Blood and Wine | |
---|---|
Directed by | Bob Rafelson |
Screenplay by |
|
Story by |
|
Produced by | Jeremy Thomas |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Newton Thomas Sigel |
Edited by | Steven Cohen |
Music by | Michał Lorenc |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 101 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $26 million [1] |
Box office | $1.1 million [2] |
Blood and Wine is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Bob Rafelson and starring Jack Nicholson, Stephen Dorff, Jennifer Lopez, Judy Davis, and Michael Caine. The screenplay was written by Nick Villiers and Alison Cross. Rafelson has stated that the film forms the final part of his unofficial trilogy with Nicholson, with whom he made Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens in the 1970s. [3]
Alex Gates is a Miami wine merchant who has distanced himself from his wife Suzanne with his philandering, and from his stepson Jason with his indifference. Suzanne is recovering from breaking her ankle after falling downstairs while drunk.
Heavily in debt, Alex hatches a plan to steal a valuable diamond necklace from the house of his clients, the Reese family, where his Cuban mistress Gabriela works. He cases the house during a wine delivery with Jason, who works in Alex's business. Jason becomes attracted to Gabriela, unaware of her relationship with his stepfather.
On the day of the heist, Alex and his partner Victor, a British safe-cracker, arrive at the house under the pretense that the Reeses' wine cellar needs repairs. Gabriela was supposed to let them in, but she was fired the day before. Fortunately, Alex had cultivated a relationship with the security guard and is able to convince him to let them inside. Victor sends Alex and the guard off on an errand while he works on the safe, but a second guard becomes suspicious, although Victor is able to complete the job before being discovered.
The pair decide that Alex will pawn the necklace in New York City, and he invites Gabriela to go with him. As he is packing, Suzanne happens upon his airline tickets and immediately realizes he is having another affair. The two get into a physical altercation and Suzanne knocks him out with her walking stick. Panicking, Suzanne empties out his suitcase, where he has hidden the necklace, and uses it for her own clothing. She and Jason flee to the Florida Keys. Upon arriving, they discover the necklace, but Suzanne doesn't want to keep it. Jason has it appraised and discovers it is worth $1 million. He also visits Gabriela back in Miami, giving her the phone number of the place where they are staying.
Victor and Alex visit Jason's friend Henry in an attempt to learn Jason's whereabouts. Victor, who is dying of tuberculosis and determined to profit from the heist, assaults Henry before Alex realizes he doesn't know anything. The pair contact various jewelers to be on the lookout for the necklace and get a report from Jason's appraiser. Arriving in Key Largo, Victor pretends to flirt with Suzanne, but Jason, who has gotten a description of Henry's assailant, realizes who he is. After a fight, Jason flees with his mother in their car. Victor and Alex give chase and cause an accident that kills Suzanne. Although injured, Jason discharges himself from the hospital and returns to Miami to kill his stepfather, only to find Gabriela in Alex's bed. After a brief argument, the two reconcile.
Alex discovers Jason and Gabriela the next morning, and accuses her of sleeping with his stepson. Victor confronts Jason, who tricks him into thinking that he has returned the necklace to Alex. Victor goes to Alex's house and attacks him before collapsing from exhaustion, whereupon Alex smothers Victor with a pillow. Jason returns to find Victor floating in the pool. Searching his pockets, he finds the photo of Alex holding the pilfered necklace. That night, Jason shows the necklace to Gabriela and confesses that he used one stone to help buy the cabin cruiser from his friend, Henry. The next day, she calls Alex and they search Jason's boat, but Jason, anticipating this, confronts them and he and Alex fight.
Eventually, Jason crushes Alex between the boat and the dock, severely injuring him, before fleeing the scene. Gabriela, who had fled with the necklace, returns and leaves it with Alex, insisting that she doesn't want it, but takes one of the diamonds before she leaves. With an ambulance and the police on the way, a defeated Alex realizes he has no choice but to dispose of the necklace and throws it into the ocean. Unbeknownst to him, Jason has hidden the incriminating photo in a travel bag that the police will certainly search. The film ends with Jason, alone on the boat, sailing off into the setting sun on the horizon.
