Barry Sonnenfeld is set to make his first animated feature film with Perestroika in Paris, an adaptation of the Jane Smiley book of the same name. Legendary producer Frank Marshall will produce the movie via the Kennedy/Marshall Company, and the plan is to create a 2D animated film reminiscent of the animated comedy The Triplets of Belleville. The […]
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- 4/12/2021
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
Producer Frank Marshall and director Barry Sonnenfeld have teamed up to adapt Perestroika in Paris, the latest novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley.
Sonnenfeld is attached to direct while Marshall, the producer behind the Jurassic World and Bourne Identity franchises, will produce via his banner, the Kennedy/Marshall Company.
The intent is to adapt the novel, which features a stable’s worth of talking animals, into a traditional, 2D animated feature a la The Triplets of Belleville.
Perestoika, a screwball comedic satire, tells the story of a curious 3-year-old filly thoroughbred named Perestroika who leaves her stall and finds herself wandering the City of Light’s Eiffel ...
Sonnenfeld is attached to direct while Marshall, the producer behind the Jurassic World and Bourne Identity franchises, will produce via his banner, the Kennedy/Marshall Company.
The intent is to adapt the novel, which features a stable’s worth of talking animals, into a traditional, 2D animated feature a la The Triplets of Belleville.
Perestoika, a screwball comedic satire, tells the story of a curious 3-year-old filly thoroughbred named Perestroika who leaves her stall and finds herself wandering the City of Light’s Eiffel ...
- 4/12/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Producer Frank Marshall and director Barry Sonnenfeld have teamed up to adapt Perestroika in Paris, the latest novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley.
Sonnenfeld is attached to direct while Marshall, the producer behind the Jurassic World and Bourne Identity franchises, will produce via his banner, the Kennedy/Marshall Company.
The intent is to adapt the novel, which features a stable’s worth of talking animals, into a traditional, 2D animated feature a la The Triplets of Belleville.
Perestoika, a screwball comedic satire, tells the story of a curious 3-year-old filly thoroughbred named Perestroika who leaves her stall and finds herself wandering the City of Light’s Eiffel ...
Sonnenfeld is attached to direct while Marshall, the producer behind the Jurassic World and Bourne Identity franchises, will produce via his banner, the Kennedy/Marshall Company.
The intent is to adapt the novel, which features a stable’s worth of talking animals, into a traditional, 2D animated feature a la The Triplets of Belleville.
Perestoika, a screwball comedic satire, tells the story of a curious 3-year-old filly thoroughbred named Perestroika who leaves her stall and finds herself wandering the City of Light’s Eiffel ...
- 4/12/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"When the time comes, you better live up to your end of the bargain." Film Movement has released a trailer for Once Upon a River, marking the feature directorial debut of up-and-coming filmmaker Haroula Rose. This premiered at the Bentonville Film Festival last year, and it also played at the Chicago and Thessaloniki Film Festivals. Based on Bonnie Jo Campbell's novel, the film tells the story of a young Native American woman, Margo Crane's odyssey on the Stark River, which introduces her to a world filled with wonders and dangers. Written & directed by Haroula Rose, this "midwestern gothic Americana story" is, in the words of Jane Smiley for the NY Times, "an excellent American parable about the consequences of our favorite ideal, freedom." Starring Kenadi DelaCerna, with John Ashton, Tatanka Means, Ajuawak Kapashesit, Lindsay Pulsipher, and Josephine Decker. This looks like an authentic, personal coming-of-age story. Here's the...
- 9/21/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Sean Penn’s debut novel has amassed a whole lot of bad reviews. But instead of playing down the pans, Penn’s publisher highlighted them in a full-page ad in Tuesday’s print editions of The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Penn’s novel, “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff,” was released by Simon & Schuster on March 27. The headline of the ad reads, “The Critics Agree!,” followed by negative quotes about the book. Reviews from high-profile outlets such as Marie Claire, Chicago Tribune and USA Today are printed on the ad (and yes, they’re real).
“Sean Penn the novelist must be stopped,” reads Huffington Post’s review, while Marie Claire wrote, “Honestly, shut your face, Sean Penn.”
