A Delicate Balance | |
---|---|
Directed by | Tony Richardson |
Written by | Edward Albee |
Produced by | Ely Landau |
Starring | Katharine Hepburn Paul Scofield Lee Remick Kate Reid Joseph Cotten Betsy Blair |
Cinematography | David Watkin |
Edited by | John Victor Smith |
Distributed by | American Film Theatre |
Release date | November 12, 1973 |
Running time | 133 minutes |
Countries | United States Canada United Kingdom |
Language | English |
A Delicate Balance is a 1973 American-Canadian-British drama film directed by Tony Richardson and starring Katharine Hepburn, Paul Scofield, Lee Remick, Kate Reid, Joseph Cotten, and Betsy Blair. The screenplay by Edward Albee is based on his 1966 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.
The film was the second in a series produced by Ely Landau for his American Film Theatre, [1] a subscription-based program of screen adaptations of notable stage plays shown in five hundred theaters in four hundred cities.
The film spans three days in the life of Agnes and Tobias, an upper middle class couple who share their comfortable suburban Connecticut home with Agnes' acerbic alcoholic sister Claire. It is matriarch Agnes who helps the trio maintain a delicate balance in their lives, held together by habit, shared memories, and considerable consumption of dry martinis.
The seemingly peaceful facade of their existence is shattered with the arrival of longtime friends Harry and Edna who, suddenly overcome by a nameless terror, fled their home in search of a safe haven. The couple is followed by Agnes and Tobias' bitter, 36-year-old daughter Julia, who has returned to the family nest following the collapse of her fourth marriage. Their presence leads to a period of self-examination, during which all six are forced to explore their psyches and confront the demons hidden there.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "a fine, tough, lacerating production", and added, "Richardson's cast could hardly be better". [2]
TV Guide rated the film two out of four stars, calling it "unfortunately stiff, dull, and extremely stagy". [1]
Kate Reid was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.
Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair. He then gained worldwide fame in three Orson Welles films: Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Journey into Fear (1943), for which Cotten was also credited with the screenplay.
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage and television. Hepburn's career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. Her work was in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. In 1999, Hepburn was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute.
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer whose career spanned five decades. In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Tom Jones.
David Paul Scofield was a British actor. During a six-decade career, Scofield achieved the US Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, Emmy, and Tony for his work. He won the three awards in a seven-year span, the fastest of any performer to accomplish the feat.
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The year 1973 in film involved some significant events.
Lee Ann Remick was an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film Days of Wine and Roses (1962), and for the 1966 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her Broadway theatre performance in Wait Until Dark.
A Delicate Balance is a three-act play by Edward Albee, written in 1965 and 1966. Premiered in 1966, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1967, the first of three he received for his work.
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Daphne Katherine Reid was an English-born Canadian stage, film, and television actress. She played more than one thousand roles, most notably onstage in Death of a Salesman, in the 1980 film Atlantic City, and in episodes of the TV show Dallas. She was described by Inspiring Women: A Celebration of Herstory as "generally regarded as the finest actress ever developed in Canada".
Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary is a three-volume biographical dictionary published in 1971. Its origins lay in 1957 when Radcliffe College librarians, archivists, and professors began researching the need for a version of the Dictionary of American Biography dedicated solely to women.
Clarence Lung (1914-1993) was a film and television actor. He appeared in films such as Dragon Seed, Song of the Sarong, Experiment in Terror, Prisoner Of War, Operation Petticoat, China and The Hundred Days of the Dragon. Among the television programs he appeared in were Secret Agent X-9 and China Smith.
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