News and Views
News and Opinions About the actor Ralph Fiennes
01/31/06 Coming Soon: Faith Healer Mini-Site
Soon we will be developing a mini-site for the Faith Healer Play. We will focus on fan encounters, photos, video clips, reviews and more. With the play starting in just a few days, we're hoping the site will grow fast. If you have an encounter you would like to share, please let us know.
Visit this link often for new info:
http://www.fiennesforum.com/faithhealer/faithhealerhome.htmTo email stories, photos, etc for the site, contact Carolyn, aka Honey: carolyns808@hotmail.com
01/03/06 Constant Gardener DVD Releases January 10
Universal Studios is releasing the Constant Gardener on DVD January 10. An advance copy reveals some impressive extra features making this dvd an instant Ralph Fiennes must-have for any serious fan
Extra features include:Deleted and Extended Scenes (updated)
The best deleted scenes are the ones from Canada. They show Ralph going to Canada to find the drug developer. I think it's pretty similar to the book, with the exception that everything happens faster. I really wish they had kept these scenes because they help show his character's development even further.Embracing Africa: Filming in Kenya
Ralph has several clips in this piece which focuses on why they chose to keep the location of the film in Kenya, despite the financial and logistical advantages of filming in South Africa. The producer Simon Channing Williams was passionate about the locations after realizing the film would be better served in Kenya. You might be jarred as I was by the resemblance between Simon Channing Williams's voice and Ralph's, as it's often difficult to distinguish who is talking in the voice overs. A small detail, not to detract from the educational aspects of this piece, showing that the film crew was determined to include native Kenyans in all locations, making improvements to the area, and leaving as little impact on the culture as possible, while enriching thecommunities where filming took place.John Le Carre: From Page to Screen
This interview with John Le Carre includes his explanation about how the book came to be, how the film was purchased, and how he feels about the difference between the book and the film. He says of Moreilles, "Fernando Meireilles brought third world anger", which is quite telling considering the subject matter of City of God. Though initially Hollywood felt that a film about Africa was too big of a risk, Simon Channing Williams took the story and ran with it, keeping the integrity of the novel all along.
Anatomy of a Global Thriller: Behind the Scenes of The Constant Gardener
Though this has a lot of clips of Ralph and various images during production, many of the clips you'll recognize from other pieces on the other special features. This is a slickly put together, quick behind the scenes flash for those who haven't really seen it or studied the background of the film in-depth.
Overall I think the DVD has some of the best extra features on any of the Ralph Fiennes DVD's.
Technical Details
Spoken Languages: English and French
Subtitles: English SDH (hearing impaired), French and Spanish
Running Time: 2 hours, 9 minutes
Rating: R
Cast and Filmmakers
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Written by: Jeffrey Caine, based upon the novel by John Le Carre
Produced by: Simon Channing Williams
Executive Producers: Gail Egan, Robert Jones,Donald Ranvaud, Jeff Abberley, Julia Blackman
Co-Producers: Henning Molfenter, Thierry Potok
Director of Photography: Cesar Charlone
Production Designer: Mark Tildesey
Edited By: Claire Simpson
Costume Designer: Odile Dicks-Mireaux
Original Music By: Alberto Iglesias
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston, Billy Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite
Visit the Constant Gardener website at: http://www.theconstantgardener.com
*************************************************************************************
Thanks sooooo much to Honey and her husband for hosting the archive for the fan site :-)
Love,
Mary K.Julius Caesar micro-site -Visit this site to learn more about Ralph Fiennes and fan experiences at the play Julius Caesar in London, Paris, Luxembourg, and Madrid summer 2005
Ralph Fiennes 2005 Projects
Chumscrubber- met great reviews at Sundance
Constant Gardener- role, Justin Quayle-this film finished filming late July, click here for more news
Chromophobia-shooting complete
White Countess- post production
Harry Potter Goblet of Fire-shooting completed
Land of the Blind- Film with Donald Sutherland
Disgrace- based on novel, uncomfirmed, to shoot 2005
Theatre Projects
Julius Caesar, April 15-May 15 Barbican Theatre, London, England, also touring Paris, Madrid, Luxembourg
Faith Healer, January/Spring 2006 Dublin, Ireland, and then Broadway04/11/05 Ralph Fiennes News Exerpts
Article about Penelope Cruz's role in Chromophobia
She has also just completed Chromophobia, a London-set ensemble drama in which she plays a prostitute dying of cancer. It co-stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes.
Article at Playbill News about upcoming play:
Ralph Fiennes in Brian Friel's Faith Healer Broadway-Bound for 2006
By Ernio Hernandez
31 Mar 2005
Dublin's Gate Theatre staging of Brian Friel's Faith Healer starring Ralph Fiennes, which has yet to begin rehearsals for its Ireland run, is already planning a Broadway engagement, according to Variety.
Gate's artistic director Michael Colgan told the trade mag that following its Feb. 21, 2006 opening, the Jonathan Kent-directed revival will be New York-bound that April.
Faith Healer centers on Frank Hardy, a supposed traveling faith healer, his long-suffering spouse and loyal manager. The play debuted on Broadway in 1979 starring James Mason, Clarissa Kaye and Donal Donnelly.
Fiennes is known to American audiences for his film roles in "Schindler's List," "The English Patient," "Red Dragon," "The End of the Affair" and "Quiz Show." The English actor has amassed a number of stage credits in his native country including Brand, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Fathers and Sons, King John, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Playing with Trains, The Talking Cure and the Almeida Theatre Company’s production of Hamlet, which transferred to Broadway and earned him a Tony Award. He will next star opposite Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw in Deborah Warner's staging of Julius Caesar at the Barbican Theatre.
The Gate in Dublin is currently premiering Friel's first full-length drama in eight years, The Home Place. Adrian Noble will direct the work starring Hugh O'Conor, Tom Courtenay and Derbhle Crotty which will transfer to London's Comedy Theatre in May.
The Northern Ireland-born Friel has also penned The Enemy Within, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, The Loves of Cass McGuire, Lovers, Crystal and Fox, The Mundy Scheme, The Gentle Island, The Freedom of the City, Volunteers, Living Quarters, Aristocrats, Translations, The Communication Cord, Making History, Dancing at Lughnasa, The London Vertigo, Wonderful Tennessee, Molly Sweeney and Give Me Your Answer, Do! His Dancing at Lughnasa won three 1992 Tony Awards including Best Play.
Article in the Guardian about Julius Caesar:
Power play
For actors like Ralph Fiennes and Denzel Washington in new productions, Julius Caesar resonates with a profound political message for our times. And, what's more, Shakespeare's bloody drama is also a brilliant story
Kate Kellaway
Sunday April 10, 2005
The ObserverDeborah Warner needed to make a decision. She had not directed any Shakespeare for seven years, although she is one of the finest Shakespearean directors in the land. Which play would draw her? She took Julius Caesar down from her bookshelves. It definitely won't be this, she thought, starting to read. The play never returned to her bookshelves.