Also Read: Sean Penn Slams Steve Bannon as 'C-Word Charming,' 'Crook' (Video)
However, the ad also bears the words “Instant National Bestseller,” and points to well-known authors who have praised the book. Salman Rushdie, Jane Smiley, Paul Theroux, Stuart Dybeck, Sarah Silverman and Bill Maher are just a few who are advertised on the spread.
“Comic, cauchemaresque, crackling with life, ‘Bob Honey’ is a hero of our Trumpian times reflected in the cracked mirror of Penn’s prose,” wrote Theroux.
Also Read: Hopper Penn, Sean Penn and Robin Wright's Son, Arrested on Drug Charges
Ultimately, the ad urges readers to “Read It and Decide For Yourself.”
See it here:
Read original story Sean Penn’s Publisher Touts His Bad Reviews in Full-Page Ad: ‘Sean Penn the Novelist Must Be Stopped’ At TheWrap...
Penn’s novel, “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff,” was released by Simon & Schuster on March 27. The headline of the ad reads, “The Critics Agree!,” followed by negative quotes about the book. Reviews from high-profile outlets such as Marie Claire, Chicago Tribune and USA Today are printed on the ad (and yes, they’re real).
“Sean Penn the novelist must be stopped,” reads Huffington Post’s review, while Marie Claire wrote, “Honestly, shut your face, Sean Penn.”
Also Read: Sean Penn Slams Steve Bannon as 'C-Word Charming,' 'Crook' (Video)
However, the ad also bears the words “Instant National Bestseller,” and points to well-known authors who have praised the book. Salman Rushdie, Jane Smiley, Paul Theroux, Stuart Dybeck, Sarah Silverman and Bill Maher are just a few who are advertised on the spread.
“Comic, cauchemaresque, crackling with life, ‘Bob Honey’ is a hero of our Trumpian times reflected in the cracked mirror of Penn’s prose,” wrote Theroux.
Also Read: Hopper Penn, Sean Penn and Robin Wright's Son, Arrested on Drug Charges
Ultimately, the ad urges readers to “Read It and Decide For Yourself.”
See it here:
Read original story Sean Penn’s Publisher Touts His Bad Reviews in Full-Page Ad: ‘Sean Penn the Novelist Must Be Stopped’ At TheWrap...
- 4/17/2018
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
Australian filmmaker Jocelyn Moorhouse has had an odd career. After making an auspicious home-turf debut with 1991’s Proof — about a blind photographer, his housekeeper and his best friend (played by Russell Crowe) — she offered up gloppy back-to-back slices of deep-dish Americana: one sweet (the Winona Ryder-led ensemble piece How to Make an American Quilt), one sour (her adaptation of Jane Smiley’s novel A Thousand Acres, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange). Following an 18-year hiatus, Moorhouse is behind the camera — and down under — again, though it would be a stretch
read more...
read more...
- 9/15/2015
- by Jon Frosch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The fall TV season may be upon us, but many of our go-to shows for laughs won’t be returning until 2015, or ever. Don’t despair, fans of Broad City, Parks and Recreation, Archer, the dearly departed Enlisted, and other comedies — Vulture has your back. These humorous books should help with your grief over canceled sitcoms or tide you over until your favorite funny characters return.For Fans Of Parks And Recreation Moo, by Jane Smiley In this campus satire about a midwestern land-grant university, the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer of A Thousand Acres captures the same earnest goofiness on which Parks & Rec thrives. Though Smiley, as a former academic, is an expert at peeling back layers of bureaucracy to show the absurdity underneath, she also treats her characters — school administrators, professors, students, and even the occasional pig — with real warmth. For Fans Of Portlandia Metropolitan Life, by Fran Lebowitz...
- 9/12/2014
- by Ester Bloom
- Vulture
This week Simon Russell Beale takes on the royal role in a revival by Sam Mendes at the National Theatre. Here's a look back at Lear on film
Reading on a mobile? Click here to view
One of the earliest film versions of King Lear (retitled Re Lear) was made in Italy in 1910 with Ermete Novelli as King Lear. What takes over three hours on stage was packed into a dense 16 minutes of action that remains haunting many decades on.
Reading on a mobile? Click here to view
Almost 80 years before the 1997 movie A Thousand Acres based on Jane Smiley's novel, which transposed the play to contemporary Iowa, French director Louis Feuillade was doing something similar in Le Roi Lear Au Village, a 1911 adaptation in which Lear becomes a blind French farmer who foolishly gives over his land to his two heartless daughters. Alas, I couldn't find any footage online.
