Under the Volcano | |
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Directed by | John Huston |
Screenplay by | Guy Gallo |
Based on | Under the Volcano 1947 novel by Malcolm Lowry |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Gabriel Figueroa |
Edited by | Roberto Silvi |
Music by | Alex North |
Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 112 minutes |
Countries |
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Languages | English Spanish |
Box office | $2,556,800 [2] |
Under the Volcano is a 1984 drama film directed by John Huston and starring Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, and Anthony Andrews, based on Malcolm Lowry's semi-autobiographical 1947 novel. The film follows the last 24 hours in the life of Geoffrey Firmin (Finney), an alcoholic British former consul in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac on the Day of the Dead in 1938. The film is an international co-production between Mexico and the United States.
The film premiered at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Under the Volcano received Oscar nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Finney's performance and Best Original Score for Alex North’s score, along with Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (Finney) and Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (Bisset).
On the Day of the Dead in 1938, Firmin, an alcoholic former British consul to Mexico, despondent from the yearlong absence of his wife Yvonne, wanders the streets of Quauhnahuac in a stupor, observing the festivities and crashing a Red Cross charity ball.
In the late 1950s, Under the Volcano author Malcolm Lowry adapted his novel into a screenplay and attempted to interest Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to produce it [3] after being hired to adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night . [4] The studio passed and Lowry died in 1957. Actor Zachary Scott optioned the novel in 1962, but after he died his widow sold the rights to brothers Robert and Raymond Hakim.
Guy Gallo, a novice playwright [5] who had written two academic papers on Malcolm Lowry at Yale University, began to write a screenplay. [6]
Albert Finney was cast in the lead role of Geoffrey Firmin, Jacqueline Bisset as his wife Yvonne, and Anthony Andrews as his half-brother Hugh. Firmin's friend Dr. Vigil was played by Ignacio López Tarso, an actor lesser known to English-speaking audiences but highly recognized by Mexican ones as one of the top stars of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, winning the Ariel Award for Best Actor in 1973 for the Roberto Gavaldón film Rosa Blanca . The supporting cast includes several prominent Mexican filmmaking personalities, including director and occasional actor Emilio Fernández, cult film actor Hugo Stiglitz, and actress Katy Jurado.
Principal photography began on August 8, 1983, in the village of Yautepec de Zaragoza, a short car ride from Cuernavaca. [7]
The film was entered into the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. [8]
Upon general release, it received generally positive reviews from critics. Reviewing in The New York Times , Janet Maslin especially praised Finney's performance. [9]
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
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Academy Awards | Best Actor | Albert Finney | Nominated | [10] |
Best Original Score | Alex North | Nominated | ||
Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | John Huston | Nominated | [11] |
Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama | Albert Finney | Nominated | [12] |
Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Jacqueline Bisset | Nominated | ||
London Critics Circle Film Awards | Actor of the Year | Albert Finney | Won | |
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actor | Won [lower-alpha 1] | [13] | |
National Board of Review Awards | Top Ten Films | 10th Place | [14] | |
National Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Actor | Albert Finney | Runner-up | [15] |
New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Actor | Runner-up | [16] |
Huston's drama has sometimes been shown in tandem with an earlier documentary film: Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry (1976) is a National Film Board of Canada feature-length documentary produced by Donald Brittain and Robert A. Duncan and directed by Brittain and John Kramer. It opens with the inquest into Lowry's "death by misadventure," and then moves back in time to trace the writer's life. Selections from Lowry's novel are read by Richard Burton amid images shot in Mexico, the United States, Canada and England.
There are two documentaries about the making of the Huston film: Gary Conklin's 56-minute Notes from Under the Volcano and the 82-minute Observations Under the Volcano, directed by Christian Blackwood.
Albert Finney was an English actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining fame for movie acting during the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in theatre. He maintained a successful career in theatre, movies and television.
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and the BAFTA Fellowship in 1980.
Clarence Malcolm Lowry was an English poet and novelist who is best known for his 1947 novel Under the Volcano, which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list.
María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, known professionally as Katy Jurado, was a Mexican actress.
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Winifred Jacqueline Fraser BissetLdH is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in The Detective, Bullitt, and The Sweet Ride, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. In the 1970s, she starred in Airport (1970), The Mephisto Waltz (1971), Day for Night (1973), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Le Magnifique (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), St. Ives (1976), The Deep (1977), The Greek Tycoon (1978) and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.
Under the Volcano is a novel by English writer Malcolm Lowry (1909–1957) published in 1947. The novel tells the story of Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic British consul in the Mexican city of Quauhnahuac, on the Day of the Dead in November 1938. The book takes its name from the two volcanoes, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, that overshadow Quauhnahuac and the characters. Under the Volcano was Lowry's second and last complete novel.
Justin Henry is an American actor and businessman, known for playing the object of the titular custody battle in the 1979 film Kramer vs. Kramer, a debut role that earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, when he was eight years old. To date, he remains the youngest Oscar nominee in any category. The performance later earned him a spot on VH1's list of 100 Greatest Kid Stars. Most of his film and television credits came as a child or teenager, although he has continued acting as an adult.
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