'I was knocked sideways by it,' she says. Julius Caesar is, she believes, a play for now. 'This is a moment to look at issues of power and whether democracies can survive. In a time of crisis, we go to the strong texts - well, I certainly do. This is not a time for TV-style documentaries about politics. We need insights, important truths about the human condition.'
At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, Oscar-winner Denzel Washington appears to have been in the grip of a similar emotion about the same play. After 17 years, he has returned to the theatre as Brutus on Broadway.
Dressed in camouflage fatigues, with a diamond stud glittering in his ear, Washington has been hailed by New York audiences as much for his presence as his performance (described by critics as 'sober'). The production, set in a post-9/11 context, sees Julius Caesar assassinated in a boardroom. And Denzel Washington has made an attempt at contemporary political analogy. Brutus's 'most obvious' modern equivalent he said, in the New York Times, is, 'Colin Powell. But I don't know; Condoleezza might be Brutus.'Daniel Sullivan's 'bloody, testosterone-fuelled' production is punctuated by security checks. And security has been a feature in real life, too: Washington employs a full-time bodyguard and the theatre has had to organise external security. On the press night, the blood escaping Caesar's body was said only narrowly to have missed the laps of Beyoncé, Harvey Keitel, Spike Lee and Robert De Niro. Predictably, the first-night audience has been reviewed as comprehensively as the actors. Shakespeare wouldn't have minded: in Julius Caesar, the star-struck mob rules.
Back on this side of the pond, Warner's Julius Caesar, which opens at London's Barbican later this month, is developing in an intellectually bracing way. Also set in modern times, it has attracted its share of names: Ralph Fiennes is Mark Antony, Simon Russell Beale Cassius, John Shrapnel Julius Caesar and Anton Lesser has taken over from Paul Rhys (who fell ill) as Brutus. Fiona Shaw plays Portia. 'This is the best cast since the film with James Mason,' Warner believes.
With an election on its way, does the analogy game work in a British version? Is Tony Blair wanting a third term like Julius Caesar? Is Gordon Brown Brutus and Peter Mandelson Mark Antony? You don't have to play this clumsy parlour game for long to see what it reveals. All the men in Julius Caesar are ambiguous. Caesar, Mark Antony, Brutus and Cassius may be poured into many moulds, but will never set.
With this in mind, I conducted a quick poll when I attended a rehearsal. Who would Ralph Fiennes, Simon Russell Beale, Deborah Warner, Fiona Shaw and John Shrapnel vote for: Julius Caesar, Brutus or Mark Antony? The results clinch the point: Brutus won two votes (Ralph Fiennes, John Shrapnel); Mark Antony one (Fiona Shaw), Caesar one (Simon Russell Beale). Deborah Warner, benign diplomat, abstained ('They are all fantastic men').
Why does one man become a leader rather than another? Shakespeare knew the face must fit. Cassius and Casca freely admit Brutus has the looks: 'And that which would appear offence in us, His countenance, like richest alchemy/ Will change to virtue and to worthiness.' Politicians must sound right, too, each man his own spin doctor. In a sense, Julius Caesar is an oratory masterclass: flattering the living, honouring the dead - with violence between the lines.
For Ralph Fiennes, the particular pleasure of working with Deborah Warner is the close work with text. 'She is very good at looking at every line that Shakespeare has written, teasing, tugging, sniffing - even at two words. She can make you maddeningly focused. She goes in for rigorous questioning. She throws ideas back at you. She goes on until the 11th hour. What am I supposed to find here?' he asks himself. But the 'tension' is 'productive'.
Deborah Warner, unusually, sees Caesar's supporter Mark Antony as an 'innocent'. At one point, she compares him with Richard Branson. Fiennes sees him as 'a bit of a party man'. (When I say I'd vote for him, Fiennes' response is: 'Good, I can invite you to one of my Mark Antony parties'). In Mark Antony's great speech to the crowd, inciting them to civil war after Caesar's death, Warner and Fiennes work on the idea that he is feeling his way towards an untried eloquence. This interpretation changes the play; I have always seen Mark Antony's 'I am no orator, as Brutus is' as disingenuous, the natural orator's trump card.
Fiennes thinks Julius Caesar is a play for today, but also for yesterday and the day before: 'Power politics are always current. We are close to the heat from the US and Iraq now, but Julius Caesar would have been resonant during the Vietnam war... the Cold war... when Yeltsin took over from Gorbachev.'
But he does recognise that Brutus could be of our time: 'An intellectual who has become a terrorist, convincing himself murder is a right action.' We don't trust our leaders now - whoever they are. And Shakespeare tells us why. Fiennes puts it like this: 'Shakespeare writes about the ambivalence of power. We need strong leaders but don't want them. He could see the Janus face of leadership, how a man could change from an idealistic leader into a despot.'
I talk to Simon Russell Beale although it is, really, a talk with Cassius (Brutus's jealous conspirator); he is so consumed with his character, that Simon himself appears only occasionally. But he disarms me by saying straight away: 'You are allowed to mention size', and then describing himself, with a sigh, as 'enormous'. I tell him I had earlier inquired of Deborah how Cassius's 'lean and hungry look' was progressing and had been ticked off.
Cassius has a lean and hungry 'LOOK!' they chorus. Forget girth - the eyes have it. Russell Beale has never worked with Deborah Warner before and, knowing her reputation for working 12-hour rehearsal days, predicted that it would prove 'serious and tiring'. Instead, to his delight, he has found that, as he told Fiona Shaw on the tube, he has 'laughed and laughed. I've howled'. It is, he thinks, to do with Deborah's 'quirky' direction. Russell Beale reveals that, in Warner's production, the old school tie binds: Cassius, Mark Antony, Brutus and Caesar were at school together.
Caesar is a crucial but tiny part. Although constantly analysed by political commentators and rivals, his character remains elusive. Warner finds him difficult: 'We have decided that he is Stalin or Bush, but he is neither of them. We must find his humanity.' John Shrapnel compares Caesar's death to Kennedy's 'Roman' assassination and divines in him a steady, existential power. 'It's Camus,' he says, after quoting the lines in which Caesar accepts that death will 'come when it will come'. The first two acts are full of second guessing, which is, in a sense, what politics is about. And full of superstition. Shrapnel points out the contemporary parallels: 'Think of Reagan and astrologers... Carole Caplin and her crystals.'
Fiona Shaw argues that there may be in Caesar someone 'pathologically terrified - most stars are pathological, they have lost sight of the ordinary'. And Brutus? 'I know a few Brutuses; they are wrong, aren't they? I am the daughter of a Brutus. He is terribly noble, but it has brought him nothing but unhappiness.' And Mark Antony is imperfect, too: 'He responds to the moment, but on paper is alienated, the person least ready for the moment.'
