IMDb > Out of Africa (1985)
Out of Africa
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Out of Africa (1985) More at IMDbPro »

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Out of Africa (1985) -- MattTrailer.com - Trailer (Flash)

Overview

User Rating:
7.0/10   17,952 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 8% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Contact:
View company contact information for Out of Africa on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
18 December 1985 (USA) more
Tagline:
Based on a true story.
Plot:
In 20th century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate but ultimately doomed love affair with a free-sprited big-game hunter. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Won 7 Oscars. Another 22 wins & 17 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(19 articles)
Their Best Role: Meryl Streep
 (From Cinematical. 18 November 2009, 9:02 AM, PST)

An Evening with ‘Pinewood Legends’ at Pinewood Studios
 (From HeyUGuys. 13 November 2009, 6:53 AM, PST)

User Comments:
A Good Woman In Africa more (157 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Meryl Streep ... Karen Blixen

Robert Redford ... Denys Finch Hatton

Klaus Maria Brandauer ... Bror Blixen / Hans Blixen
Michael Kitchen ... Berkeley Cole

Malick Bowens ... Farah
Joseph Thiaka ... Kamante
Stephen Kinyanjui ... Kinanjui
Michael Gough ... Lord Delamere
Suzanna Hamilton ... Felicity
Rachel Kempson ... Lady Belfield
Graham Crowden ... Lord Belfield
Leslie Phillips ... Sir Joseph
Shane Rimmer ... Belknap
Mike Bugara ... Juma
Job Seda ... Kanuthia
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Additional Details

Runtime:
160 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)
Filming Locations:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The story was originally planned as a project for Greta Garbo. At various times, Orson Welles, David Lean and Nicolas Roeg had tried to make a film about Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). more
Goofs:
Continuity: Karen's champagne glass is empty when she slaps a rude man at the New Year's Eve party. Denys takes her arm and pulls her immediately onto the dance floor, but her glass has champagne in it again while they dance. more
Quotes:
Karen Blixen: If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me? more
Movie Connections:
Soundtrack:
Sonata in A major (K.331) 'Rondo Alla Turca' more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
26 out of 44 people found the following comment useful.
A Good Woman In Africa, 30 August 2002
8/10
Author: telegonus from brighton, ma

This is an overlong film derived from Isak Dinesen's memoirs of running a coffee plantation in Kenya in the early years of the twentieth century. The book is a different kettle of fish altogether, but I won't go into that. Sydney Pollock does a fine job of directing here, but in a way the movie is almost overproduced. There was, it seems, so much time and money to play with that the film drags an awful lot. Kurt Luedtke's script is laconic in the Hemingway manner, and very smart, though some of the ultra-sophisticated one-liners began to irritate me after a while. Pollock has a fine dramatic instinct and I wish that there was more drama in this film for him to lavish his talent on. The location shooting is superb, and the depiction of home and village life in colonial Africa is nicely done. I find the romance between Dinesen (called by her real name, Baroness Karen Blixen) and aviator-adventurer Denis Finch-Hatton, less than compelling, partly because, as the latter, Robert Redford refuses to use a British accent, which gives the movie a Hollywood feel, not a bad thing in itself, but the film was made in Africa, with a mostly British cast, and Meryl Streep as Blixen uses an impeccable Danish accent, which makes Redford seem like a fish out of water. This is bothersome because in many ways Redford is well cast in the role, thus his American diction seems like sheer willfulness on his part, which it probably was. Streep is fine in her role, and is especially good in her grand dame moments, as lady of the manor.

There are some worthwhile incidental pleasures in this film. John Barry's fine score is perfect for the material, and really soars near the end, appropriately I imagine since one of the two main characters is an aviator. In supporting roles, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Suzanna Hamilton and Michael Gough work small wonders. The use of Mozart, while true to life, makes this post-Amadeus film seem already like a period piece; the period being the 1980's. Mozart was all the rage in those days. His great music is, however, non- if not anti-emotional, and it's odd that it was used so often in the movie. The effect of the music is somewhat intimidating in the context of the romance at the center of the film, as it doesn't suit at all what's happening on screen, which can't help but make the viewer think that perhaps he's missing something; or maybe the film is just too smart for him. This is, again, a very eighties sort of feeling, of the sort of one gets from watching Chariots Of Fire, or listening to the music David Byrne and Laurie Anderson.

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How would you re-cast this movie? intoafrica
Blixen's question to Denys tckldpnk06
Denys Vs Farah I-had-a-farm-in-africa
'Don't move' gleghorn
Berkeley Cole question CrazyMaryT
Question emily_the_strange1
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