Broken English (2007 film)

Last updated
Broken English
Brokenenglishposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Zoe Cassavetes
Written byZoe Cassavetes
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJohn Pirozzi
Edited by Andrew Weisblum
Music by Scratch Massive
Production
companies
Distributed by Magnolia Pictures
Release dates
  • January 20, 2007 (2007-01-20)(Sundance)
  • June 22, 2007 (2007-06-22)(United States)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited States
Languages
  • English
  • French
Budget$2 million
Box office$1.9 million [1] [2]

Broken English is a 2007 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Zoe Cassavetes, in her feature directorial debut. The film stars Parker Posey, Melvil Poupaud, Drea de Matteo, Justin Theroux, Peter Bogdanovich, and Gena Rowlands.

Contents

Broken English had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2007 and a limited theatrical release in the United States on June 22, 2007. The film was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards: Best Female Lead for Posey and Best First Screenplay for Cassavetes.

Plot

Nora Wilder (Parker Posey), a single career woman, works at a Manhattan boutique hotel where her excellent skills in guest relations are the complete opposite of her skills in the romance department. If it is not her loving yet dominant mother (Gena Rowlands) attempting to set her up that consistently fails, she has her friend's (Drea de Matteo) disastrous blind dates to rely on as a backup for further dismay. She's surrounded by friends who are all either happily engaged or romantically involved and somehow, love escapes Nora—until she meets an unusual Frenchman (Melvil Poupaud) who helps her discover life beyond her self-imposed boundaries.

Cast

Release

The film screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. [3] It was also entered into the 29th Moscow International Film Festival. [4]

Reception

Broken English received mixed reviews. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 64% "fresh" rating, based on 73 reviews. [5] Jason Clark of Slant Magazine gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, saying, "when the picture finally resolves with the exact same ending as Richard Linklater's Before Sunset (and I mean exactly—with even the same two last lines, for God's sake), you have to wonder if Ms. Cassavetes gets out as much as her lead character eventually does." [6] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called it a "promising first film with moments exceeding that promise." [7]

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryNomineeResultRef.
2008 23rd Independent Spirit Awards Best Female Lead Parker Posey Nominated [8]
Best First Screenplay Zoe Cassavetes Nominated

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Bogdanovich</span> American film director (1939–2022)

Peter Bogdanovich was an American Serb director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. He started his career as a film critic for Film Culture and Esquire before becoming a film director in the New Hollywood movement. He received accolades including a BAFTA Award and Grammy Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

<i>A Woman Under the Influence</i> 1974 film by John Cassavetes

A Woman Under the Influence is a 1974 American drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes. The story follows a woman whose unusual behavior leads to conflict with her blue-collar husband and family. It received two Academy Award nominations, for Best Actress and Best Director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gena Rowlands</span> American actress

Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands is an American retired actress, whose career in film, stage, and television has spanned nearly seven decades. She is one of the last living actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she is known for her collaborations with her late actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, including A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), both of which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night (1977). She is also known for her performances in Woody Allen's Another Woman (1988), and her son Nick Cassavetes's film, The Notebook (2004). In 2021, Richard Brody of The New Yorker said, “The most important and original movie actor of the past half century-plus is Gena Rowlands.” In November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cassavetes</span> American actor, film director, and screenwriter (1929–1989)

John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor and filmmaker. He began as a television and film actor before helping to pioneer modern American independent cinema as a director and writer, often financing and distributing his films with his own income. AllMovie called him "an iconoclastic maverick", while The New Yorker suggested in 2013 that he "may be the most influential American director of the last half century."

<i>Faces</i> (1968 film) 1968 film written and directed by John Cassavetes

Faces is a 1968 American drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes. It stars John Marley, Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel, Fred Draper and Val Avery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drea de Matteo</span> American actress

Andrea Donna de Matteo is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Adriana La Cerva on the HBO television drama The Sopranos (1999–2006), for which she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2004. Other notable roles include Gina Tribbiani on Joey (2004–2006), Wendy Case on Sons of Anarchy (2008–2014), Angie Bolen on Desperate Housewives (2009–2010), and Detective Tess Nazario on Shades of Blue (2016–2018).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parker Posey</span> American actress and musician (born 1968)

Parker Christian Posey is an American actress and musician. Posey is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award nomination, a Satellite Award nomination and two Independent Spirit Award nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chiara Mastroianni</span> French actress and singer (born 1972)

Chiara Charlotte Mastroianni is a French actress and singer. She is the daughter of Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve.

