Rough Magic

Last updated
Rough Magic
Directed by Clare Peploe
Screenplay byRobert Mundi
William Brookfield
Clare Peploe
Based onMiss Shumway Waves a Wand
by James Hadley Chase
Starring
CinematographyJohn J. Campbell
Edited bySuzanne Hartley
Music by Richard Hartley
Production
company
Distributed by Goldwyn Entertainment Company
Release date
  • May 30, 1997 (1997-05-30)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$598,981

Rough Magic is a 1995 comedy film directed by Clare Peploe, starring Bridget Fonda and Russell Crowe. The screenplay was written by Robert Mundi, William Brookfield, and Clare Peploe. Rough Magic is based on the 1944 novel Miss Shumway Waves a Wand by British novelist James Hadley Chase; that novel had previously been adapted as the 1962 French-Argentine film Une blonde comme ça .

Contents

Cast

Production

Filming locations in Michoacán, Mexico; Tikal, Guatemala; and Los Angeles, United States.

Release

The film was released in France on August 30, 1995 and in the United States on May 30, 1997.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 25% of 8 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.6/10. [1]

Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars, writing:

Peploe, who is married to Bernardo Bertolucci, co-wrote his Luna (1979) and Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970), and has directed one previous feature, High Season (1987), an engagingly goofy comedy set on a Greek island and involving tourists and spies. Nothing she has done before is anything like Rough Magic, which seems to be a visitor from a parallel timeline: If film noir had developed in South America instead of California, maybe we would have seen more films like this.

Apart from anything else, the movie is wonderful to look at. It's a cliche to talk about great visuals, since if you point a camera in the right direction you can make almost anything look good. But John J. Campbell and Peploe create painterly compositions with rich Mexican colors, and there are landscape shots and atmospheric effects here that are astonishing. [2]

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References

  1. "Rough Magic". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved July 5, 2023. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. Roger Ebert (May 30, 1997). "Rough Magic". RogerEbert.com. Chicago Sun-Times.