Reading on a mobile? Click here to view
One of the earliest film versions of King Lear (retitled Re Lear) was made in Italy in 1910 with Ermete Novelli as King Lear. What takes over three hours on stage was packed into a dense 16 minutes of action that remains haunting many decades on.
Reading on a mobile? Click here to view
Almost 80 years before the 1997 movie A Thousand Acres based on Jane Smiley's novel, which transposed the play to contemporary Iowa, French director Louis Feuillade was doing something similar in Le Roi Lear Au Village, a 1911 adaptation in which Lear becomes a blind French farmer who foolishly gives over his land to his two heartless daughters. Alas, I couldn't find any footage online.
- 1/13/2014
- by Lyn Gardner
- The Guardian - Film News
Feature Louisa Mellor 11 May 2013 - 19:45
We trace Nightmare In Silver's similarities and overlaps with Neil Gaiman's previous work...
Warning: contains spoilers for Nightmare In Silver (our spoiler-filled review of the episode is here).
A singular joy of fandom, and a geeky one at that, is the administration. Not the tangible Post-It notes-and-whiteboards kind of admin, but the mental filing, cross-referencing and labelling involved when you follow and love someone’s work.
Imagine Joss Whedon brings out, say, a Shakespeare adaptation starring a clutch of recurring collaborators. Where do you file that? Under A for anomaly, W for Whedonverse, or – forgoing alphabetisation all together - cross-referenced between Stuff I Should Have Paid More Attention To In High School and Stuff I Paid All My Attention To In High School? Do you sort by theme, quality, popularity, or critical reception? Where, in the history of your relationship with this person’s work,...
We trace Nightmare In Silver's similarities and overlaps with Neil Gaiman's previous work...
Warning: contains spoilers for Nightmare In Silver (our spoiler-filled review of the episode is here).
A singular joy of fandom, and a geeky one at that, is the administration. Not the tangible Post-It notes-and-whiteboards kind of admin, but the mental filing, cross-referencing and labelling involved when you follow and love someone’s work.
Imagine Joss Whedon brings out, say, a Shakespeare adaptation starring a clutch of recurring collaborators. Where do you file that? Under A for anomaly, W for Whedonverse, or – forgoing alphabetisation all together - cross-referenced between Stuff I Should Have Paid More Attention To In High School and Stuff I Paid All My Attention To In High School? Do you sort by theme, quality, popularity, or critical reception? Where, in the history of your relationship with this person’s work,...
- 5/10/2013
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
In 1930, still dripping from the bath he took in the stock market crash, P. G. Wodehouse (evidently known to his friends as ".Plum".) decamped for Hollywood. There he'd spend just a little over a year lounging in the pool, collecting huge checks, hobnobbing with some Broadway and Brit folk he knew, and, basically enjoying himself. He caused something of a scandal when he told an interviewer that he made a fortune for just writing ".titles" for movies. Nevertheless, possibly out of frustration, maybe out of boredom, he concocted the non-Jeevesian comic tour de force Hot Water, one of the most infernally complicated, trivial, lighter-than-air, insignificant, and completely delightful comic novels I've ever read. It's important to note that there is no Jeeves here.
There is no sensible person. Every single character is utterly mad. In true "what fools these mortals be" style, Wodehouse concocts a farce so complex he even...
There is no sensible person. Every single character is utterly mad. In true "what fools these mortals be" style, Wodehouse concocts a farce so complex he even...
- 5/7/2013
- by Ken Krimstein
- www.culturecatch.com
Michelle Williams has come a long way since starring as Jen Lindley on "Dawson's Creek." The actress has earned three Oscar nominations in her young career, including a second Best Actress nom for her work in "My Week With Marilyn." Williams lost the award to Meryl Streep at the 84th annual Academy Awards, but presenter Colin Firth still gave her a moment in the spotlight -- and dredged up one of her long-forgotten past roles.
While praising Williams's performance as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week With Marilyn," Firth mentioned the 1997 film "A Thousand Acres," where he joked that the young star was a mentor to him onset.
Despite being a critical and financial disappointment -- the film grossed just $7.9 million upon release in September of 1997 -- "A Thousand Acres" featured a highly decorated cast of well-respected actors. In addition to Firth and a young Williams, the adaptation of Jane Smiley's book starred Jessica Lange,...
