The Shell Seekers | |
---|---|
Directed by | Piers Haggard |
Written by | Rosamunde Pilcher (novel) Brian Finch |
Produced by | David Cunliffe Alexander Ollig Rikolt von Gagern Verena von Heeremann |
Starring | Vanessa Redgrave Maximilian Schell Sebastian Koch Victoria Hamilton |
Cinematography | Tony Imi |
Edited by | David Martin |
Music by | Richard Blackford |
Distributed by | ZDF |
Release date | 25 December 2006 (Germany) |
Running time | 183 min |
Countries | Germany United Kingdom |
Languages | German English |
The Shell Seekers (German : Die Muschelsucher) is a 2006 mini-series starring Academy Award-winners, Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell. The British-German co-production was directed by Piers Haggard. It is an adaptation of Rosamunde Pilcher's 1987 novel of the same name and premiered on Germany's ZDF on 25 December 2006. It was screened in the United States on the Hallmark Channel on 3 May 2008. [1] [2]
Set in the 1980s, Penelope (Redgrave) is seen to be recovering from a heart attack. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn she is the daughter of Lawrence (Schell), an acclaimed painter. Her children attempt to convince her to sell her father's paintings and ease their financial burdens. As Penelope continues to recover she reflects on her life, as a disillusioned wife and briefly enthralled lover. She embarks on a trip to the Mediterranean where she encounters Antonia (Stumph), whom she meets up with later on in the book, who becomes a woman in the grip of a passionate romance, something Penelope realises she briefly enjoyed. [1] [3] [4]
The mini-series was shot in 2005 in a range of locations such as Cornwall, London and Wales. [1] [5] [6]
Variety made comparisons between the series and Redgrave's 2007 film, Atonement . The magazine praised her casting, as Redgrave "delivers a fine, flinty performance". It concluded that "the melancholy ending caps it with a satisfying exclamation point." [1]
Redgrave was awarded Best Actress in a Television Film at the Shanghai International TV Festival. [7]
Maximilian Schell was an Austrian-born Swiss actor, who also wrote, directed and produced some of his own films. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film Judgment at Nuremberg, his second acting role in Hollywood. Born in Austria, his parents were involved in the arts and he grew up surrounded by performance and literature. While he was still a child, his family fled to Switzerland in 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and they settled in Zürich. After World War II ended, Schell took up acting and directing full-time. He appeared in numerous German films, often anti-war, before moving to Hollywood.
Julia is a 1977 American WWII drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann, from a screenplay by Alvin Sargent. It is based on a chapter from Lillian Hellman's 1973 book Pentimento about the author's relationship with a lifelong friend, Julia, who fought against the Nazis in the years prior to World War II. The film stars Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Hal Holbrook, Rosemary Murphy, Maximilian Schell, and Meryl Streep in her film debut.
Rosamunde Pilcher, OBE was a British novelist, best known for her sweeping novels set in Cornwall. Her books have sold over 60 million copies worldwide. Early in her career she was published under the pen name Jane Fraser. In 2001, she received the Corine Literature Prize's Weltbild Readers' Prize for Winter Solstice.
Maria Margarethe Anna Schell was an Austrian-Swiss actress. She was one of the leading stars of German cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1954, she was awarded the Cannes Best Actress Award for her performance in Helmut Käutner's war drama The Last Bridge, and in 1956, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for Gervaise.
Piers Inigo Haggard, OBE was a British director who worked in film, television, and theatre.
Eva Felicitas Habermann is a German actress who has appeared in numerous films and TV series. She is best known for playing the role of Zev Bellringer in the television series Lexx.
The Shell Seekers is a 1987 novel by Rosamunde Pilcher. It became one of her most famous best-sellers. It was nominated by the British public in 2003 as one of the top 100 novels in the BBC's Big Read. In Germany the novel is called Die Muschelsucher and was also in the top 100 novels. The novel sold more than five million copies worldwide, and was adapted for the stage and as a film for television twice.
September is a novel by Rosamunde Pilcher. September was published in 1990, three years after The Shell Seekers. Although one Shell Seekers character, Noel Keeling, is a significant figure, a new cast is introduced.
Christine Buchegger was an Austrian theater and television actress, born in Vienna, Austria.
Young Catherine is a 1991 British TV miniseries based on the early life of Catherine II of Russia. Directed by Michael Anderson, it stars Julia Ormond as Catherine and Vanessa Redgrave as Empress Elizabeth.
Brian Finch was a British television scriptwriter and dramatist. His longest relationship was with the ITV1 soap opera, Coronation Street, for which he wrote 150 scripts between 1970 and 1989. He also helped the development of All Creatures Great and Small, The Tomorrow People, and Heartbeat. He contributed several episodes to the British detective programmes The Gentle Touch, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Bergerac and The Bill. It was for his work as a writer on Goodnight Mr Tom, a bittersweet drama starring John Thaw, for which he received a BAFTA.
Gaili Schoen is an American film composer, orchestrator, and pianist. She is best known for her scores for the films Festival in Cannes starring Maximilian Schell, Anouk Aimée, Ron Silver, and Greta Scacchi, and Déjà Vu, starring Stephen Dillane and Vanessa Redgrave, both directed by Henry Jaglom. Her television work includes the score for the 2007 PBS documentary Annie Leibovitz: A Life Through A Lens which she composed with score producer James Newton Howard. Schoen composed a 52-piece orchestral score for the 2008 feature film Noble Things starring Michael Parks, Ryan Hurst, and country singer Lee Ann Womack, and scored the 2011 documentary The Ghost of War, about the RMS Queen Mary.
Vanessa Jung is a German actress.
Coming Home is a 1998 British serial directed by Giles Foster. The teleplay by John Goldsmith is based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Rosamunde Pilcher. Produced by Yorkshire Television, it was broadcast in two parts by ITV from 12 to 13 April 1998.
Stephanie Stumph is a German actress. She is the daughter of actor Wolfgang Stumph.
Paula Kalenberg is a German actress. She is probably best known to international audiences for her roles in films Krabat, Vision – From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen and Jew Suss: Rise and Fall.
The Shell Seekers is a 1989 Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for-television drama film based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Rosamunde Pilcher and starring Angela Lansbury. The film aired on ABC on December 3, 1989 in the U.S. and on ITV on December 21, 1989 in the UK; it was later reaired on CBS on January 31, 1993.
Sophie Cookson is an English actress. She is known for portraying secret agent Roxy Morton / Lancelot in the 2014 spy film Kingsman: The Secret Service and its 2017 sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and for playing Pippa in the 2016 fantasy film The Huntsman: Winter's War. She played the title role of Christine Keeler in the 2019 BBC One drama television series The Trial of Christine Keeler.
Nadia Hilker is a German actress and model, known for her roles in Spring (2014), The 100 (2016–2017), and The Walking Dead (2018–2022).
Melia Kreiling is an actress. She is known for her roles on television series such as Tyrant and The Last Tycoon, and for her starring role as Alycia in the second season of the CBS summer series Salvation. She also has a brief appearance in the film Guardians of the Galaxy.