I enjoyed myself immensely. It’s a good Con, well organized, and they took good care of me. I had a chance to say hello to old friends like Bill and Nadine Messner-Loebs, Paul Storrie, Howard Purcell, Norm Breyfogle and others and make new friends like Whilce Portacio. And, of course, talk with fans and sign books and stuff which, for me, is the main reason I go. I love meeting and talking with fans and having a chance to say “thank you” for their support.
I was ferried there and back by my cohorts in Unshaven Comics – Marc Alan Fishman (my esteemed fellow ComicMix columnist), Matt Wright, and Kyle Gnepper (the cute one). Marc drove and we blathered together in a wonderful fashion.
Da Boys (as I refer to them and, being from my home town of Chicago,...
I was ferried there and back by my cohorts in Unshaven Comics – Marc Alan Fishman (my esteemed fellow ComicMix columnist), Matt Wright, and Kyle Gnepper (the cute one). Marc drove and we blathered together in a wonderful fashion.
Da Boys (as I refer to them and, being from my home town of Chicago,...
- 11/3/2013
- by John Ostrander
- Comicmix.com
The King of Soho
Tom Hiddleston (Loki in "The Avengers") will play adult magazine mogul Paul Raymond in a biopic called "The King of Soho" which Paul's son Howard Raymond will write.
The film is not to be confused with Michael Winterbottom's rival project of the same name starring Steve Coogan. [Source: Bleeding Cool]
Noah
Jennifer Connelly has finally entered negotiations to join Russell Crowe in Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" at Paramount and New Regency.
Noah is a man who loves Earth and all of its animal inhabitants, but has become disillusioned with the way humans have treated their planet. Connelly will play Noah's wife. [Source: Variety]
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Broadway thesp Cristin Milioti and Australian actress Margot Robbie ("Pan Am") are in talks to join Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf Of Wall Street". Shooting begins in August in New York.
Robbie would play Nadine, the wife of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio...
Tom Hiddleston (Loki in "The Avengers") will play adult magazine mogul Paul Raymond in a biopic called "The King of Soho" which Paul's son Howard Raymond will write.
The film is not to be confused with Michael Winterbottom's rival project of the same name starring Steve Coogan. [Source: Bleeding Cool]
Noah
Jennifer Connelly has finally entered negotiations to join Russell Crowe in Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" at Paramount and New Regency.
Noah is a man who loves Earth and all of its animal inhabitants, but has become disillusioned with the way humans have treated their planet. Connelly will play Noah's wife. [Source: Variety]
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Broadway thesp Cristin Milioti and Australian actress Margot Robbie ("Pan Am") are in talks to join Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf Of Wall Street". Shooting begins in August in New York.
Robbie would play Nadine, the wife of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio...
- 6/19/2012
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Encino, CA - While Charles Nelson Reilly is beloved for his time on Match Game, there’s more to this actor than Dumb Dora answers. He was the toast of Broadway with roles in Hello Dolly and Bye, Bye, Birdie and won the Tony for How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Later in life he directed several plays on the Great White Way. While many actors sum up their lives in thick tomes, Charles created a one-man show. He was a stage performer so this was the best way to distill his experiences for an audience. The Life of Reilly captures his final performance before his passing in 2007.
After playing the festival circuit and a limited theatrical release, Life of Reilly is finally out on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes. You can take Charles every where. In edition to the feature film, there’s tons of bonus features including...
After playing the festival circuit and a limited theatrical release, Life of Reilly is finally out on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes. You can take Charles every where. In edition to the feature film, there’s tons of bonus features including...
- 1/21/2011
- by UncaScroogeMcD
Craig here with Take Three. Today: Kim Basinger
Bay•sing•er
I think it’s time again to give Kim Basinger (remember, it's Bay-singer, not Bah-sinjahr, folks) some major credit. The lady's due. She’s gone from supporting eighties female through a love-hate (but Oscar-nabbing) nineties to her current career bloom as a character actress of some depth. Ms Basinger has always quietly impressed me. Here are three reasons why.
Take One: She loooovves purple.
Basinger’s career was birthed alongside the eighties. Feisty ladies in adventurous circumstances were her trade back then. Although through either slip-ups or fate she was often eclipsed by her male co-stars. In Never Say Never Again, The Man Who Loved Women, The Natural, Fool for Love, 9½ Weeks, No Mercy, Blind Date and Nadine she played second-fiddle female to, respectively, Connery, Reynolds, Redford, Shepard, Rourke, Gere, Willis and Bridges. These regulars of male-patterned eighties flicks...