While praising Williams's performance as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week With Marilyn," Firth mentioned the 1997 film "A Thousand Acres," where he joked that the young star was a mentor to him onset.
Despite being a critical and financial disappointment -- the film grossed just $7.9 million upon release in September of 1997 -- "A Thousand Acres" featured a highly decorated cast of well-respected actors. In addition to Firth and a young Williams, the adaptation of Jane Smiley's book starred Jessica Lange,...
- 2/27/2012
- by Christopher Rosen
- Huffington Post
Michelle Williams has come a long way since starring as Jen Lindley on "Dawson's Creek." The actress has earned three Oscar nominations in her young career, including a second Best Actress nom for her work in "My Week With Marilyn." Williams lost the award to Meryl Streep at the 84th annual Academy Awards, but presenter Colin Firth still gave her a moment in the spotlight -- and dredged up one of her long-forgotten past roles. While praising Williams's performance as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week With Marilyn," Firth mentioned the 1997 film "A Thousand Acres," where he joked that the young star was a mentor to him onset. Despite being a critical and financial disappointment -- the film grossed just $7.9 million upon release in September of 1997 -- "A Thousand Acres" featured a highly decorated cast of well-respected actors. In addition to Firth and a young Williams, the adaptation of Jane Smiley's book starred Jessica Lange,...
- 2/27/2012
- by Christopher Rosen
- Moviefone
At Sunday's 84th annual Academy Awards ceremony, Colin Firth presented the award for Best Actress in a leading role. While he was speaking to the nominees, he singled out Michelle Williams' work not only in "My Week With Marilyn," but in a film that they did together 15 years ago, titled "A Thousand Acres."
Firth praised Williams' professionalism and grace on the set, and noted that she was his mentor at the time, though she was only 12 and he was 35. He was exaggerating a bit -- Williams was 15 when the film was made -- but it was one of her earliest projects.
In the film, a retelling of Shakespeare's "King Lear" based on Jane Smiley's 1991 novel, Williams played Michelle Pfeiffer's daughter, and Firth her love interest. Williams didn't win the Best Actress Oscar tonight, but thanks to Firth, we were all reminded of just how far she's come...
Firth praised Williams' professionalism and grace on the set, and noted that she was his mentor at the time, though she was only 12 and he was 35. He was exaggerating a bit -- Williams was 15 when the film was made -- but it was one of her earliest projects.
In the film, a retelling of Shakespeare's "King Lear" based on Jane Smiley's 1991 novel, Williams played Michelle Pfeiffer's daughter, and Firth her love interest. Williams didn't win the Best Actress Oscar tonight, but thanks to Firth, we were all reminded of just how far she's come...
- 2/27/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Charles Dickens won't officially turn 200 until February 7, but the Dickens 2012 extravaganza — festivals, theater, exhibitions, readings and so on — is well underway. And today, the BFI series Dickens on Screen opens at BFI Southbank in London for a run that'll last through February.
"No other novelist has been adapted for the screen so often or to such popular acclaim. Around 400 films and TV series have been made so far," writes Robert Douglas-Fairhurst in the Guardian. "In a famous essay published in 1944, the Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein argued that 'only very thoughtless and presumptuous people' believed in 'some incredible virgin birth' of cinema, and that the film pioneer Dw Griffith found many of his storytelling tricks, including close-ups, dissolves and cutting between parallel narratives, in novels such as Oliver Twist. Griffith admitted as much himself. One of his first films was a 14-minute version of Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth (1909) that...
"No other novelist has been adapted for the screen so often or to such popular acclaim. Around 400 films and TV series have been made so far," writes Robert Douglas-Fairhurst in the Guardian. "In a famous essay published in 1944, the Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein argued that 'only very thoughtless and presumptuous people' believed in 'some incredible virgin birth' of cinema, and that the film pioneer Dw Griffith found many of his storytelling tricks, including close-ups, dissolves and cutting between parallel narratives, in novels such as Oliver Twist. Griffith admitted as much himself. One of his first films was a 14-minute version of Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth (1909) that...
