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Hemingway & Gellhorn
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Wikipedia article
'Hemingway & Gellhorn' is a 2012 television film directed by Philip Kaufman about the lives of journalist Martha Gellhorn and her husband, writer Ernest Hemingway. The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and aired on HBO on May 28, 2012.
Plot
This drama tells the story of one of Americas most famous literary couples. The film begins in 1936, when the pair meet for the first time in a chance encounter in a Key West bar in Florida.
They encounter one another once again a year later in Spain, while both are covering the Spanish Civil War, and staying in the same hotel on the same floor. Initially, Gellhorn resists romantic advances made by the famous Hemingway, but during a bombing raid, the two find themselves trapped alone in the same room, and they are overcome by lust. They become lovers, and stay in Spain until 1939. Hemingway collaborates with Joris Ivens to produce 'The Spanish Earth'.
In 1940 Hemingway divorces his second wife so that he and Gellhorn can be married. He credits her with having inspired him to write the novel, 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' (1940), and dedicates the work to her..
Over time, however, Gellhorn becomes more prominent in her own right, leading to certain career jealousies between the two. Gellhorn leaves Hemingway to go to Finland to cover the Winter War by herself. When she returns to the 'Lookout Farm' in Havana, Hemingway tells her that he has divorced Pauline.
The two marry and, together, travel to China to cover the bombing attacks by Japan. In China, they interview Chiang Kai-shek and his spouse. Gellhorn is horrified after visiting an opium den. Chiang Kai-shek is fighting the Chinese Communists and Japanese invaders. The two secretly visit Zhou Enlai. Gellhorn covered D-Day in Normandy. She reported on the Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps.
Lastly, in 1945, Gellhorn became the only one of Hemingway's four wives to ask him for a divorce.
Cast
* Nicole Kidman as Martha Gellhorn
* Clive Owen as Ernest Hemingway
* David Strathairn as John Dos Passos
* Molly Parker as Pauline Pfeiffer
* Parker Posey as Mary Welsh Hemingway
* Rodrigo Santoro as Paco Zarra (based on Jos Robles)
* Mark Pellegrino as Max Eastman
* Peter Coyote as Maxwell Perkins
* Lars Ulrich as Joris Ivens
* Robert Duvall as General Petrov
* Tony Shalhoub as Mikhail Koltsov
* Leonard Apeltsin as Russian Operative
* Jeffrey Jones as Charles Colebaugh
* Santiago Cabrera as Robert Capa
* Aitor Inarra as Felipe Leon
* Diane Baker as Mrs. Gellhorn
* Steven Wiig as Simo Hyh
* Keone Young as Mr. Ma
* Joan Chen as Madame Chiang
* Malcolm Brownson as Orson Welles
* Ivonne Coll as Gypsy Crone
Production
Pat Jackson, the film's sound effects editor, said that the biggest challenge in doing sound for the film was "making the archival footage and the live-action footage shot locally appear seamless." Much of the film was shot in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the abandoned 16th Street station in Oakland standing in for the Hotel Florida.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews with much praise going for Nicole Kidman's portrayal of Martha Gellhorn. Mark Rozeman of Paste commented "In terms of the acting, theres little room for complaint. At 45, Kidman remains a fetching and powerful screen presence. Here, she captures Gellhorns idealistic, gung-ho leftism without making herself sound overly self-righteous" but was less positive about Clive Owen's role as Ernest Hemingway stating "While Owen easily embodies Hemingways extraordinary charisma (and certainly his legendary temper), his performance is often undermined by the British actors inability to hold his American accent." Jeremy Heilman of MovieMartyr.com agreed with Roseman's opinions stating "Kidman is strong here as Martha Gellhorn, using her exceptional figure and old-fashioned movie star glamour to full effect" and that Owen's performance was "inconsistent, goofy one moment and strongly seductive the next." