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Desperate Characters is a 1971 American drama film produced, written, and directed by Frank D. Gilroy, who based his screenplay on the 1970 novel of the same name by Paula Fox. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A drama film is a Film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes Frank Daniel Gilroy (born October 13, 1925) is an American Playwright, Screenwriter, and Film producer and director See also Pre-production Screenwriting A screenplay or script is a written plan authored by a Screenwriter, for a Film or Television Paula Fox (born April 22, 1923) is an American author of novels for adults and children and two memoirs

Contents

Plot synopsis

Sophie and Otto Bentwood are a middle-aged, middle class, childless Brooklyn Heights couple trapped in a loveless marriage. Middle age is the period of life beyond Young adulthood but before the onset of Old age. The middle class, in colloquial usage consists of those who have some economic independence but not a great deal of social Influence or power. He is an attorney, she a translator of books. An attorney at law (or attorney-at-law) in the United States is a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute Translation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text likewise called a " translation Their existence is affected not only by their disintegrating relationship but by the threats of urban crime and vandalism that surround them everywhere they turn, leaving them feeling paranoid, scared, and desperately helpless. In the sociological field, crime is the breach of a rule or Law for which some governing authority or force may ultimately prescribe a Punishment Vandalism is the behaviour attributed to the Vandals in respect of Culture: ruthless Destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or Venerable Paranoia is a disturbed thought process characterized by excessive Anxiety or Fear, often to the point of Irrationality and Delusion. The film details their fragile emotional and psychological states as they interact with each other and their friends.

Principal cast

Principal production credits

Critical reception

In his review in the New York Times, Vincent Canby said, "I must confess that Desperate Characters left me, if not unmoved, then unenriched. Vincent Canby ( July 27 1924 &ndash September 15 2000) was an American film critic. It's as if its cheerlessness had been bottled straight, without the additive that transforms recognizable experience into art . . . In every respect, the screenplay is a vast improvement over Gilroy's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Subject Was Roses. The Pulitzer Prize, ˈpʊlɨtsɚ PULL-it-sər is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in Newspaper journalism, The Subject Was Roses is a Pulitzer Prize -winning 1964 play written by Frank D Its literary style, however, is similar, and it's a style to which I . . . find it difficult to respond. His characters talk in great chunks of theatrical exchanges, and monologues, which not only deny the splendid accuracy of the situations and the settings, but also somehow make me suspicious of the integrity of the characters. This is especially true of the supporting characters, who are always telling us too much, remembering too many details out of the past, nudging us for sympathy and never letting us discover them at our own speed . . . I have a feeling that the director has perfectly served the writer. That is to say that Gilroy has realized the movie he intended to make. I wish I liked it more. " [1]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described it as "a terribly interesting and well-acted movie that does not deserve some of the criticism it's getting . Roger Joseph Ebert (iːbɝt born June 18, 1942) is an American film critic and Screenwriter. The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily Newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. . . Kenneth Mars offers a deeply felt, complex performance . . . Shirley MacLaine, as his wife, achieves one of the great performances of the year. She proves that we were right, when we saw her in films like The Apartment, to know that she really had it all, could go all the way with a serious role. The Apartment is a 1960 American comedy - Drama film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon Watching Miss MacLaine and Mars work together is enough to justify the movie, whatever you think of its urban paranoia. " [2]

TV Guide rates it 3½ out of a possible four stars and calls it a "well-written if somewhat stagey character study [with] one of Maclaine's best performances. TV Guide is the name of a North American weekly magazine about television programming " [3]

Stanley Kauffmann of the New Republic called this "a film of authenticity, of delicately realized intangibles: small-scale about large issues, truthful without settling for honest-to-God TV fact. " He lists it as a "top film worth seeing" in late 1971. 9/25/71, Vol. 165 Issue 13, p24-34, 2p

Awards and nominations

References

  1. ^ New York Times review
  2. ^ Chicago Sun-Times review
  3. ^ TV Guide review

External link

Desperate Characters at the Internet Movie Database

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