Country: USA
Year: 1994
Duration: 110'
Donald Sullivan is an aging carpenter who lives in a town in New York State. A bachelor, he is in love with his boss’ wife and he leads a rather dissolute life. Everything gets turned upside down when his son Peter comes back into his life; Donald had abandoned him as a child but now Peter is an adult and the father of two children. Savoring the pleasure of affections he had always avoided, Donald changes his ways and, maybe just in time, realizes what he has always desired. A tender twilight comedy (with strangely grotesque and poetical passages), unusual in the panorama of 1990’s Hollywood. The screenplay, written by the director, wanders and sketches a classic melodrama scene, while the directing entrusts itself completely to the bravura of an ironical and yet melancholy Newman, who received an Oscar nomination and won a Silver Bear in Berlin for this role.
Biography
film director
Robert Benton
(Waxahachie, USA, 1932 – New York, USA, 2025) began working as a journalist in the late 1950s, and debuted as a screenwriter in the mid-‘60s with the script for the landmark Bonnie and Clyde by Arthur Penn, followed by the scripts for the western by Joseph L. Mankiewics There Was a Crooked Man… (1970) and the comedy by Peter Bogdanovich What’s Up, Doc? In 1972, he debuted as a director with the western Bad Company, The Late Show, and, in particular, Kramer vs. Kramer (which won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor in a Leading Role for Dustin Hoffman, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Meryl Streep), and become one of Hollywood’s most-appreciated directors. He won another Oscar in the 1980s for the screenplay of Places in the Heart (for which Sally Field also received an Oscar) and remained a dependable and independent director and screenwriter, also working with Hoffman (Billy Bathgate) and filming with Paul Newman (Nobody’s Fool and Twilight).
FILMOGRAFIA
Bad Company (Cattive compagnie, 1972), The Late Show (L’occhio privato, 1977), Kramer vs Kramer (Kramer contro Kramer, 1979), Still of the Night (Una lama nel buio, 1982), Places in the Heart (Le stagioni del cuore, 1984), Nadine (Nadine, un amore a prova di proiettile, 1987), Billy Bathgate (Billy Bathgate - A scuola di gangster, 1991), Nobody’s Fool (La vita a modo mio, 1994), Twilight (id., 1998), The Human Stain (La macchia umana, 2003), Feast of Love (2007).
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY: Robert Benton. STORY: Richard Russo. CINEMATOGRAPHY: John Bailey. FILM EDITING: John Bloom. PRODUCTION DESIGN: David Gropman, Dan Davis, Gretchen Rau. MUSIC: Howard Shore. CAST: Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Dylan Walsh, Richard Mawe, Philip Seymour Hoffman. PRODUCTION: Arlene Donovan, Scott Rudin per Capella International, Paramount Pictures.
CONTACT: Park Circus www.parkcircus.com