Bay•sing•er
I think it’s time again to give Kim Basinger (remember, it's Bay-singer, not Bah-sinjahr, folks) some major credit. The lady's due. She’s gone from supporting eighties female through a love-hate (but Oscar-nabbing) nineties to her current career bloom as a character actress of some depth. Ms Basinger has always quietly impressed me. Here are three reasons why.
Take One: She loooovves purple.
Basinger’s career was birthed alongside the eighties. Feisty ladies in adventurous circumstances were her trade back then. Although through either slip-ups or fate she was often eclipsed by her male co-stars. In Never Say Never Again, The Man Who Loved Women, The Natural, Fool for Love, 9½ Weeks, No Mercy, Blind Date and Nadine she played second-fiddle female to, respectively, Connery, Reynolds, Redford, Shepard, Rourke, Gere, Willis and Bridges. These regulars of male-patterned eighties flicks...
- 11/9/2010
- by Craig Bloomfield
- FilmExperience
Recently, Drew Barrymore directed and starred in a feature called Whip It!, set in Austin, Texas, and based on a novel by a former Austinite, Shauna Cross. The film was shot in...Ann Arbor, Mich. Say what? Why would a town with a rich film culture and at least two major favorite-son film directors — Robert Rodriguez and Richard Linklater — miss out on hosting a project that's such an obvious fit? As usual, it's a money thing. Michigan — along with such states as New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Louisiana — currently offers producers hefty incentive packages to shoot on its soil. As Gary Bond, director of the Austin Film Commission, points out, the 8.25 percent sales-tax exemption and other incentives that Texas offers to filmmakers don't add up to the same breaks available elsewhere. Nevertheless, last January, Austin was named the No. 1 American movie city by MovieMaker magazine, beating out such incentives-rich locales as Albuquerque,...
- 12/4/2008
- by Mark Dundas Wood
- backstage.com
Adapting John Irving novels to the screen is a tricky bit of business.
When the elements come together successfully, the results can take the generally pleasing forms of The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules (for which Irving himself handled screenplay honors).
When they don't, you're stuck with the lumpy Hotel New Hampshire or the treacly Simon Birch, which was loosely based on Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany.
Breaking the tie, The Door in the Floor -- taking its cue from the first part of Irving's A Widow for One Year -- falls satisfyingly into the plus category.
A tragicomic rumination on life and death and love and sex (but not necessarily in that order), the production is graced by bold performances, lyrical visuals and, most notably, Irving's own words, which have made the transition quite intact thanks to a faithful but still filmic adaptation by writer-director Tod Williams.
With its tragic emotional underpinnings and complex characters, the Focus Features release would have seemed more at home in the fall release schedule rather than taking on potential blockbusters like I, Robot and King Arthur, but the counterprogramming gambit could work in the picture's favor, giving it a neat jump on all those upcoming awards hopefuls.
As with the earlier section of Irving's 576-page novel, Door chronicles a fateful summer in the splintering lives of an East Hampton couple still struggling to cope with the tragic deaths of their two sons.
While free-spirited Ted Cole (a terrific Jeff Bridges), a successful children's author and illustrator, has seemingly moved on from the mourning process by indulging his weakness for infidelity, his wife, Marion (Kim Basinger), remains in a troubling state of withdrawal.
The pallor over their seaside household has forced their 4-year-old daughter, Ruth (Elle Fanning, Dakota's equally capable little sister), to grow up fast.
But a coastal disturbance soon arrives in the form of Eddie O'Hare (Jon Foster), a young man who's ostensibly hired on as Ted's intern but quickly develops a major crush on Marion. Much to his surprise, his feverish sexual yearning is reciprocated, though their steamy affair doesn't exactly lead to a tidy emotional recovery for the damaged family unit.
Williams, who made his feature debut with "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole" and is working on a remake of To Have and Have Not for Benicio Del Toro, does a careful job of extracting and reshaping the Irving material, never shying away from the book's more overtly sexual elements, without detracting from the film's own separate identity.
Key to that success is a strong ensemble playing flawed characters that essentially dare the audience to like them.
The fundamentally likable Bridges gamely pushes all that goodwill to the far edge as the unorthodox Ted, logging one of his best performances in the process.
Basinger, meanwhile, who shared the screen with Bridges in Robert Benton's Nadine, really immerses herself into her character's complex layers with similarly impressive results.
Also doing gutsy work is Mimi Rogers, who has been given very little to hide behind as the needy, hot-blooded object of Bridges' daytime affections.