- 1/8/2012
- MUBI
On the heels of its own Solid Sound Festival over the weekend, Wilco has made a rather large announcement: the Chicago-based band is ready to release its new album this fall, and has a tracklist, cover art and accompanying tour dates to boot. "The Whole Love" will drop on Sept. 27 through the rock group's own dBpm record label. The tracklist includes already-previewed "I Might," plus two songs they performed over the weekend, "Born Along" and "Dawned on Me." Included is a 12-minute closer “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)." "I Might" single B-side "I Love My Label," the...
- 6/29/2011
- by Katie Hasty
- Hitfix
Krysta Ficca Daniel Orozco
The title story in Daniel Orozco’s new collection, “Orientation,” was published 16 years ago. It was quite a short story – told in the second person, the narrator takes a new employee on a generic office tour. “You” is at once a specific character in the story, and the universal “you” in those of us familiar with the monotonous inner workings of a corporate office.
“Orientation” was selected for the “Best American Short Stories of 1995,” guest-edited by Jane Smiley.
The title story in Daniel Orozco’s new collection, “Orientation,” was published 16 years ago. It was quite a short story – told in the second person, the narrator takes a new employee on a generic office tour. “You” is at once a specific character in the story, and the universal “you” in those of us familiar with the monotonous inner workings of a corporate office.
“Orientation” was selected for the “Best American Short Stories of 1995,” guest-edited by Jane Smiley.
- 6/14/2011
- by Barbara Chai
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
(C) Gus Elliott Chris Adrian
In “The Great Night,” Chris Adrian’s retelling of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” three troubled, lovesick people wander into San Francisco’s Buena Vista park, and tumble into another dimension.
Molly (depressed after her boyfriend’s suicide), Henry (Ocd, Ptsd) and Will (a glum arborist) are headed for the same party. Rather than a night of flat beer and half-hearted flirtation, the mortals are cast into a twisted fairyland. Residents include a...
In “The Great Night,” Chris Adrian’s retelling of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” three troubled, lovesick people wander into San Francisco’s Buena Vista park, and tumble into another dimension.
Molly (depressed after her boyfriend’s suicide), Henry (Ocd, Ptsd) and Will (a glum arborist) are headed for the same party. Rather than a night of flat beer and half-hearted flirtation, the mortals are cast into a twisted fairyland. Residents include a...
- 4/27/2011
- by Alexandra Alter
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
In the same trip to the library as my last post, I picked up The Other Woman, a breezy-read anthology of 21 essays that explore various sides of non-monogamous relationships from a female perspective. Some of America's top writers candidly discuss Jezebels, Loreleis, bitches, vixens, and home-wreckers. The essays explore deeply personal experiences, from heart-wrenching anguish to light-hearted humor to full-throttled rage, in order to show that, in the end, neither the mistress nor the wife is entirely responsible or free from blame in the destruction of a relationship.
Every "other woman" is enticingly multi-faceted: mistress, wife, girlfriend, lover, daughter, mother, co-worker, neighbor, escape, confidante. Each essay sheds a glimmer of perceptive, and often sensible, recognition of the complexity of love and devotion.
Pam Houston's essay "Not Istanbul" illuminates how destructive obsession with an affair
ooze[s] into every nook and cranny of your cerebrum, until you won't be able to think of anything else.
Every "other woman" is enticingly multi-faceted: mistress, wife, girlfriend, lover, daughter, mother, co-worker, neighbor, escape, confidante. Each essay sheds a glimmer of perceptive, and often sensible, recognition of the complexity of love and devotion.
Pam Houston's essay "Not Istanbul" illuminates how destructive obsession with an affair
ooze[s] into every nook and cranny of your cerebrum, until you won't be able to think of anything else.
- 4/6/2010
- by Dustin Rowles
Fox is playing cops and robbers for its drama development this season with a project from writer-producer Michelle Ashford. The 20th Century Fox TV show, which has received a script commitment with a six-figure penalty attached, is set in the world of bank robberies. Additionally, Ashford is writing a drama pilot script for HBO based on Jane Smiley's book Horse Heaven that the two are executive producing. Described as Ocean's Eleven meets Catch Me If You Can, the as-yet-untitled drama for Fox centers on the relationship between a father who is a career criminal and his FBI agent daughter and tells the crime stories from the points of view of the robbers and the FBI agents who try to catch them.
- 9/30/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"King Lear" sprouts in Iowa on "A Thousand Acres", a swirling tale of a prosperous farmer who divides his bounteous farmland among his three daughters. Enriched by splendid performances from Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jennifer Jason Leigh as the daughters and Jason Robards as the cantankerous father, this Buena Vista release should reap a plentiful harvest at the boxoffice.
