California Suite | |
---|---|
Directed by | Herbert Ross |
Written by | Neil Simon |
Based on | California Suite by Neil Simon |
Produced by | Ray Stark |
Starring | |
Cinematography | David M. Walsh |
Edited by | Michael A. Stevenson |
Music by | Claude Bolling |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $42 million [1] |
California Suite is a 1978 American anthology comedy film directed by Herbert Ross. The screenplay by Neil Simon is based on his 1976 play of the same name. Similar to his earlier Plaza Suite , the film focuses on the dilemmas of guests staying in a suite in a luxury hotel. Maggie Smith won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film. [2]
In "Visitors from New York", Hannah Warren is a Manhattan workaholic who flies to Los Angeles to retrieve her teenage daughter Jenny after she leaves home to live with her successful screenwriter father Bill. The bickering, divorced couple are forced to decide what living arrangements are best for the girl.
In "Visitors from London", Diana Barrie is a British actress and a first-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actress in an independent British film, an honor that could revive her faltering career, but she knows she has no chance of winning. She is in deep denial about the true nature of her marriage of convenience to Sidney Cochran, a once-closeted gay antique dealer who has become increasingly indiscreet about his sexuality. As she prepares for her moment in the spotlight, her mood fluctuates from hope to panic to despair.
In "Visitors from Philadelphia", conservative, middle-aged businessman Marvin Michaels awakens to discover a prostitute named Bunny - an unexpected gift from his brother Harry - unconscious in his bed. With his wife Millie on her way up to the suite, he must find a way to conceal all traces of his uncharacteristic indiscretion.
In "Visitors from Chicago", Dr. Chauncey Gump and his wife Lola and Dr. Willis Panama and his wife Bettina are taking a much-needed vacation together. Things begin to unravel quickly when everything seems to go wrong, and the two men decide to settle their differences by engaging in a very competitive tennis match.
The film was shot on location at The Beverly Hills Hotel, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles Music Center, and along Rodeo Drive.
Diana and Sidney's arrival at the Academy Awards was actually shot during the arrivals for the 50th Academy Awards in April 1978. This may explain the muted response from a real-life crowd unfamiliar with the names Diana Barrie and Sidney Cochran.
The California-themed paintings seen in the opening credits are by pop artist David Hockney. While the play featured two actors and two actresses each playing several roles, the film features a different actor for each role.
Vincent Canby of The New York Times called California Suite "the most agreeably realised Simon film in years" and added "Here is Mr. Simon in top form, under the direction of Herbert Ross, one of the few directors...who can cope with the particular demands of material that simultaneously means to be touching and so nonstop clever one sometimes wants to gag him. It all works in California Suite, not only because the material is superior Simon, but also because the writer and the director have assembled a dream cast." [3]
Variety observed "Neil Simon and Herbert Ross have gambled in radically altering the successful format of California Suite as it appeared on stage. Instead of four separate playlets, there is now one semi-cohesive narrative revolving around visitors to the Beverly Hills Hotel...The technique is less than successful, veering from poignant emotionalism to broad slapstick in sudden shifts." [4]
Time Out New York described the film as "quick and varied comedy, highly suited to Neil Simon's machine-gun gag-writing" and added "Fonda provides the film with its centre, giving another performance of unnerving sureness. Also on the credit side is a bedroom farce of epic proportions from Matthau and May. The other vignettes are a bit glum." [5]
Channel 4 stated "It's an expertly crafted slick movie that sets up each of its coconuts and knocks them over with a sure eye, but ultimately it's emotional sushi rather than satisfying catharsis." [6]
In his annual movie guide, Leonard Maltin gave the film three stars out of a possible four, and described it as a "pleasant time-filler, with a nice jazz score by Claude Bolling". He also felt that "gently bickering" Smith and Caine came off best, while "unfunnily combative" Pryor and Cosby came off worst. [7]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 50% of 26 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.3/10.The website's consensus reads: "Maggie Smith's acidic turn is the standout in this stacked ensemble, but broad characterizations and an unsure tone make for a disappointingly uneven adaptation of Neil Simon's episodic play." [8]
The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list. [9]
The film was released on DVD on Region 1 DVD on January 2, 2002. It is in anamorphic widescreen format with audio tracks in English and French and subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai.
John Uhler Lemmon III was an American actor. Considered proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leading The Guardian to label him as "the most successful tragi-comedian of his age."
Walter Matthau was an American actor, comedian and film director. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie (1966).