Behind the camera, cinematographer Terry Stacey (American Splendor) is responsible for some truly lovely compositions, movingly underscored by Marcelo Zarvos' eloquent music.
The Door in the Floor
Focus Features
Focus Features and Revere Pictures present a This Is That production
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Tod Williams
Based on the novel A Widow for One Year by: John Irving
Producers: Ted Hope, Anne Carey, Michael Corrente
Executive producers: Roger Marino, Amy J. Kaufman
Director of photography: Terry Stacey
Production designer: Therese DePrez
Editor: Affonso Goncalves
Costume designer: Eric Daman
Music: Marcelo Zarvos
Cast:
Ted Cole: Jeff Bridges
Marion Cole: Kim Basinger
Eddie O'Hare: Jon Foster
Eleanor Vaughn: Mimi Rogers
Ruth Cole: Elle Fanning
Alice: Bijou Phillips
Eduardo Gomez: Louis Arcella
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 111 minutes...
When the elements come together successfully, the results can take the generally pleasing forms of The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules (for which Irving himself handled screenplay honors).
When they don't, you're stuck with the lumpy Hotel New Hampshire or the treacly Simon Birch, which was loosely based on Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany.
Breaking the tie, The Door in the Floor -- taking its cue from the first part of Irving's A Widow for One Year -- falls satisfyingly into the plus category.
A tragicomic rumination on life and death and love and sex (but not necessarily in that order), the production is graced by bold performances, lyrical visuals and, most notably, Irving's own words, which have made the transition quite intact thanks to a faithful but still filmic adaptation by writer-director Tod Williams.
With its tragic emotional underpinnings and complex characters, the Focus Features release would have seemed more at home in the fall release schedule rather than taking on potential blockbusters like I, Robot and King Arthur, but the counterprogramming gambit could work in the picture's favor, giving it a neat jump on all those upcoming awards hopefuls.
As with the earlier section of Irving's 576-page novel, Door chronicles a fateful summer in the splintering lives of an East Hampton couple still struggling to cope with the tragic deaths of their two sons.
While free-spirited Ted Cole (a terrific Jeff Bridges), a successful children's author and illustrator, has seemingly moved on from the mourning process by indulging his weakness for infidelity, his wife, Marion (Kim Basinger), remains in a troubling state of withdrawal.
The pallor over their seaside household has forced their 4-year-old daughter, Ruth (Elle Fanning, Dakota's equally capable little sister), to grow up fast.
But a coastal disturbance soon arrives in the form of Eddie O'Hare (Jon Foster), a young man who's ostensibly hired on as Ted's intern but quickly develops a major crush on Marion. Much to his surprise, his feverish sexual yearning is reciprocated, though their steamy affair doesn't exactly lead to a tidy emotional recovery for the damaged family unit.
Williams, who made his feature debut with "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole" and is working on a remake of To Have and Have Not for Benicio Del Toro, does a careful job of extracting and reshaping the Irving material, never shying away from the book's more overtly sexual elements, without detracting from the film's own separate identity.
Key to that success is a strong ensemble playing flawed characters that essentially dare the audience to like them.
The fundamentally likable Bridges gamely pushes all that goodwill to the far edge as the unorthodox Ted, logging one of his best performances in the process.
Basinger, meanwhile, who shared the screen with Bridges in Robert Benton's Nadine, really immerses herself into her character's complex layers with similarly impressive results.
Also doing gutsy work is Mimi Rogers, who has been given very little to hide behind as the needy, hot-blooded object of Bridges' daytime affections.
Behind the camera, cinematographer Terry Stacey (American Splendor) is responsible for some truly lovely compositions, movingly underscored by Marcelo Zarvos' eloquent music.
The Door in the Floor
Focus Features
Focus Features and Revere Pictures present a This Is That production
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Tod Williams
Based on the novel A Widow for One Year by: John Irving
Producers: Ted Hope, Anne Carey, Michael Corrente
Executive producers: Roger Marino, Amy J. Kaufman
Director of photography: Terry Stacey
Production designer: Therese DePrez
Editor: Affonso Goncalves
Costume designer: Eric Daman
Music: Marcelo Zarvos
Cast:
Ted Cole: Jeff Bridges
Marion Cole: Kim Basinger
Eddie O'Hare: Jon Foster
Eleanor Vaughn: Mimi Rogers
Ruth Cole: Elle Fanning
Alice: Bijou Phillips
Eduardo Gomez: Louis Arcella
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 111 minutes...
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