In Shaw's Portia, there will be a 'crude parallel' with Janice Kelly, the widow of Dr David Kelly. Warner was first to make the connection. She found 'Janice Kelly's evidence about silence painfully resonant'. Like Portia, who hoped to find out what was wrong with Brutus, Janice Kelly tried, in the hours before he died, to make conversation with her husband. She said: 'I just thought he had a broken heart... he had shrunk into himself... I had no idea of what he might do later.'
The cast's preparation for Caesar has included visits to the House of Lords and the Commons. They visited the Lords on the evening of the Terrorism Bill division. And what Shrapnel noticed there was that, although there was a buzz, the mood was 'remarkably relaxed'. But a few days ago, watching Prime Minister's Question Time, relaxation was not the word. He absorbed adrenaline, everyone 'high on election fever'. Politicians need a public and Deborah Warner's condition for doing Julius Caesar was that she should have an 100-strong crowd at her disposal. She is ecstatic about the people involved: 40 Equity members and 60 community volunteers: 'To call them extras would be shabby; they are beyond belief.' The scale is operatic but while '100 singing is exciting, we have heard it before. A hundred actors shouting - rough, rude and anarchic - is utterly unknown'. Warner says it is the crowd that is 'unlocking the play' for her. And it is a first audience for the actors. Ralph Fiennes says: 'When I look into the crowd's faces, they are connected, the listening is active. There is nothing better than feeling you are being listened to on stage.' John Shrapnel adds: 'The crowd is a character... we see so much of crowds now - as history is relayed to us daily, crowds supporting, reacting or running from a tsunami.'
It is a Thursday evening. I slip into the Barbican to witness people power. It is overwhelming. Ages range from 18 to 80. The crowd is old, young, black and white, and includes a deaf member. Here is a man who looks like Ray Charles, in a glossy turquoise shirt. There, a middle-aged woman, who might be a librarian, is laughing. I overhear one of the crowd joking: 'Did you hear they are looking for someone to stand in for Caesar and be stabbed?'
Having real people on stage produces an atmosphere 'you can't replicate,' says Douglas Rintoul, who is training them. What emerges, as I watch, is that the crowd has a life of its own. And politicians - Brutus, Blair, Bush - must know how to ride the tide of people, to navigate what Shakespeare called the 'ambitious ocean'.
· Julius Caesar is at the Barbican, London, 14 April to 14 May for the Bite:O5 season, then in Paris, Madrid and Luxembourg.
02/10/05 See Ralph's Visit to Kyrgystan and Contribute to a great Cause
UNICEF is now offering a dvd documentary of Ralph's trip to Kyrgystan, filmed by his sister Sophie, to anyone donating at least
15 pounds sterling, just about $30 U.S. If you are interested, please contact Wendy Zych at the following email address:
wendyz@unicef.org.uk
01/21/05 Ralph's Personal Thanks for the UNICEF Birthday Appeal
Dear All,
I want to share a letter from Wendy at UNICEF. She asked me to forward a message from Ralph and from UNICEF as well...here it is:
Dear Mary
Thank you for your patience. I now have a final figure for you, Ralph's Birthday Appeal raised £1093.89 in total, just over $2000, which is fantastic.He was delighted to hear of your work and asked us to pass this message on to you all. Please do feel free to share it -
"I would like to say how how touched I was to hear of the Unicef collection organised to mark my birthday last month. My personal and heartfelt thanks to all those who contributed. Unicef is a cause very close to my heart - I have seen the difference it makes to the lives of children - and I can assure you that your donations will be well spent."
We at UNICEF, particularly Ali and myself, would also like to add our thanks to the Fiennesite and you in particular for all the work you have put into making the birthday donation happen.
Regarding the DVD, I just wanted to let you know that any donations made during January/February will go towards our Asian Tsunami Appeal, as a number of people have requested the money go to help those in Asia.
Do let us know if there is anything else you need.
With very best wishes, Wendy****************************************
Thanks so much to everyone who gave to these projects. Hopefully we can do it again next year and raise even more. Special thanks to Rebecca, who helped organize the whole event and motivated me to pursue it and publicize it. We really do have a special group here...you all should be very proud.
Love,
Mary K.01/01/05 Fiennes Brothers Mourn the Passing of their father Mark Fiennes
From East Anglia Times
December 31, 2004 12:59HOLLYWOOD stars Ralph and Joseph Fiennes are mourning the sudden death of their father, who collapsed at his Suffolk home yesterday morning.
It is believed the two famous brothers have now broken-off from filming commitments to travel to their family home in Clare – where their father Mark and his second wife, Caroline, have lived for the past six years.
Mr Fiennes, 70, an acclaimed photographer, collapsed and died at his luxury five-bedroom house in Nethergate Street early yesterday morning.
Ralph Fiennes, 41, is currently shooting the new Harry Potter film, The Goblet of Fire, in which he plays Lord Voldemort. Joseph Fiennes, 34, has also been away filming for his latest role.
The brothers have become two of the best-known British actors of recent years after starring in number of award-winning films.
They are the sons of Mr Fiennes and his first wife, the novelist Jennifer Lash, who died in 1993. The couple had four other children; Magnus, a renowned music composer; Jacob, Joseph's twin, who is a Norfolk gamekeeper; Martha, a film director and Sophie, a producer.
Yesterday, Mrs Fiennes, a flower decorator, was too upset to talk about the sudden death of her husband, but tributes were paid to him from the local community.
The couple married in 1996 and moved to Clare around six years ago – swiftly becoming popular members of the community.
Pammy Pashler, who has been the couple's cleaner ever since they arrived in Clare, said: “Mark was one of the nicest people I have ever met, he would do anything for anyone.
“I feel so sorry for Caroline because she is a lovely woman and they were a very happy couple. Although they obviously had a lot of success in the family they were not affected at all, they were very down to earth and very involved in the local community.
“I have seen the boys and all the other children on numerous occasions and they are all such nice people. They are a very close family.
“Mark's death has come as such a shock, he had shown no signs of illness and was very fit. He would go on his treadmill everyday.
“I will miss Mark very much, he was a lovely man who thought the world of his wife and his children. The family is expecting all the children to arrive soon.”
After moving to Clare, Mr Fiennes, who is also a cousin of the famous explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, became a prominent figure in the community.
He was the secretary of the local preservation group, the Clare Society, and a keen supporter of the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign.
Anna Moore, chairman of the Clare Society, said: “Mark was a larger than life character and was very well-known and popular in Clare.
“He worked so hard and really embraced his role as secretary for the group because he loved Clare so much. He immersed himself in working to ensue Clare kept is historical and commercial essence.
Thanks to Dahut and Vikingess on the forum for posting this article about Ralph joining cast of Julius Caesar. His role is yet unconfirmed, but he will definitely be in the play. Here is the first press about it:
Ralph Fiennes in Epic Julius Caesar Headlines BITE 2005 Season
By James Inverne
03 Dec 2004
There have been rumors buzzing about Ralph Fiennes’ return to the London stage (and to Shakespeare) for months. However, the speculation was about whether he’d be coming back to have another crack at Hamlet. It’s an earlier Shakespeare play, though, that has proved the hook: Julius Caesar.The epic production will feature a cast of over 100 — the biggest ensemble to have performed the play in the U.K. since Peter Stein’s vast production — and will be directed by Deborah Warner. It’s the second show to be produced by Barbican International Theatre Events (BITE). The first was The Black Rider in 2004, which starred Marianne Faithfull.