The More the Merrier is a 1943 American romantic comedy film directed by George Stevens and starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn. The film's script—from Two's a Crowd, an original screenplay by Garson Kanin (uncredited)—was written by Robert Russell, Frank Ross, Richard Flournoy, and Lewis R. Foster. Set in Washington, D.C., the film presents a comic look at the housing shortage during World War II.
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith is an English actress. Known for her wit in comedic roles, she has had an extensive career on stage and screen over seven decades and is one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting.
Darling is a 1965 British romantic drama film directed by John Schlesinger from a screenplay written by Frederic Raphael. It stars Julie Christie as Diana Scott, a young successful model and actress in Swinging London, toying with the affections of two older men, played by Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey. The film was shot on location in London, Paris and Rome and at Shepperton Studios by cinematographer Kenneth Higgins, with a musical score composed by Sir John Dankworth.
Lee Grant is an American actress, documentarian, and director. For her film debut in 1951 as a young shoplifter in William Wyler's Detective Story, Grant earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and won the Best Actress Award at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. Grant won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Warren Beatty's older lover in Shampoo (1975).
California Suite is a 1976 play by Neil Simon. Similar in structure to his earlier Plaza Suite, the comedy is composed of four playlets set in Suite 203-04, which consists of a living room and an adjoining bedroom with an ensuite bath, in The Beverly Hills Hotel.
Barbara Barrie is an American actress and author.
Plaza Suite is a comedy play by Neil Simon.
A Raisin in the Sun is a 1961 American drama film directed by Daniel Petrie and starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Roy Glenn, and Louis Gossett Jr., and adapted from the 1959 play of the same name by Lorraine Hansberry. It follows a black family that wants a better life away from the city. A Raisin in the Sun was released by Columbia Pictures on May 29, 1961.
Diane Carol Baker is an American actress, producer and educator whose career spanned nearly 50 years.
London Suite is a play by Neil Simon, consisting of four one-act plays. London Suite also was a 1996 television movie. It is in a similar style to Simon's earlier works Plaza Suite and California Suite.
For Your Consideration is a 2006 American comedy film directed by Christopher Guest. It was co-written by Guest and Eugene Levy, and both also star in the film. The film's title is a phrase used in trade advertisements to promote films for honors such as the Academy Awards. The plot revolves around a group of three actors who learn that their performances in the fictional film they have not even completed yet, Home for Purim, a drama set in the mid-1940s American South, are supposedly generating a great deal of award-season buzz.
Madame Rosa is a 1977 French drama film directed by Moshé Mizrahi, adapted from the 1975 novel The Life Before Us by Romain Gary. It stars Simone Signoret and Samy Ben-Youb, and tells the story of an elderly Jewish woman and former prostitute in Paris who cares for a number of children, including an adolescent Algerian boy. The film required a transformation in Signoret's appearance as Madame Rosa.
Eric R. Roth is an American screenwriter. He has been nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay — for Forrest Gump (1994), The Insider (1999), Munich (2005), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), A Star Is Born (2018), and Dune (2021) — winning for Forrest Gump; he also earned a Best Picture nomination for producing Mank (2020). He also worked on the screenplays for the Oscar-nominated films Ali (2001) and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), as well as Martin Scorsese's epic Western crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).
Ladybird, Ladybird is a 1994 British drama film directed by Ken Loach, starring Crissy Rock and Vladimir Vega. The film received positive reviews from critics, and Rock won the Silver Bear for Best Actress award at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.
The Sunshine Boys is a 1975 American comedy film directed by Herbert Ross and produced by Ray Stark, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and based on the 1972 play of the same name by Neil Simon, about two legendary comics brought together for a reunion and revival of their famous act. The cast included real-life experienced vaudevillian actor George Burns as Lewis, Walter Matthau as Clark, and Richard Benjamin as Ben, with Lee Meredith, F. Murray Abraham, Rosetta LeNoire, Howard Hesseman, and Ron Rifkin in supporting roles.
Plaza Suite is a 1971 American comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller. The screenplay by Neil Simon is based on his 1968 play of the same title. The film stars Walter Matthau, Maureen Stapleton, Barbara Harris and Lee Grant.
I Ought to Be in Pictures is a 1982 American comedy-drama film directed by Herbert Ross and based on Neil Simon's 1980 play of the same name. The film stars Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, and Dinah Manoff. Other actors who have supporting roles are Lance Guest, Eugene Butler, David Faustino, Martin Ferrero and Michael Dudikoff.
Chapter Two is a 1979 American Metrocolor romantic comedy-drama film directed by Robert Moore, produced by Ray Stark, and based on Neil Simon's 1977 Broadway play of the same name. It has a 124-minute running time. It stars James Caan and Marsha Mason, in an Academy Award-nominated performance.