![]() ![]() All these ideas that we formed about art and life seemed to have started there. It has more of a modern vibe to it and it segues between the two.ĭR: Exactly. WAMG: It looks like a period film, but it doesn’t feel like the viewer is in Victorian England. It was set in 1851 and we went onto make it. I told her I had written my college thesis on Victorian England, let’s do this. She called me one day, five years ago and said she had written a script set in Victorian England. We decided not to make that movie – it was a life or death decision. We were even threatened in Paraguay on the way home. Then we went onto to make another movie in Chile eight years later about the Pinochet regime and the Chilean singer, Víctor Jara, but in the end because of various actual death threats from the Chilean Junta that were still in power, we had to get out of there. ![]() It will be looked at by the audience as sort of a sequel – from HOWARD’S END to REMAINS OF THE DAY. I said look at Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins. ![]() On REMAINS OF THE DAY, the financers wanted Anjelica Huston because at the time she was the bigger star. I cast her in HOWARD’S END – she was an unknown then and then went onto win the Oscar. WAMG: When did you get involved in the movie?ĭR: I had previously worked with Emma on HOWARD’S END and REMAINS OF THE DAY. The film is filled with so much beauty as it was shot in Venice, Scotland and England. A little bit of horror, but it’s also a period marriage. Lady Eastlake, played by Emma Thompson, orchestrates her escape and the divorce. I think there are two divorces on record.Įffie conspires with a local, aristocratic lady whose husband runs the Royal Academy that employs Ruskin. It’s the story of an early divorce because in Victorian England it was pretty rare. It’s the story of a failed marriage and her escape. She is placed in a house with nothing to do while he does his work. He marries a girl two decades younger than him. John Ruskin was a child genius who turned into a major thinker in the Victorian Era. I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I hope we will continue for another fifty more.ĭR: It’s the story of a marriage out of a horror movie. We did strive for beautiful production values and we tried to do it at a low cost. It’s magnificent.ĭonald Rosenfeld: Thank you. WAMG: EFFIE GRAY is such a gorgeous, visceral movie. I spoke with the producer about EFFIE GRAY and what went into making this beautiful film with modern feminist themes. In-between, he was the executive producer of “Jodorowsky’s Dune”, the story of the Chilean director’s doomed attempt at bringing Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel to the screen.ĮFFIE GRAY marks Rosenfeld’s third collaboration with Emma Thompson. He produced Ric Burns’ first feature film, the four hours long “Andy Warhol” (2006), and he made “Anton Chekhov’s The Duel”, directed by the Georgian director Dover Kashashvili. He produced the romantic drama “Forty Shades of Blue”, which won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance in 2005. Rosenfeld produced Ric Burns’ “New York: A Documentary Film” (1996-2003) and was executive producer of Taran Davies’ film about the people of Chechnya, “Mountain Men and Holy Wars” (2003). He produced Chris Munch’s “Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day” (1996), which won Best Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival, for which he recreated the Yosemite Valley narrow Gauge Railroad. Producer Donald Rosenfeld spent 1987 to 1998 as President of Merchant Ivory Productions, in charge of the financing and production of such titles as James Ivory’s “Mr and Mrs Bridge” (1990), Simon Callow’s “The Ballad of the Sad Café (1991), James Ivory’s “Howards End” (1992) and “The Remains of the Day” (1993), Christopher Menaul’s “Feast of July” (1995) and James Ivory’s “Jefferson In Paris” (1995), and “Surviving Picasso”, among others. The film is produced by Andreas Roald (Terrence Malick’s VOYAGE OF TIME) and Donald Rosenfeld (Malick’s TREE OF LIFE and VOYAGE OF TIME). The film explores the fascinating, true story of the relationship between Victorian England’s greatest mind, John Ruskin, and his teenage bride, Euphemia “Effie” Gray, who leaves him for the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais.ĮFFIE GRAY is the first original screenplay written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Emma Thompson. In this impeccably crafted period drama, Thompson delicately and incisively probes the marital politics of the Victorian Era, and beyond.ĭakota Fanning stars as Effie Gray Ruskin. The cast includes Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Tom Sturridge, David Suchet, Greg Wise, Claudia Cardinale, James Fox, Sir Derek Jacobi and Robbie Coltrane. Coming to theater on April 3rd is the film EFFIE GRAY. ![]()
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