British producer Jeremy Thomas was attracted to work with Rafelson due to what he perceived as the director's European sensibilities. He later remembered:
It was a different experience for me, because growing up as an independent producer it was difficult to interact with a corporate system. But then I got this screenplay which had Jack Nicholson attached to it and Bob Rafelson, who I knew quite well, and so I thought, I had never gone near a genre-type of film and so maybe I will try some noir-ish sort of film, set in Miami, which is the flavour of Hollywood, and see if we can do it. It was certainly an incredible cast, and I sold the film to 20th Century Fox, and I had a moment of flirtation with a studio movie type of film. I am very fond of the film. [4]
Blood and Wine was shot in Miami, South Florida and the Florida Keys, including some scenes at the Caribbean Club in Key Largo. [5] Alex's family home is located in the Coral Gables/Pinecrest area. Gabriela is shown to live in Little Havana. The Reeses live in Millionaire's Row in Miami Beach. Their house is next to Indian Creek and has a view of Collins Avenue. Jason's fishing boat is anchored in the Miami River, near Downtown Miami. Before the dance scene between Alex and Gabriela, we see a view of Southeast Financial Center in Downtown Miami.
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 63% of 32 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.1/10. [6] David Rooney of Variety called it "an amusingly caustic, straight-up serving of film noir staples spiced with star charisma". [7] Film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Blood & Wine is a richly textured crime picture based on the personalities of men who make their living desperately. Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine are the stars, as partners in a jewel theft that goes wrong in a number of ways, each way illustrating deep flaws in how they choose to live." [8] Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle rated it 2/4 stars and wrote, "Blood & Wine has elements of classic film noir – but it's film noir with a sledgehammer and none of the genre's suggestiveness or style." [9]
Caine won Best Actor at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. [10]
Sir Michael Caine is an English retired actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over a career that spanned eight decades and is considered a British film icon. He has received numerous awards including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. As of 2017, the films in which Caine has appeared have grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide. Caine is one of only five male actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in five different decades. In 2000, he received a BAFTA Fellowship and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Five Easy Pieces is a 1970 American road drama film directed by Bob Rafelson, written by Rafelson and Carole Eastman, and starring Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Susan Anspach, Lois Smith, and Ralph Waite. The film tells the story of surly oil rig worker Bobby Dupea (Nicholson), whose rootless blue-collar existence belies his privileged youth as a piano prodigy. When Bobby learns that his father is dying, he travels to his family home in Washington to visit him, taking along his uncouth girlfriend (Black).
About Schmidt is a 2002 American comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Alexander Payne and starring Jack Nicholson in the title role. The film also stars Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, and Kathy Bates. It is loosely based on the 1996 novel of the same title by Louis Begley. After it was released in theaters by New Line Cinema on December 13, 2002, the film enjoyed both critical and commercial success, earning $105.8 million on a $30 million budget.
Rambo is an American media franchise centered on a series of action films featuring John J. Rambo. The five films are First Blood (1982), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Rambo III (1988), Rambo (2008), and Rambo: Last Blood (2019). Rambo is a United States Army Special Forces veteran played by Sylvester Stallone, whose Vietnam War experience traumatized him but also gave him superior military skills, which he has used to fight corrupt police officers, enemy troops and drug cartels. First Blood is an adaptation of the 1972 novel First Blood by David Morrell.
Stephen Hartley Dorff Jr. is an American actor. Starting his film career as a child appearing in the cult horror film The Gate (1987), Dorff first rose to prominence playing Stuart Sutcliffe in Backbeat (1994) and then gained further mainstream attention for portraying Deacon Frost in Blade (1998). Other notable lead roles include Bob Rafelson's Blood and Wine (1997), the titular character in John Waters' Cecil B. DeMented (2000) and Johnny Marco in Sofia Coppola's Somewhere (2010), as well as Britney Spears’ boyfriend in her 2004 music video for "Everytime".