Caesar will be presented in association with the Young Vic, and will preview at the Barbican Theatre beginning April 14, 2005. The official opening night will follow on April 20, and the show will run until May 14. Following the London run, the show will tour Europe — visiting the Theatre National du Chaillot in Pairs, the Terto Espanol in Madrid and Luxembourg’s Grand Theatre de la Ville.
Fiennes will play Mark Antony. His previous Shakespeare bows have included Edmond in King Lear, Troilus in Troilus and Cressida and the title role in Henry VI for the Royal Shakespeare Company and, elsewhere, Hamlet, Coriolanus and Richard II. His film career embraces hits, including “Schindler’s List,” “The English Patient” and “Red Dragon.”
The BITE 2005 season is, of course, chock-full of other productions. Dublin’s Abbey Theatre will bring the Sean O’Casey classic The Plough and the Stars beginning Jan. 18 (opens Jan. 19). Ben Barnes directs the political thriller.
And, beginning Jan. 26, the iconic director Peter Brook brings his Bouffes du Nord company with Ta Main Dans La Mienne (Your Hand In Mine). Based on the 412 love letters exchanged between Anton Chekhov and his wife, it stars Natasha Parry and Michel Piccoli. It will be performed in French will English surtitles.
Other theatre highlights include Richard Maxwell’s visit with the New York City Players and the experimental “one-man show with a cast of five” (says the press release), Joe. The quintet of players depict the life of one man from childhood to old age. That opens March 2 in the Pit Theatre, and Maxwell follows it with another piece, Showcase, beginning March 14. Set and performed in a real hotel (the Renaissance Chancery Court) room, an audience of 12 watch a man preparing for a conference.
Theatre O brings Astronaut to the Pit beginning April 5. It’s about a man called X who is randomly selected to visit Mars. Based on a short story by Andrea Valdes, the show is directed by Joseph Alford and stars Carolina Valdes, Eva Vilamitjana and Tony Arteaga.
Laurie Anderson brings her solo show The End of the Moon beginning May 18, and the Mayl Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg follows with Uncle Vanya (directed by the much-respected Lev Dodin and starring Sergey Kuryshev) beginning May 24. And the double-act Ridiculusmus — constituting David Woods and Jon Haynes — take on The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy Performed By Two Serious People beginning June 8. Jude Kelly directs.
For more information, call (0)845 120 7516 or visit www.barbican.org.uk.
Discuss Ralph Fiennes in Julius Caesar on the Fiennes Forum:
http://p078.ezboard.com/ffiennesforumfrm7.showMessage?topicID=2499.topic
Thanks to Thalita on the forum for posting this article from the New York Times about The White Countess:
Searching for Scenes From Shanghai's Lost Past
By HOWARD W. FRENCHPublished: November 28, 2004
SHANGHAI
NOW and again throughout history, there have been cities that seem to define what is modern, to which people of all descriptions have been drawn together by ambitions for power, money and pleasure, along with the sense of seemingly unlimited possibility that can attend the
birth of an era and sometimes the death of one, too.For a shining moment in the 1930's, Shanghai was just such a city. Its reputation for an almost mythic verve has survived a brutal Japanese takeover and nearly four decades of anti-bourgeois repression under hard-line Communism. Today, it is experiencing its second invasion by foreigners of all stripes, eager to sell a yard of cloth, or more appropriately now, a new car, to every Chinese person.
Today, striding into this newly resurrected Shanghai, suddenly once again a world capital of possibility, comes Merchant Ivory Productions, the famous filmmaking team whose current project, "The White Countess," is an ambitious attempt to recapture the last
flickers of this city's past greatness.The $16 million project - which stars Ralph Fiennes as a disillusioned former American diplomat who has lost his sight but creates a nightclub for the title character, an exiled Russian noblewoman played by Natasha Richardson - is being shot on location here amid the jigsaw-puzzle remnants of Old Shanghai.
The director, James Ivory, and his longtime producer, Ismail Merchant, may have built their popularity on carefully conceived period dramas like "A Room With a View," "The Bostonians" and "Heat and Dust," set in places as varied as Edwardian England, New England and India. But recreating this lost Shanghai for their 47th film has presented a set of problems unlike any they have faced elsewhere.
For the last 20 years or so, Shanghai has been like a city on steroids - full of fantastic, futuristic architecture - razing entire neighborhoods and throwing up high-rises and skyscrapers at a furious rate rarely equaled anywhere. So perhaps most immediately, for filmmakers whose specialty is the accumulation of details, layer upon layer, in the search for verisimilitude, backdrops became a problem.
"It is nothing like shooting in Paris, or even in places like India, where you could very exactly evoke the past," said Mr. Ivory, who expects the film to be released in the United States next fall. "The physical world you need to evoke the old Shanghai just isn't available to us anymore. Whenever you pick up the camera, you immediately see things looming up that didn't exist before."
"Once in a while, you get lucky and find a view that is quite pristine," he added, "but otherwise, we have just had to accept this."
Making the most of what does survive, the filmmakers have worked through the night to shoot street scenes on the Bund, Shanghai's
magnificent but by-day-traffic-clogged European riverfront. They have shot in the famous prewar Peace Hotel, an Art Deco masterpiece, and
have filmed in other neighborhoods in the city, where patches of the old stubbornly persist.For all the limitations, given the rate at which Shanghai is morphing, the filmmakers' obsessive attention to resurrecting the
past lends the project a haunting, almost archival quality. Few but true old-timers will ever have seen the city this way, and if Mr. Ivory and the producer, Mr. Merchant, succeed as they hope to, the old-timers will find nothing awry in their movie's images."When we first came to Shanghai, we were told there are no period cars here," Mr. Merchant said on the set. "Then we found that the Shanghai Studios" - perhaps mainland China's most storied film studio - "had cars, but they were in very poor shape, so we found someone to restore them. Now they are like brand new."
"You can find these things in China, but generally they are not taken care of," Mr. Merchant added. "These days, nobody cares about such details anymore. People will spend millions of dollars on special effects, but make no effort in reproducing genuine atmosphere."
Oddly enough, for a team obsessed with getting the Shanghai of the 1930's just right, the initial germ for the project began with a Japanese novel in mind. Mr. Merchant and Mr. Ivory were interested in filming an adaptation of the classic novel by Junichiro Tanizaki, "Diary of a Mad Old Man," but instead of Japan, they planned to set the story in the United States. To their surprise, after an extended delay, the screenwriter they had chosen to adapt the book, Kazuo Ishiguro, produced an entirely original script, "The White Countess."
