Hemingway & Gellhorn: Not the Same Old Love Story

EYES IN Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Vivian Van Dijk, attended the press premiere last night for the film Hemingway & Gellhorn at the 65th Cannes Film Festival.

“A fantastic, inspiring piece of history made into a beautiful feature film by Phillip Kaufman.

The audience is sucked into the minds of observers of political tension and war zones, like Hemingway and Gellhorn, from the moment the film starts. It is their chemistry, but also the need of a time in history that not acting and not going to that part of the world, Spain, where it is happening, seemed to be unthinkable. In between the harsh lines of the war zones, some humor is presented in the background. Hemingway, played by Clive Owen is hard not to love; Kidman playing Gellhorn is hard not to adore and respect in her role.

Two great writers: Hemingway and Gellhorn, following their mission, falling in love and never fearing for what they had to write. The film shows that the world now knows a lot about history due to the courageous acts of those brilliant writers and photographers of that time. It’s an excellent film for all journalists to see, especially with this year’s Cannes Film Festival coming to a close. Not only for lovers of prose, the film is for anybody who loves to witness passion in the biggest sense of the word.

The film’s director, Philip Kaufman, has integrated war scenes and flashbacks in a way that totally corresponds with the world at that time. The power of his direction combined with the writing skills of Jerry Stahl and Barbara Turner, hopefully will have the same impact here on the Riviera as Hemingway’s novel the Old man and the Sea and the film based upon it.”

Synopsis

HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN recounts one of the greatest romances of the last century – the passionate love affair and tumultuous marriage of literary master Ernest Hemingway and the beautiful, trailblazing war correspondent Martha Gellhorn - as it follows the adventurous writers through the Spanish Civil War and beyond. As witnesses to history, they covered all the great conflicts of their time; but the war they couldn’t survive was the war between themselves.

Directed by multiple Academy Award nominee Philip Kaufman ("The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "The Right Stuff") from a script by Jerry Stahl ("Permanent Midnight," "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation") and Barbara Turner ("The Company," "Pollock"), the film stars Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Clive Owen (“Closer,” “Children of Men”) and Academy Award and three-time Golden Globe winner Nicole Kidman (“The Hours,” “Rabbit Hole”), and co-stars Academy Award nominee David Strathairn ("Good Night, and Good Luck," Emmy Award winner for HBO Films' "Temple Grandin"), SAG Award nominee Molly Parker ("The Road," HBO's "Deadwood"), Rodrigo Santoro ("I Love You Phillip Morris," "300"), Golden Globe nominee Parker Posey ("Superman Returns," "A Mighty Wind"), actor-musician Lars Ulrich ("Get Him To The Greek," member of Metallica), Santiago Cabrera ("Che: Part 1," "Heroes"), Saverio Guerra ("Lucky You," "Becker"), Emmy Award nominee Peter Coyote ("Erin Brockovich," "Law & Order"), multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Diane Baker ("Silence of the Lambs," "Joy Luck Club") and Emmy and Golden Globe winner Tony Shalhoub ("Monk," HBO's "Too Big to Fail").

HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN is executive produced by Peter Kaufman ("Quills," "Henry and June"), Trish Hofmann ("Notorious," "The New World"), Emmy winner James Gandolfini (HBO's "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" and "Wartorn"), Emmy Award nominee Alexandra Ryan (HBO's "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq") and Emmy Award nominee Barbara Turner ("The War Between the Tates"). Nancy Sanders ("Huff") and Mark Armstrong ("Holla If You Hear Me") are co-executive producers. The production team includes three-time Academy Award-winning editor Walter Murch ("The English Patient," "Apocalypse Now"), director of photography Rogier Stoffers ("Quills," "John Q"), Academy Award®-nominated production designer Geoffrey Kirkland ("The Right Stuff," "Get Low") and Academy Award®-nominated costume designer Ruth Myers ("Emma," "L.A. Confidential").

“I want to be myself and alone and free to breathe, live, look upon the world and find it however it is...I want my own name back, most violently, as if getting it back would give me some of myself...And do not worry and do not feel badly.  We are, basically, two tough people and we were born to survive.”– Martha Gellhorn

“If two people love each other, there can be no happy end to it.”– Ernest Hemingway

Source: http://www.hbo.com/

For more information on the happenings at the Cannes Film Festival, visit http://www.festival-cannes.com