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(USA, 1999, 91 minutes)
A high-powered Hollywood agent is diagnosed with cancer just as he seals the most important deal of his career. Surprisingly effective but little-seen update of Tolstoy set in contemporary Hollywood, done on a very low budget and incorporating a few true-life elements; it works either as a film à clef for Hollywood insiders or as an affecting character study of man facing his own mortality. The project was conceived by writer/director Bernard Rose as an exorcism of his experience with the studios on Anna Karenina, where he was locked out of the editing room, and incorporates elements of the life of Jay Moloney, who had been Rose’s agent at CAA. Shot on digital video for $150,000, the film had been completed when Moloney took his own life and CAA effectively blacklisted the production, which did not receive a theatrical release in the US until 2002.
Rhino Films presents an Enos/Rose production, in association with Alternative Investments of Michigan. Starring Danny Huston, Peter Weller, Lisa Enos, Joanne Duckman, Angela Featherstone, Caroleen Feeney, Valeria Golino, Adam Krentzman, Heidi Jo Markel, James Merendino, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Morgan Vukovic. Directed by Bernard Rose; produced by Lisa Enos; screenplay by Bernard Rose and Lisa Enos, based on the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy; directors of photography (WavePictures; HD digital video), Bernard Rose, Ron Forsythe; online editor, Dan Gadd.
A high-powered Hollywood agent is diagnosed with cancer just as he seals the most important deal of his career. Surprisingly effective but little-seen update of Tolstoy set in contemporary Hollywood, done on a very low budget and incorporating a few true-life elements; it works either as a film à clef for Hollywood insiders or as an affecting character study of man facing his own mortality. The project was conceived by writer/director Bernard Rose as an exorcism of his experience with the studios on Anna Karenina, where he was locked out of the editing room, and incorporates elements of the life of Jay Moloney, who had been Rose’s agent at CAA. Shot on digital video for $150,000, the film had been completed when Moloney took his own life and CAA effectively blacklisted the production, which did not receive a theatrical release in the US until 2002.
Rhino Films presents an Enos/Rose production, in association with Alternative Investments of Michigan. Starring Danny Huston, Peter Weller, Lisa Enos, Joanne Duckman, Angela Featherstone, Caroleen Feeney, Valeria Golino, Adam Krentzman, Heidi Jo Markel, James Merendino, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Morgan Vukovic. Directed by Bernard Rose; produced by Lisa Enos; screenplay by Bernard Rose and Lisa Enos, based on the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy; directors of photography (WavePictures; HD digital video), Bernard Rose, Ron Forsythe; online editor, Dan Gadd.
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