Enchanted April | |
---|---|
Directed by | Mike Newell |
Written by | Peter Barnes |
Based on | The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Rex Maidment |
Edited by | Dick Allen |
Music by | Richard Rodney Bennett |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Curzon Films [1] Miramax [2] |
Release date |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | $13,200,170 |
Enchanted April is a 1991 British film directed by Mike Newell. [3] The screenplay by Peter Barnes was adapted from Elizabeth von Arnim's 1922 novel The Enchanted April . [4] It stars Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence, Polly Walker, and Joan Plowright, with Alfred Molina, Michael Kitchen, and Jim Broadbent in supporting roles. [5]
Elizabeth von Arnim's novel tells of four dissimilar women in 1920s England who leave their rainy, grey environments to go on holiday in Italy. Mrs. Arbuthnot and Mrs. Wilkins, who belong to the same ladies' club, but have never spoken, become acquainted after reading a newspaper advertisement for a small medieval castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be let furnished for the month of April. They find some common ground as both are struggling to make the best of unhappy marriages. Having decided to seek other ladies to help share expenses, they reluctantly take on the elegant but peevish elderly Mrs. Fisher, and the stunning, aloof, and very wealthy Lady Caroline Dester. The four women come together at the castle and, after many unexpected twists and turns, find rejuvenation in the tranquil beauty of their surroundings, rediscovering hope and love.
The film was shot on location at Castello Brown in Portofino, Italy, the castle where the author of the book had stayed in the 1920s. [6] The score by Richard Rodney Bennett, featuring flute and oboe themes, evokes the film's mood and accentuates the story's yearning and nostalgia. [7]
The film premiered as the opening night gala of the London Film Festival on 6 November 1991. [8] It gained a positive reaction from critics and holds an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 33 reviews. The consensus summarizes: "Mike Newell's adaptation of Elizabeth von Arnim's novel moves at a more generous pace than the 1935 version, allowing excellent performances from Miranda Richardson and Joan Plowright to flourish." [9]
An earlier adaptation of the book was released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1935, with the same name Enchanted April .
Miranda Jane Richardson is an English actress who has worked in TV, Films, and Theatre.
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Joan Ann Plowright, Baroness Olivier,, professionally known as Dame Joan Plowright, is an English retired actress whose career spanned over six decades. She has won two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award and has been nominated for an Academy Award, an Emmy and two BAFTA Awards. She was the second of only four actresses to have won two Golden Globes in the same year. She won the Laurence Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a New Play in 1978 for Filumena.
Drowning by Numbers is a 1988 British-Dutch film directed by Peter Greenaway. It won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the Cannes Film Festival of 1988.
Elizabeth von Arnim, born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an English novelist. Born in Australia, she married a German aristocrat, and her earliest works are set in Germany. Her first marriage made her Countess von Arnim-Schlagenthin and her second Elizabeth Russell, Countess Russell. After her first husband's death, she had a three-year affair with the writer H. G. Wells, then later married Frank Russell, elder brother of the Nobel prize-winner and philosopher Bertrand Russell. She was a cousin of the New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield. Though known in early life as May, her first book introduced her to readers as Elizabeth, which she eventually became to friends and finally to family. Her writings are ascribed to Elizabeth von Arnim. She used the pseudonym Alice Cholmondeley for only one novel, Christine, published in 1917.
Alfred Molina is a British actor known for his work on the stage and screen. He first rose to prominence in the West End, earning a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for his performance in the production of Oklahoma! in 1980. He made his film debut as Satipo in Raiders of the Lost Ark and his Broadway debut as Yvan in a production of Art from 1998 to 1999. His other Broadway roles include Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof from 2004 to 2005 and Mark Rothko in the play Red from 2009 to 2010.
Michael Cormac Newell is an English film and television director and producer. He won the BAFTA for Best Direction for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), which also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film, and directed the films Donnie Brasco (1997) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).
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Portofino is a comune located in the Metropolitan City of Genoa on the Italian Riviera. The town is clustered around its small harbour, and is known for the colourfully painted buildings that line the shore. Since the late 19th century, Portofino has attracted tourism of the European aristocracy and it is now a resort for the world's jet set.
The Entertainer is a 1960 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Tony Richardson, produced by Harry Saltzman and adapted by John Osborne and Nigel Kneale from Osborne’s stage play of the same name. The film stars Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice, a failing third-rate music-hall stage performer who tries to keep his career going even as the music-hall tradition fades into history and his personal life falls apart. Olivier was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
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Castello Brown is a historic house museum located high above the harbour of Portofino, northern Italy. Its site has been used for military defence since Roman times. As a Genoese coastal fort, it was called the Castello di San Giorgio.
The 58th New York Film Critics Circle Awards honored the best filmmaking of 1992. The winners were announced on 17 December 1992 and the awards were given on 17 January 1993.
Arbuthnot or Arbuthnott is a Scottish surname, deriving from the village in Scotland from where members of the Arbuthnot family originated.
The Enchanted April is a 1922 novel by British writer Elizabeth von Arnim. The work was inspired by a month-long holiday to the Italian Riviera, probably the most widely read and perhaps the lightest and most ebullient of her novels.
Enchanted April is a 1935 American comedy drama film directed by Harry Beaumont and starring Ann Harding, Frank Morgan and Katharine Alexander. It was made by RKO Pictures. The original 1922 novel The Enchanted April has also been adapted for the stage multiple times, and adapted for the 1991 film by screenwriter Peter Barnes.
Enchanted April is a 2003 stage play by Matthew Barber, adapted from Elizabeth von Arnim's 1922 novel The Enchanted April. The play opened on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre on April 29, 2003, in a production directed by Michael Wilson.