In it, a former American diplomat, the Ralph Fiennes character, who has lost his wife and children in an accident, takes refuge in the bars of Shanghai's famous pleasure quarters. He falls in love with a Russian countess and builds a cosmopolitan nightclub around her persona, all on the eve of the city's seizure by the Japanese army. Vanessa Redgrave, Ms. Richardson's mother, and Lynn Redgrave, her aunt, also have roles in the film, along with Madeleine Potter and John Wood.
Mr. Ishiguro, whose novel "The Remains of the Day" was filmed by Merchant Ivory, said he had become so immersed in Shanghai because of family associations and the research he had done for another novel that he could close his eyes and navigate the city, despite never having visited it. The author's grandfather was a textile executive in Shanghai on the eve of World War II, and his father had spent 20 years of his youth in the city. In a telephone interview from London, Mr. Ishiguro said: "Shanghai of the 30's was almost a prototype of the great multicultural cities that we find today: lots of different ethnic groups, rivalries between outside powers, a great place for gangsters, a drug culture. It was a precocious, almost late-20th-century metropolis, and that entire world stopped instantly when the Japanese moved in. Physically, the city survived, of course, but there is a kind of Titanic resonance about what happened there. And that's what fascinated me."
"The White Countess" project sought to overcome its lack of Chinese roots by finding collaborators who had them. The Australian cinematographer Chris Doyle, who is based in Hong Kong and recently filmed the visually striking Chinese drama "Hero," is manning the
cameras and can be seen darting about the set, issuing orders in fluent Chinese.After the project began, the Shanghai Film Group Corporation was brought in as a co-producer. It has provided assistance, without which the film would have been difficult to complete - helping to obtain visas for foreign actors on short notice; rescuing a fog-making machine from quarantine, where it had been held by suspicious customs officials; offering the use of the studio's vast old Shanghai street scene set, replete with antique Nanjing Road cable cars.
"I had never been to Shanghai before and was really ignorant about this world, never even imagining what existed here," Mr. Ivory said. "When we got here in April, I was absolutely floored by the city I found, but also by how little of the old Shanghai there was. We heard about their sets, and naturally applied to be able to shoot there right away."
Well into the shooting of the film, Mr. Merchant invited a reporter to sit with him in the darkness of a theater belonging to the Shanghai Film group to view several hours of rushes. These included lushly lit and costumed nightclub scenes dripping with an air of
decadence that hung thickly over Shanghai in the days before the city's extended party was brought to a halt by invading Japanese
troops. And there were chaotic scenes of the city's takeover, with crowds of panicked refugees involving hundreds of extras, fleeing the
city on foot and aboard small boats as bombs fell.Emerging from the screening into the afternoon sunlight, the producer answered a question about what the city meant to him. "This is China's moment, isn't it - Shanghai's moment," Mr. Merchant said. "It's more than that, though. The takeover of the city, the collapse of the League of Nations, and big business just looking after its own interests the way it did struck me as an amazing story."
11/26/04 Thanks to Mickey on the forum for finding this article:
Pair Populate Land of the Blind
Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland to star in the writing and directorial debut of Nicholls fellow Bob Edwards.
By Lisa Johnson
Steve Granitz/WireImage.com
Fiennes takes up in the Land of the BlindLand of the Blind will be inhabited by Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland, who have just signed on to star in the film produced by Jon Avnet. Bob Edwards is making his writing and directing debut on the project.
The plot revolves around a prisoner who recounts his life as a soldier-turned-dissident and his role in the overthrow of his country's totalitarian government. Edwards was a Nicholls fellow and an intelligence officer in the Gulf War.
Production on the project is slated for an early January start in London. Philippe Martinez is producing with Avnet. Marsha Oglesby is executive producing.
11/26/04 Chinese Article about White Countess, Thanks to Mishacat on the Fiennes Forum for contributing this. It has been run through a translator, so please forgive the awkward text, you will get the picture:-)
"White Countess" the dramatic team moves to Bund to reappear the Shanghai 30's grand occasions
ent.Sina.Com.Cn On November 18, 2004 12:35 The Shanghai youths report
"This is not places the museum the ancient painting, but is still is brimming with the modern thought way in under the 30's coats."Leading lady elegant Natasha Richardson
On 14th the early morning, in the fine drizzle, the Hollywood independent movie-making company and the Shanghai motion picture studio is in harmony "countess
The dramatic team moves to Bund, has reappeared the Shanghai Bund 20th century 30's lively pictures. Two days search line of the class, let reporter the profound impression which to the Hollywood this world movie factory meticulous photography, the reasonable arrangement and the fashion decides stays behind, obviously this is some which the Hollywood movie succeeds "the secret". This piece of leading lady elegant Natasha Richardson have accepted reporter's interview in Che Dun, her Tanzania Chen: "This is not places the museum the ancient painting, but is still is brimming with the modern thought way in under the 30's coats."
Shanghai's morning startled presently old Bund
On 14th the early morning, Bund restored 20th century 30's grand occasions, comes from the various countries' gold diggers to go through in the lively downtown, either puts on ³¤ÅÛÂí¹Ó or the suit and dress shoes Chinese gentlemen is going on a trip in a hurry, pair of foreign ÀÏ·ò¸¾ is seeking own direction in the street corner, ancient automobile, ricksha, Chinese dress, foreign-style clothing... ... The such large-scale on the spot photography is quite rare in the Shanghai Bund. Although the early morning pedestrian are not many, but had very many people to settle down watches, has extremely interesting formed extremely interesting "the contrast". Chooses the scenery department and the stage prop department in the rain with the tent protection camera, in short hour "few tourists" in the environment has fast completed the photography, "Hollywood" the efficiency and the strain make one praise.
The Hollywood actors can spell for a lifetime
Photographed differently with the Chinese movie, Hollywood's manufacture takes actor's condition, once received Oscar The best supporting actress's every ÄÝ sha - thunder Dege fierce lotus and the director Ivor advantage all for many years crossed 70, has struggled very many years in ÑÝÒÕȦ, but also still enlivens around the silver screen, movie-making assistant Mr. Zhang introduced: "The Hollywood movie-making does not rush a job, each week must guarantee the actor and the production department at least ' Ë«ÐÝÈÕ '." He indicated that, "they believed, like this can guarantee actor's condition, only then let them rest, could calmly be supposed to the work." The genial every ÄÝ sha can rest in the square, chat, each lens all complete effortlessly, such work load has guaranteed actor's artistic life, therefore in Hollywood, the actor can become the life-long occupation.
30's modern love epic poems
This movie related both eyes lose one's sight the American diplomat declines the female aristocrat's spirit to a Russia to redeem, placed the environment had epic poem significance the Shanghai 20th century 30's, but entire love story then was completely "the modern viewpoint". Although does not have "the fervor play", also not very many "war scene", but still agreed without consultation Hollywood "love epic poem is hot" the tidal current. The leading lady Richard woods said that, "This is not places the museum the ancient painting, still is brimming with the modern thought way in under the 30's coats." But she also thought, such theme very fashion, can attract the modern age young audience.
