Guinevere (1999)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Audrey Wells

Writer (WGA):

Audrey Wells (written by)

Release Date:

12 November 1999 (Portugal)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

He was her first love... she was his last.

Plot:

A young girl from an affluent family rebels and becomes involved with a much older photographer.

Plot Keywords:

Older Man Younger Woman Relationship | Independent Film

Awards:

2 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Sarah Polley	...	Harper Sloane
Stephen Rea	...	Connie Fitzpatrick
Jean Smart	...	Deborah Sloane
Gina Gershon	...	Billie
Paul Dooley	...	Walter
Carrie Preston	...	Patty
Tracy Letts	...	Zack
Emily Procter	...	Susan Sloane
Sharon McNight	...	Leslie (as Sharon Mcnight)
Gedde Watanabe	...	Ed
Carlton Wilborn	...	Jay
Sandra Oh	...	Cindy
Francis Guinan	...	Alan Sloane
Oded Gross	...	Gary
Grace Una	...	April

MPAA:

Rated R for strong language and sexuality.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | Singapore:M18 | France:U | Portugal:M/12 | USA:R | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Miramax Films

Trivia:

During the non-union shoot in San Francisco, crew members struck and were joined by star 'Sarah Polley', who walked the picket line. Striking crew members report that they were quite touched by her action, which was more than a gesture, but rather a sincere belief in workers' rights. On her part, Polley called her union, the Screen Actors Guild, to tell her of her action, and the union representative told her they'd back her if she crossed the picket line. SAG assumed that she was calling to ask whether she could defy the strike and cross the picket line! A shocked and dismayed Polley stayed out with the strikers, and the strike ended after three days when their grievances were met. Subsequently, Polley has stated that she has been told that she lost several job offers due to this incident as producers don't want a union 'militant' despite the film industry being a craft industry dominated by the guild (union) system and she did what she felt was right.

Goofs:

Continuity: The wet spots on Harper's shirt after taking a shower.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Harper Sloane: These photographs of me were taken when I was 21 years old. They were shot on Plus X with a 105-mm lens on a Nikon F-2, developed normal, two stops overexposed. I like this one a lot. The F-2 was lost forever to a pawn shop in Los Angeles four years ago. The photographer lived in San Francisco up until last week. He was the worst man I ever met, or maybe the best, I'm still not sure. If you're supposed to learn by your mistakes, then he was the best mistake I ever made. He was my most spectacular and cherished fuckup, and I was his Guinevere, whatever that means.

Soundtrack:

It Used to Be Sorta Somber

A Very Weird Romance

Harper Sloane (Sarah Polley) is a gorgeous and insecure twenty years old woman, dominated by her wealthy family and has just passed to Harvard. In her sister's wedding, she meets the photographer Connie Fitzpatrick (Stephen Rea), an old, weird, not handsome and very poor man, who tells her that she has a great potential in arts and calls her Guinevere. Harper falls in love with him. She gives up of Harvard, leaves her family and moves to his apartment. Pretty soon, she finds that he has used the same seduction by flattery technique, including the nickname Guinevere, with other girls. But she stays with him, until she is `replaced' by another girl. After four years, Harper becomes a mature woman, totally different from the one in the beginning of the story. This movie is a very weird romance. If the viewer can buy that a beautiful and wealthy girl like Harper could really love a guy like Connie and stay with him, probably he will like this film. That is not my case. Harper is a mature woman in the end of the story, but in the beginning, she would have to move to Harvard, where she certainly would develop herself as a human being. Of course, the experience she has with Connie is great for her formation, but the guy is too much strange and does not really seems to love her. She is just another tasteful laboratory for him. The cynical dialog of Harper's mother with Connie is for me the greatest part of this film, when she says that a looser like him prefers young and naive women to be admired in his completely failure as a man. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): `A Lente do Desejo' (`The Lens of the Desire')