The Land Girls | |
---|---|
Directed by | David Leland |
Written by | Keith Dewhurst David Leland |
Based on | Land Girls by Angela Huth |
Produced by | Ruth Jackson Simon Relph Andrew Warren |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Henry Braham |
Edited by | Nick Moore |
Music by | Brian Lock |
Production companies | Intermedia Films Channel Four Films Greenpoint Films Caméra One West Eleven Films Arena Films Canal+ Sofineurope |
Distributed by | FilmFour Distributors (UK) Gramercy Pictures (US) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 111 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom France |
Language | English |
Budget | £6 million [1] |
Box office | $3.2 million [2] |
The Land Girls is a 1998 film directed by David Leland and starring Catherine McCormack, Rachel Weisz, Anna Friel, Steven Mackintosh and Ann Bell. It is based on the 1995 novel Land Girls by Angela Huth.
The title refers to the real-life British women who were called upon to assist rural Englanders when men left their farms to fight in the First and Second World Wars.
During both the First and Second World Wars, the Women's Land Army was set up in the United Kingdom to recruit women to work at farms where men had left to go to war. Women in the WLA were nicknamed "land girls".
Set in 1941 in the Dorset countryside, three "land girls" arrive on a remote farm. They are an unlikely trio: hairdresser Prue is vivacious and sexy, Cambridge University graduate Ag is quiet and more reserved, and dreamy Stella is in love with Philip, a dashing Royal Navy officer. Despite the women's differences, they soon become close friends. The film follows their relationships with each other and the men in their lives in the face of war.
Filming locations included the scenic Exmoor National Park, Crowcombe Heathfield station on the West Somerset Railway and Dulverton. [3]
The film cost £6 million. [1]
The film holds a 61% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews. [4]
In a review for The New York Times , Stephen Holden wrote, "The movie is ultimately more passionate about its characters' place in history than about their individual lives, which take fairly predictable if not always happy turns. In the end, all three women blend together as an idealized everywoman lightly sketched on a larger historical canvas." [5]
Holden concluded, "The film's most evocative historical set piece shows a parade and air show at which a newly built Spitfire makes its maiden flight. The movie is unequivocal about the nobility of this moment. The shared sacrifice and hard labor have all been worth it. As the aircraft soars and dips across the rural English landscape, it is the very embodiment of a glorious winged victory soon to come." [5]
Roger Ebert praised the cinematography in particular, stating "What I liked about the movie--what I preferred to the romances and relationships--was its look, its sensual evocation of the British countryside in winter." [6] Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Wistful but not precious, 'The Land Girls' takes a bit of acclimatizing, but Leland (' Wish You Were Here ') makes his leisurely pacing an attribute. The film sinks into the green, serene countryside, a place where emotions echo big." [7]
After 11 weeks on release the film had grossed £1.3 million ($2.2 million) in the United Kingdom. [8] It grossed $1 million internationally for a worldwide total of $3.2 million. [2]
Rachel Hannah Weisz is a British actress. She has received several awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award.
Kimila Ann Basinger is an American actress. She has garnered acclaim for her work in film, for which she has received various accolades including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Initially a TV starlet, she shot to fame as a Bond girl in 1983 and enjoyed a long heyday over the next two decades. In 2011 Los Angeles Times Magazine ranked her third on the "50 Most Beautiful Women In Film".
Catherine Jane McCormack is an English actress. Her film appearances include Braveheart (1995), The Land Girls (1998), Dangerous Beauty (1998), Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), Spy Game (2001), and 28 Weeks Later (2007). Her theatre work includes National Theatre productions of All My Sons (2000) and Honour (2003).
Runaway Jury is a 2003 American legal thriller film directed by Gary Fleder, and starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and Rachel Weisz. An adaptation of John Grisham's 1996 novel The Runaway Jury, the film pits lawyer Wendell Rohr (Hoffman) against shady jury consultant Rankin Fitch (Hackman), who uses unlawful means to stack the jury with people sympathetic to the defense. Meanwhile, a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game begins when juror Nicholas Easter (Cusack) and his girlfriend Marlee (Weisz) appear to be able to sway the jury into delivering any verdict they want in a trial against a gun manufacturer. The film was released October 17, 2003.