Walks Chinese FiennesReporter hundred, once because of acted the leading role "the English Patients" but famous world male movie star Ralph - Fiennes quite to be infatuated with to China's scenery, he was taking advantage of the photography gap launched own "China to walk" the plan. Therefore when reporter goes the square searches the class time, Ralph already starts in Chinese each place to travel, it is reported end of the month he only then can return to Shanghai to continue the final photography.
The naughty child photographs Du Kefeng
The legend photographed teacher Du Kefeng this time to hold the post of the dramatic team photograph, this Australian has obtained the unprecedented success in China. But because long-term sumWang JiaweiCooperation, therefore reporter is rare as soon as sees Du Kefeng's elegant demeanor. This naughty child's photograph teacher is very friendly in the square, all cracks a joke with all people, everywhere ÅÜÀ´ÅÜÈ¥ busily does not stop, only then he only then concentrates on completely in front of the machine. (Reporter Liu Song)
10/30/2004
Guess who’s coming to dinner?
SAVOIR FAIRE By Mayenne Carmona
The Philippine STARDarling girl, look your prettiest for tonight’s dinner, I have a surprise for you!" China’s porcelain beauty, TV icon and cosmetic queen Yue Sai Kan, excitedly told me, as she welcomed me to her brand new tastefully appointed palatial home located in the heart of Shanghai. Clueless as to who the surprise mystery person was, I nevertheless took extra effort in the looks department and made sure I was given an A+ grade by my hostess. We relaxed over a glass of champagne before the mystery guests arrived. Yue Sai would not as much give me a clue who the special guests were but promised that I would be seated next to the man of honor.
My heart skipped a beat when the doorbell rang and a tall, blue eyed, dreamboat of a man walked in, followed by a few other people who did not seem to matter to me. The introductions were done, and Ralph Fiennes, yes, the Ralph Fiennes of The English Patient, The End of the Affair and Maid in Manhattan fame, (am rattling off my favorite movies of his) sat next to me during the pre-dinner drinks and during dinner.
The dinner party consisted of the cast of The White Countess, a movie currently being filmed in Shanghai in its entirety. James Ivory is the director, Ishmail Merchant is the producer, Natasha Richardson plays the a Russian refugee who Ralph falls in love with, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha’s real life mother, and Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa’s younger sister, both are in the cast as Russian immigrants, and Ralph Fiennes himself plays an American diplomat. They are a bunch of heavyweights in the film industry. James Ivory have made 47 films in 42 years. He received an Oscar for his movie The Remains of the Day. Ishmail Merchant made about 40something movies, like Howard’s End, which won several awards, A Room with a View and recently Le Divorce. Natasha Richardson won the Tony Award as best leading actress for her role in Cabaret. She is married to the actor Liam Neeson. Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave need no introduction. They are veteran thespians and movie stars. Ralph Fiennes was last seen in Maid in Manhattan, but he is best known for his role in The English Patient. I liked him best as Julianne Moore’s passionate lover in The End of the Affair.
Ralph enthusiastically explained to me the story line of the movie The White Countess. He plays an American diplomat who tragically met an accident in one of the uprisings in Shanghai and goes blind.
For his role as a blind man, he told me he went to the Britain’s Royal Society for the Blind and studied the actions of one blind man. It was very interesting when he said that this blind man would even look at the person he is talking with giving the illusion that he is not blind.
He also had to get rid of his English accent and had to speak with an American accent. This was not difficult for him at all as in Maid in Manhattan, he played the role of an American senator and had to speak in American English.
There is a coach for accents in this movie, in the person of Allen Brooks. Mr. Brooks mastered in accents in a special course in Harvard and for this film he made sure that every actor spoke with the accent of their roles.
I will not preempt the readers joy by giving the story of this movie. But it is romantic, a bit tragic, with a lot of history because the setting is Shanghai circa 1930. During the dinner, I was seated between Natasha Richardson and Ralph. Natasha was wearing a sexy white cheongsam with red flowers, which complimented her tall, slim figure. She was enjoying the shopping in Shanghai. She is a natural, not pretentious and very down to earth. She enjoyed telling me about the various bargains she had bought. She was looking forward to the visit of her husband, Liam Neeson in mid-November.
I noticed that she and Ralph had very good appetites and ate most of the Chinese dishes that were served them. They were not finicky at all and even tried all the spicy sauces that went well with the dishes. I managed to sneak in a text to my sister Marisa and asked her what I could ask Ralph as I was at a loss for words. She answered back, "Just look at his deep blue eyes and don’t bother to talk." Indeed, his eyes were like pools of clear blue waters, with a lot of kindness in them.
I mastered enough guts to ask him some personal questions and he answered them good-naturedly. One of the quotable quotes from him was "I am a nonbeliever of marriage. I was married once and it was a catastrophe. I enjoy a close relationship with a woman, but it does not have to lead to marriage."
He also told me that he admired J. Lo, his leading lady in Maid in Manhattan, as an actress and she was very professional. But he did not have much chemistry with her off the set. He had great chemistry with Juliette Binoche, the leading lady in The English Patient, and Julianne Moore, his leading lady in The End of the Affair. Until now, he is enjoying a great friendship with the both of them.
After the dinner, everyone went back to their respective hotels except Ralph Fiennes. He opted to go to a party with me and Yue Sai.
At the party, the real Ralph Fiennes surfaced. It was a character study of a big star in communication with a world outside the realm of Hollywood. He was very gentlemanly, he had no airs, he was accommodating to all the fans who wanted to pose with him. And he did not snub the paparazzi. He did not run away from them and allowed them to take his photo.
The treat of the evening was watching him dance. He was a good dancer and he danced to his heart’s delight, not declining anybody who wanted to dance with him. He did not discriminate and danced with the young and the young at heart. He definitely captured everyone’s heart with his inimitable charm.
In the wee hours of the morning, we brought him back to his hotel. He kissed both me and Yue Sai good night and thanked us for a very enjoyable evening. His good night words to me were so memorable and are still ringing in my ears: "Good night my darling, thank you for such a wonderful evening". And then he gave me two kisses on both cheeks. I told Yue Sai I was not washing my cheeks that night to keep the kisses intact. She found me so hilarious but I didn’t care. Frankly, I was up in the clouds and it was a wonderful feeling.
The next day, I was invited to the set of The White Countess. The casting director for the western cast, Patrick Kelly, met me and toured me around. It was a scene in the nightclub where Natasha R. worked and where she and Ralph met.
The set was opulent and the club girls were dressed to the nines. Circa 1930 was the age of opulence in Shanghai. The nightclub girls were dressed in long gowns and had plumes on their hair.
The owner of the nightclub played by Chinese actor Lin Dong Fu, was dressed in tuxedo to emphasize the ostentatious style of the era. Natasha had her hair in rollers when I arrived and as she was waiting for her hairdresser, she took time to explain her role to me. Ralph was also preparing for his scene but greeted me warmly with a resounding hug and kiss.