Head is a 1968 American satirical musical adventure film written and produced by Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson, directed by Rafelson, starring television rock group the Monkees and distributed by Columbia Pictures. A theatrical spin-off of the 1966–68 NBC television show and a swan song, it started production directly after completion of series production.
Curdled is a 1996 black comedy crime film written and directed by Reb Braddock. The film stars Angela Jones as a Colombian immigrant who takes a crime scene cleanup job and discovers evidence about a local serial killer dubbed the "Blue Blood Killer" for his targeting of socialites. The film is a remake of a 1991 short film of the same name, which was also directed by Braddock and starred Jones.
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre is a 1967 American gangster film based on the 1929 mass murder of seven members of the Northside Gang on orders from Al Capone. The picture was directed by Roger Corman, written by Howard Browne, and starring Jason Robards as Capone, Ralph Meeker as Moran, George Segal as Peter Gusenberg, and David Canary as Frank Gusenberg.
The King of Marvin Gardens is a 1972 American drama film. It stars Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn and Scatman Crothers. It is one of several collaborations between Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson. The majority of the film is set in a wintry Atlantic City, New Jersey, with cinematography by László Kovács.
Riding in Cars with Boys is a 2001 American biographical film based on the autobiography of the same name by Beverly Donofrio, about a woman who overcame difficulties, including being a teen mother, and who later earned a master's degree. The movie's narrative spans the years 1961 to 1986. It stars Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, Brittany Murphy, and James Woods. It was the last feature film directed by Penny Marshall, who directed television productions thereafter. Although the film is co-produced by Donofrio, many of its details differ from the book.
Jack the Bear is a 1993 American comedy-drama film directed by Marshall Herskovitz, written by Steven Zaillian based on the novel of the same name by Dan McCall, and starring Danny DeVito. The film is about John Leary (DeVito), a single father raising his two sons in the 1970s San Francisco Bay Area after the death of his wife.
Robert Jay Rafelson was an American film director, writer and producer. He is regarded as one of the key figures in the founding of the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s. Among his best-known films as a director include those made as part of the company he co-founded, Raybert/BBS Productions, Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) as well as acclaimed later films, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) and Mountains of the Moon (1990). Other films he produced as part of BBS include two of the most significant films of the era, Easy Rider (1969) and The Last Picture Show (1971). Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and The Last Picture Show were all chosen for inclusion in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. He was also one of the creators of the pop group and TV series The Monkees with BBS partner Bert Schneider. His first wife was the production designer Toby Carr Rafelson.
The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1981 American neo-noir erotic thriller film directed by Bob Rafelson and written by David Mamet. Starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, it is the fourth adaptation of the 1934 novel by James M. Cain. The film was shot in Santa Barbara, California.
The Witches of Eastwick is a 1987 American supernatural comedy film directed by George Miller and based on John Updike's 1984 novel of the same name. It stars Jack Nicholson alongside Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon and Veronica Cartwright.
Man Trouble is a 1992 American romantic black comedy film starring Jack Nicholson and Ellen Barkin. It was directed by Bob Rafelson and written by Carole Eastman, who together had been responsible for 1970's Five Easy Pieces.
Blood Noir is the sixteenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.
John Joseph Nicholson is an American retired actor and filmmaker. Nicholson is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century. Throughout his five-decade career he received numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Film Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award. He also received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1994 and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure.
How Do You Know is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed, written and produced by James L. Brooks, and starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson in his final film role to date. It was the third film to feature Witherspoon and Rudd following Overnight Delivery and Monsters vs. Aliens. The plot follows softball player Lisa (Witherspoon), who is caught in a love triangle between two men—the charming baseball player Matty (Wilson) and George (Rudd), a businessman who is charged for stock fraud.
Peeta Mellark is a fictional character of The Hunger Games trilogy written by American author Suzanne Collins. He is portrayed by actor Josh Hutcherson in The Hunger Games film series.
Michał Lorenc is a Polish film score composer, best known for his work on films Little Rose (2010), Bastard (1997), Blood and Wine (1996), Psy (1992) and 300 Miles to Heaven (1989). He is currently considered one of the most important contemporary Polish film score composers.