Big Top Pee-wee is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Randal Kleiser. A standalone sequel to Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), the film stars Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman with Susan Tyrrell, Kris Kristofferson, Penelope Ann Miller, and Valeria Golino in supporting roles. The original music score is composed by Danny Elfman. It was released on July 22, 1988, and grossed $15 million against a $20 million budget. Another standalone sequel, Pee-wee's Big Holiday, was released in 2016.
The Mother is a 2003 British drama film directed by Roger Michell and written by Hanif Kureishi. It stars Anne Reid, Daniel Craig, Peter Vaughan, Steven Mackintosh, and Cathryn Bradshaw.
Constantine is a 2005 American superhero horror film directed by Francis Lawrence in his directorial debut. Written by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello from a story by Brodbin, it is loosely based on the DC Comics/Vertigo Comics Hellblazer graphic novels. The film stars Keanu Reeves as John Constantine, a cynical exorcist with the ability to perceive and communicate with half-angels and half-demons in their true forms and to travel between Earth and Hell. Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Djimon Hounsou, Gavin Rossdale, and Peter Stormare also feature.
Wish You Were Here is a 1987 British comedy-drama film written and directed by David Leland and starring Emily Lloyd, Tom Bell, Geoffrey Hutchings, and Jesse Birdsall. The film follows a girl's coming-of-age in a small coastal town in postwar England. It is loosely based on the formative years of British madam Cynthia Payne. The original music score was composed by Stanley Myers.
David Leland is an English film director, screenwriter and actor who came to international fame with his directorial debut Wish You Were Here in 1987.
Me Without You is a 2001 British film starring Anna Friel, Michelle Williams, and Oliver Milburn, and written and directed by Sandra Goldbacher.
Beautiful Creatures is a 2000 British crime film directed by Bill Eagles and starring Susan Lynch and Rachel Weisz. Lynch received a British Independent Film Award nomination for her role.
The Man in the Iron Mask is a 1998 American action drama film written, directed, and produced by Randall Wallace. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio in a dual role as the title character and the villain, Jeremy Irons as Aramis, John Malkovich as Athos, Gérard Depardieu as Porthos, and Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan. Some characters are from Alexandre Dumas's D'Artagnan Romances and some plot elements are very loosely adapted from his 1847-1850 novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne. This was Leonardo DiCaprio's first film following the success of Titanic (1997).
Angela Huth is an English novelist and journalist.
The Postman is a 1997 American adventure film produced and directed by Kevin Costner, who plays the lead role. The screenplay was written by Eric Roth and Brian Helgeland, based on David Brin's 1985 book of the same name. The film also features Will Patton, Larenz Tate, Olivia Williams, James Russo, and Tom Petty.
The Mackintosh Man is a 1973 Cold War spy film directed by John Huston from a screenplay by Walter Hill, based on the novel The Freedom Trap by English author Desmond Bagley. Paul Newman stars as Joseph Rearden, a jewel thief-turned-intelligence operative, sent to infiltrate a Soviet spy ring in England, by helping one of their agents break out of prison. The cast also features Dominique Sanda, James Mason, Harry Andrews, Michael Hordern and Ian Bannen.
Steven Mackintosh is an English actor and narrator. He is perhaps best known for his role as Andreas Tanis in the action horror films Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009).
Sandra A. Goldbacher is a British film director, TV director, and screenwriter.
Hurlyburly is a 1998 independent comedy-drama film directed by Anthony Drazan and based on the 1984 play of the same name by David Rabe, who adapted the screenplay. The film is about the intersecting lives of several Hollywood players and wannabes. Rabe condensed the action of his three-hour plus play into two hours and updated the setting from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s.
At Any Price is a 2012 American drama film directed by Ramin Bahrani and written by Ramin Bahrani and Hallie Newton. The film, starring Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron, was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, and later screened as an official selection at both the Telluride Film Festival and the 2012 Toronto Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics purchased the film and it was released in the United States on April 24, 2013.