After two hours in the set talking to the major and minor players, I bid them adieu. They made me promise to bring all my friends to watch The White Countess when it comes out on the magic screen! You bet I would not miss it for the world, I said.
Ralph Fiennes brought me all the way to the car and as we waved goodbye to each other, I wondered if I would ever see him again outside of the silver screen. All of a sudden, the pervading idea that celebrities are snobs and unapproachable became a myth to me. These bunch of celebrities I just met were as down to earth as you and me! I boarded my flight for Manila that night with a song in my heart.
October 23, 2004 White Countess-no steamy love scenes
Shanghai Daily news
Internationally acclaimed movie production house Merchant Ivory has brought 1930s Shanghai back to life in the film 'The White Countess,' writes Jin Haili.
Every morning when director James Ivory travels through the downtown hustle and bustle on his way to work, he always winds down the car window and gazes at the buildings and the people around - the 76-year-old film-maker says there's always a new inspiration waiting to be discovered.
Ivory is in Shanghai to film "The White Countess," the first movie he's making in the city in his 40-year career. Filming started earlier this month, and "Countess" is a joint production between the Shanghai Film Group Corp and Merchant Ivory Productions.
The screenplay is based on Japanese writer Kazuo Ishiguro's original script and the story is set in the late 1930s when a blind former American diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) develops a curious relationship with a young Russian refugee (Natasha Richardson). She has been reduced to making a living at the city's bars to support members of her dead husband's aristocratic family.
The film is supposed to be a sumptuous picture that moves from the grand clubs and spacious parks of old Shanghai's powerful foreign elite - the Americans, British and French vying for supremacy - to the squalid neighborhoods where the Russian and Jewish refugees have settled.
Despite the remarkable features of the 1930s decadence, Ivory emphasizes that the film is more about an impression of Shanghai during that special pre-war period than the telling of a realistic story."I hope we can do justice to the so-called 'decadence of old Shanghai' and, in fact, I don't think it was decadent since it seems to me that Shanghai was emerging enormously as a modern city and people were having a very good time," says Ivory who has been nominated three times at Academy Award for Best Director with "A Room with a View" (1985), "Howard's End" (1992) and "The Remains of the Day" (1993).
This is the 47th film to come from Merchant Ivory, a film production company established on Ivory's more-than-40-year partnership with producer Ismail Merchant. The duo are most famous for their Edwardian and other period masterpieces, including "Heat and Dust (1983), "A Room with a View," "Maurice" (1987), "Howard's End," "The Remains of the Day" and "The Golden Bowl" (2000).
While most overseas productions of Shanghai-themed movies have been shot in Hollywood studio, the real backdrop of the Bund is a luxury for a filmmaker, but it also raises the question if today's international metropolis, with skyscrapers mushrooming and the traffic flowing all the time, can accurately replicate a fraction of the nostalgic memories of the city that existed in the 1930s.
"We have also had the same problem when shooting films elsewhere and my experience is that as an observer of the city, you just open your eyes and ears to feel and understand if you've got the passion for exploring the place," says the director. "I have learned a new way of making movies since I came to Shanghai and I think we will be able to accomplish everything we want if we keep our minds open."
Apart from Ivory's stated confidence, the movie has some other notable features that will help ensure it has an authentic Shanghai flavor. The director of photography, Chris Doyle, is known for his collaboration with Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai on the movie "In the Mood for Love," a 1960s love tale with Shanghai dialect. And both Fiennes and Richardson are reading novels about the 1930s Shanghai to get their characters right.
"It's an extraordinary opportunity for all of us, especially on behalf of the English-Europeans, to have the chance to take part in such a great movie," says the dashing Fiennes, hero of the multi-award-winning film, "The English Patient." Also the star of "Maid in Manhattan," "Red Dragon," "The End of the Affair" and "Schindler's List," Fiennes was the first choice for the role of the self-obsessive diplomat.
"Shanghai beats like the bass line of a beautiful melody in this story, where two people meet and develop a strong affection, yet audience will see hardly a kiss. It is a true love story without the bedroom scenes," Fiennes says.
For Chinese supporting actors Wang Luoyong and Ying Da, the film has opened for them a new perspective on cultural misplacement. The ex-Broadway musical performer Wang once used "A Room with a View" as English-learning material and he describes his role of the diplomat's assistant as a pair of eyes witnessing the adventure of an Anglo-Saxon on a new continent.
Wang's local background also helps during the filming. When shooting a Peking Opera scene, the "audience" didn't dare to cheer and applaud since no one asked them to do so.
"Mr Ivory felt something was wrong and he asked me if this was correct," Wang recalls. "I explained to him what a real Peking Opera scene was like and he said, 'Okay, I want it.' Cultural contrasts are not the focus of the movie but it is still a crucial issue the producing team has to handle and I appreciate the efforts the director has made, which reflects his very serious and critical attitude."
Extra performer Benedict Porter is also deeply impressed by the producing team's artistic ethic. The young Australian regards the city as his cultural homeland as his grandmother was a Shanghai native. On hearing the news that the movie was looking for foreign extras, he applied at once.
"The director cared about every detail, including the way the extras walked, talked or even waved a hat. He asked us not to overact as we were in a Hollywood movie since we were presenting the Shanghai of the 1930s when people were more conservative," says Porter. "It has taken me a whole day to finish the shooting but it was very exciting. Merchant Ivory has a long reputation for re-creating the period of the stories they are filming and they have done it again this time."
"The White Countess" has a budget of around US$30 million from Merchant Ivory and another US$1.2 million from the local film group and filming in Shanghai is scheduled to finish by the end of the year.
"Co-investment can ensure a profit in the local market," says Ren Zhonglun, president of the local film group, "and it can also guarantee that the local market will not ignore the movie but love it as its own 'baby.' This kind of joint production is a shortcut for the Chinese film industry to attain a more professional standard and hopefully it will open the door for many future co-productions in China."October 8, 2004 The White Countess in Second Week of Shooting Shanghai
Filmmakers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, famed for their lush period dramas, have begun shooting their 47th film in Shanghai with stars Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson.Set in the vibrant, cosmopolitan city of the 1930s, "The White Countess," portrays the relationship between a blind, disillusioned former American diplomat played by Fiennes and Richardson's exiled Russian countess.
"It's not strictly a realistic film. It's more an impression of the city," director Ivory told reporters on Friday.
The film marks a return to the pair's trademark period dramas after a diversion into modern farce with last year's "Le Divorce." It's also a reunion with scriptwriter Kazuo Ishiguro, whose novel "The Remains of the Day" was made into a movie that won Merchant and Ivory one of their three Academy Awards.
Shooting began two weeks ago using city landmarks from the era, the art deco hotels and hulking stone bank buildings of the riverside Bund that predate the communist revolution of 1949.
Sets at the Shanghai Film Studio portray the bars, shops and nightclubs of the city just before the 1937 Japanese invasion when it was a haven for Western adventurers and refugees from Soviet Russia and European fascism.