Come spring, the fallow times will be regenerated with likely Oscar nominations for Lange, Pfeiffer and a spate of others, including director Jocelyn Moorhouse for her radiant tilling of this deep and grainy story.
For those industry-ites who have actually driven through the Midwest, it may look like a lot of nothing off the roadside, just miles and miles of yellow-husked corn. Behind those stalks, however, reside some of the most prosperous businessmen in the country, folk such as Larry Cook (Robards), a flinty and efficient old coot who has tilled his land to reap great abundance.
Like his neighbors way down the road, Larry is not one to throw it away, but he's not exactly beneficent when it comes to making out his will. Who gets what is, well, up to his owly discretion and parsimonious nature. And his bequest is poisoned by some terrible secrets involving this family's life. Indeed, while the big-porched, white farmhouse may look like a warm Norman Rockwell portrait of Americana, beneath its dignified roof have occurred some horrible psychological atrocities.
Adapted from Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "A Thousand Acres" is a surface-simple but innardly complex look not only at a seemingly idealized family life but at the very fabric of this country as well. The farmer, or homesteader, has always been eulogized in our culture as the steadfast grower, the provider and the very backbone of our moral and industrial character.
Like fellow Midwestern writer Sinclair Lewis, Smiley has unearthed the unsettlingly grim roots of these pristine illusions and uncovered the rancid foundation of what appears to be healthy civility. In turn, screenwriter Laura Jones has distilled these sorry seedlings into an internecine rivalry as nasty as any Roman blood bath. When the surface is scratched, as the grim-reaping father does in dividing his wealth, we find this family has functioned on surface affability and personal distancing to survive together.
Richly layered and coarse with ambiguities, "A Thousand Acres" boasts as fine an ensemble cast as you'll find. Once again, the Minnesota-bred Lange furrows deeply into her character, unfleshing the roilings of a woman/daughter/sister who represses her desires and thoughts. With a wondrous mix of bashfulness, propriety and insecurity, Lange clues us to the essence of her character, Ginny -- still waters run deep, truly. No less affecting is Pfeiffer as Rose, whose outspoken ways and volatile eruptions, in turn, show the tight coils of her being. As the baby Caroline, Leigh exudes a vulnerability, an indecisiveness that clues us to a far greater suffering than anyone would expect.
As the obstreperous father, Robards is a towering blend of decency and rancor. No king in full armor exudes more imperious strength than this country coot: His fearsome looks and withdrawn manners are indeed frightening. Other cast members are a perfectly selected lot, all looking at home in any small Midwestern town off the interstate. If we didn't recognize the names, that's where we would have thought casting director Nancy Klopper dragged them in from. Among them, Keith Carradine is particularly convincing as the not-so-average type you'll find in those parts. And Pat Hingle, Kevin Anderson and Colin Firth are as solid and fitting as a John Deere tractor.
No fancy stuff, just good hardware material, that's Dan Davis' production design. Similarly, cinematographer Tak Fujimoto's framings convey the wide scope of the setting as well as the constricted dimensions of these good folks' lives, while composer Richard Hartley's sinewy sounds show us the fury of what may be mistaken for silence.
A THOUSAND ACRES
Buena Vista
Touchstone Pictures
in association with Beacon Pictures
and Propaganda Films
A Via Rosa/Prairie Films production
Producers Marc Abraham, Steve Golin,
Lynn Arost, Kate Guinzburg, Sigurjon Sighvatsson
Director Jocelyn Moorhouse
Screenplay Laura Jones
From the novel by Jane Smiley
Executive producers Armyan Bernstein,
Thomas A. Bliss
Co-producer Diana Pokorny
Director of photography Tak Fujimoto
Production designer Dan Davis
Editor: Maryann Brandon
Costume designer Ruth Myers
Music Richard Hartley
Casting Nancy Klopper
Sound mixer Richard Lightstone
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rose Cook Lewis Michelle Pfeiffer
Ginny Cook Smith Jessica Lange
Larry Cook Jason Robards
Caroline Cook Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jess Clark Colin Firth
Ty Smith Keith Carradine
Peter Lewis Kevin Anderson
Harold Clark Pat Hingle
Ken La Salle John Carroll Lynch
Mary Livingstone Anne Pitoniak
Running time -- 105 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Come spring, the fallow times will be regenerated with likely Oscar nominations for Lange, Pfeiffer and a spate of others, including director Jocelyn Moorhouse for her radiant tilling of this deep and grainy story.