<i>Opening Night</i> (1977 film) 1977 film by John Cassavetes

Opening Night is a 1977 American psychological drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes, and starring Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zohra Lampert, and Cassavetes. Its plot follows a stage actress who, after witnessing the accidental death of one of her fans, is haunted by a recurring apparition of the deceased woman, spurring a nervous breakdown while she prepares for the premiere of a Broadway play.

<i>Love Streams</i> (film) 1984 film by John Cassavetes

Love Streams is a 1984 American film directed by John Cassavetes, in what would be his final independent feature and penultimate directorial project. The film tells the story of a middle-aged brother (Cassavetes) and sister who find themselves relying on one another after being abandoned by their loved ones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melvil Poupaud</span> French actor, author and filmmaker

Melvil Poupaud is a French actor, author and filmmaker.

<i>Minnie and Moskowitz</i> 1971 film by John Cassavetes

Minnie and Moskowitz is a 1971 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes and starring his wife Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel in the title roles of Minnie and Moskowitz, respectively.

<i>Tempest</i> (1982 film) 1982 film by Paul Mazursky

Tempest is a 1982 American adventure comedy-drama romance film directed by Paul Mazursky. It is a loosely based, modern-day adaptation of the William Shakespeare play The Tempest. The picture features John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Susan Sarandon, Raúl Juliá and Molly Ringwald in her feature film debut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoe Cassavetes</span> American actress

Zoe Rowlands Cassavetes is an American film director, screenwriter, and actress. She is the daughter of filmmaker John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands. She is best known for her 2007 film Broken English.

<i>Machine Gun McCain</i> 1969 crime film by Giuliano Montaldo

Machine Gun McCain is a 1969 English-language Italian crime film directed by Giuliano Montaldo and starring John Cassavetes, Britt Ekland, Peter Falk, Gabriele Ferzetti, and Florinda Bolkan. Cassavetes' spouse and regular collaborator, Gena Rowlands, appears in a supporting role. The film is based on the Ovid Demaris novel Candyleg, adapted by Montaldo, Mino Roli, and American playwright Israel Horovitz. It premiered at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or.

<i>City of Pirates</i> 1983 film

City of Pirates is a 1983 French surrealist fantasy film directed by Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz. Made during Ruiz's most prolific period of filmmaking in exile and shortly after his first return to Chile since the 1973 military coup, the film stars a primarily French cast including Hugues Quester, Anne Alvaro and Melvil Poupaud. It was filmed in Portugal in a period of three weeks.

<i>Parallel Lives</i> (film) 1994 American TV series or program

Parallel Lives is a 1994 American made-for-television mystery-drama film written, directed and produced by Linda Yellen which returns some actors and similar patterns of Yellen's previous work, Chantilly Lace.

<i>Price Check</i> 2012 American film

Price Check is a 2012 comedy film about the high price of a middle-class life. The film was written and directed by Michael Walker, and stars Parker Posey and Eric Mabius.

<i>Yellow</i> (2012 film) 2012 American film

Yellow is a 2012 American drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and written by Cassavetes and Heather Wahlquist. The film stars Wahlquist, Riley Keough, Sienna Miller, David Morse, Ray Liotta, Melanie Griffith and Lucy Punch.

<i>Brother and Sister</i> (2022 film) 2022 film

Brother and Sister is a 2022 French drama film directed by Arnaud Desplechin, starring Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud as estranged siblings who are forced to reunite after two decades following the death of their parents. The film made its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival where it competed for the Palme d'Or, and was released in theaters in France on the same day as its Cannes premiere, on 20 May 2022.

References

  1. "Broken English (2007)". Box Office Mojo . Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved May 9, 2021.
  2. "Broken English (2007)". The Numbers . Archived from the original on May 9, 2021. Retrieved May 9, 2021.
  3. Buchanan, Kyle (January 2012). "Parker Posey on the Glory Days of Sundance and the Perils of Modern-Day Indie Filmmaking". Vulture. Archived from the original on 2022-12-02. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  4. "29th Moscow International Film Festival (2007)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
  5. "Broken English". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on February 11, 2015. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  6. Clark, Jason (June 17, 2007). "Broken English - Film Review - Slant Magazine". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on December 18, 2013. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  7. Phillips, Michael (20 July 2007). "In 'Broken English,' seeds of a promising career". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
  8. Guerrasio, Jason (November 27, 2007). "SPIRIT AWARDS ANNOUNCED". Filmmaker . Archived from the original on May 9, 2021. Retrieved May 9, 2021.