"We have just seen some of the rushes and we feel very elated," said producer Merchant, wearing the traditional white tunic of his native India.
Fiennes said he prepared for the role by spending time observing a blind man's average day with the help of Britain's Royal Society for the Blind.
"To be making a film in Shanghai about Shanghai in the 1930s is a great chance to explore interaction between cultures," the two-time Academy Award nominee said.
September 11, 2004 Chromophobia News
Entertainment - Variety
Tue Sep 7,10:54 AM ET
Adam Dawtrey, STAFF
LONDON -- Penelope Cruz (news) has joined with a stellar ensemble of Brit actors on "Chromophobia," a psychological drama set in contemporary London, written and directed by Martha Fiennes.
The rest of the cast includes helmer's brother Ralph Fiennes (news), Kristin Scott Thomas, Rhys Ifans, Ian Holm, Ben Chaplin (news), Damian Lewis and Harriet Walters.The $10 million pic is majority funded by Tunisian mogul Tarak Ben Ammar, through his Paris-based Quinta Communications, and the Isle of Man Film Commission, where pic is filming.
Producers are Ben Ammar and Ron Rotholz, a New Yorker based in London for the past couple of years who developed the project with Fiennes. Exec producers include Robert Bevan, Charlie Savill, Steve Christian and Marc and Peter Samuelson.
"Chromophobia" is described by Rotholz as "a London film with a New York sensibility," inspired by U.S. filmmakers such as Robert Altman, Woody Allen (news) and Paul Thomas Anderson.Probing the dilemmas of modern London life, where the old-fashioned
virtues of honesty and loyalty are replaced by the new morality of
success and celebrity, it's the story of a bourgeois family slowly
coming apart at the seams.The movie started shooting a couple of weeks ago on the Isle of Man. It will move to locations in London this fall.
Ben Ammar has worldwide rights, and will distribute the pic himself in several European territories.
"Chromophobia" is Fiennes' first feature since her debut "Onegin" five years ago. In the meantime, she has shot a documentary about Native American history and developed several screenplays.
August 11, 2004 Ralph to Play Voldemort in Harry Potter, Goblet of Fire
It's official, and thank you all who have contributed various news releases on the forum and in email. I was waiting for official word from Ralph's camp and we have it. No word yet when exactly Ralph will be filming his scenes in the film.
July 24, 2004 Fiennes Family Has Chromophobia
Siblings set up new project
By Brian Linder (from IGN FilmForce)
IGN FilmForce has learned of a new project, Chromophobia, written and directed by Martha Fiennes and starring sibling thesps Ralph and Joseph Fiennes. Sources reveal that Penelope Cruz and Kristin Scott Thomas will also star in the project. Filming will take place later this year on the Isle of Man.
Martha Fiennes made her directorial debut with the 1999 period drama Onegin, which starred Ralph Fiennes, Liv Tyler and Toby Stephens.
This project is not related to the animated short film of the same name by Raoul Servais.
We haven't heard any information about the story, but a well-placed source tells us "the script is amazing." Chromophobia is the abnormal fear of colors or a color.
06/25/04 Ralph Maybe to Play Voldemort
It's being reported in the press that Ralph is in negotiations to play Voldemort in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Until those rumors can be confirmed, here's the report from his reps:
Ralph is very well. He's really enjoying filming THE CONSTANT GARDENER in Kenya. It's hard work, but seems to be very satisfying. The Director Fernando Merielles (CITY OF GOD) is excellent.
He is there until the end of July, when he comes back for one hectic week, then off for a well earned rest in Europe.
At the end of August he then flies to Shanghai for his next project - THE WHITE COUNTESS, a Merchant Ivory film."
03/12/04 Ralph News Roundup
Schindler's List DVD Release
To mark the film's DVD release Spielberg and cast members including Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes toured the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, the Holocaust-education facility Spielberg created after completing "Schindler's List." Unfortunately for fans of the film and actors, there are no extra features on the dvd about the making of the film. There are only tributes to survivors and the SHOAH foundation.
Constant Gardener Still A Go
There was a close call when the British government changed tax laws that provided British films with funding. At first it looked like Constant Gardener would lose a big chunk of it's funding, but recent reports say that the British government is reconsidering those films which were already in pre-production, such as the Constant Gardener. Hopefully this means filming is back on.
News reports have filming starting next week in Winnipeg, Canada, the site of some of the more intense, action scenes from the book. Casting for the female leads is unclear at the moment...although serious reports have been made that Rachel Weisz will play Tessa, the young wife murdered at the start of the film. Many fans have expressed concern over this choice considering the lack of chemistry between the two in Sunshine, as well as the negative comments about Ralph made by Weisz in the press at the time. We shall see. Another serious contender at one point was Kate Winslet, but concerns over her new baby and the lengthy shoot in Africa seem to have ruled her out of the role of Tessa. It is uncertain if she may have been cast as one of the other female roles in the film. Press reports are still pairing her with Fiennes in Winnipeg..so perhaps she was recast.
The White Countess
The White Countess, the Merchant Ivory film, casting Ralph as a British night club owner in Shanghai is still set to start filming in China this summer. White Countess was also said to be negatively effected by the British government's cuts to film funding, but perhaps it will also receive a reprieve like Constant Gardener. Cross your fingers. This film will also star Natasha Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave.
New York Times Magazine Feature
The New York Times online has a feature about actors who should have been nominated for Oscars this year, and Ralph's role as Spider was one of them. The photo on the left is the one from the slide show. You should be able to get to it by this link:
Fiennes Forum Member Recognized for Outstanding Participation
Aireen, aka RNGIRL on the forum received a wonderful personalized message and photo from Ralph, recognizing her outstanding participation in the Fiennes Forum Film Festival. If you'd like to see her autographed photo, click on the link below to visit the post about her win. Congrats Aireen!
http://pub78.ezboard.com/ffiennesforumfrm7.showMessage?topicID=1047.topic
Poetry Reading at the British Library
Ralph read a selection of W.H. Auden poems February 18, at the British Library. Gigi H., Jane, and Stella were in attendance and gave a full report. To read more about their experience, visit the forum here:
http://pub78.ezboard.com/ffiennesforumfrm7.showMessage?topicID=1013.topic
01/15/04 Hollywood returns to Sofitel Metropole Hanoi
MAJOR HOLLYWOOD heartthrob Ralph Fiennes checked into Sofitel Metropole Hanoi recently on a personal visit to the Vietnamese capital. While on his first visit to Hanoi he found Cyclos (ped-cabs) the best way to get around town, taking in the city’s bustling street scenes and lifestyles. During his stay, he also left a message for UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Sir Roger Moore who stayed at the hotel at the same time to coordinate local charity programmes for Vietnamese children in 2004.
Home | Fiennes Forum |News 1998-1999 | News 2000 |2001 News Archives | 2002 Archives | 2003 Archives | Site Index
DISCLAIMER
All copyrights belong to original owners. No profit is made from usage of copyright materials shown on this site.