For those industry-ites who have actually driven through the Midwest, it may look like a lot of nothing off the roadside, just miles and miles of yellow-husked corn. Behind those stalks, however, reside some of the most prosperous businessmen in the country, folk such as Larry Cook (Robards), a flinty and efficient old coot who has tilled his land to reap great abundance.
Like his neighbors way down the road, Larry is not one to throw it away, but he's not exactly beneficent when it comes to making out his will. Who gets what is, well, up to his owly discretion and parsimonious nature. And his bequest is poisoned by some terrible secrets involving this family's life. Indeed, while the big-porched, white farmhouse may look like a warm Norman Rockwell portrait of Americana, beneath its dignified roof have occurred some horrible psychological atrocities.
Adapted from Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "A Thousand Acres" is a surface-simple but innardly complex look not only at a seemingly idealized family life but at the very fabric of this country as well. The farmer, or homesteader, has always been eulogized in our culture as the steadfast grower, the provider and the very backbone of our moral and industrial character.
Like fellow Midwestern writer Sinclair Lewis, Smiley has unearthed the unsettlingly grim roots of these pristine illusions and uncovered the rancid foundation of what appears to be healthy civility. In turn, screenwriter Laura Jones has distilled these sorry seedlings into an internecine rivalry as nasty as any Roman blood bath. When the surface is scratched, as the grim-reaping father does in dividing his wealth, we find this family has functioned on surface affability and personal distancing to survive together.
Richly layered and coarse with ambiguities, "A Thousand Acres" boasts as fine an ensemble cast as you'll find. Once again, the Minnesota-bred Lange furrows deeply into her character, unfleshing the roilings of a woman/daughter/sister who represses her desires and thoughts. With a wondrous mix of bashfulness, propriety and insecurity, Lange clues us to the essence of her character, Ginny -- still waters run deep, truly. No less affecting is Pfeiffer as Rose, whose outspoken ways and volatile eruptions, in turn, show the tight coils of her being. As the baby Caroline, Leigh exudes a vulnerability, an indecisiveness that clues us to a far greater suffering than anyone would expect.
As the obstreperous father, Robards is a towering blend of decency and rancor. No king in full armor exudes more imperious strength than this country coot: His fearsome looks and withdrawn manners are indeed frightening. Other cast members are a perfectly selected lot, all looking at home in any small Midwestern town off the interstate. If we didn't recognize the names, that's where we would have thought casting director Nancy Klopper dragged them in from. Among them, Keith Carradine is particularly convincing as the not-so-average type you'll find in those parts. And Pat Hingle, Kevin Anderson and Colin Firth are as solid and fitting as a John Deere tractor.
No fancy stuff, just good hardware material, that's Dan Davis' production design. Similarly, cinematographer Tak Fujimoto's framings convey the wide scope of the setting as well as the constricted dimensions of these good folks' lives, while composer Richard Hartley's sinewy sounds show us the fury of what may be mistaken for silence.
A THOUSAND ACRES
Buena Vista
Touchstone Pictures
in association with Beacon Pictures
and Propaganda Films
A Via Rosa/Prairie Films production
Producers Marc Abraham, Steve Golin,
Lynn Arost, Kate Guinzburg, Sigurjon Sighvatsson
Director Jocelyn Moorhouse
Screenplay Laura Jones
From the novel by Jane Smiley
Executive producers Armyan Bernstein,
Thomas A. Bliss
Co-producer Diana Pokorny
Director of photography Tak Fujimoto
Production designer Dan Davis
Editor: Maryann Brandon
Costume designer Ruth Myers
Music Richard Hartley
Casting Nancy Klopper
Sound mixer Richard Lightstone
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rose Cook Lewis Michelle Pfeiffer
Ginny Cook Smith Jessica Lange
Larry Cook Jason Robards
Caroline Cook Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jess Clark Colin Firth
Ty Smith Keith Carradine
Peter Lewis Kevin Anderson
Harold Clark Pat Hingle
Ken La Salle John Carroll Lynch
Mary Livingstone Anne Pitoniak
Running time -- 105 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
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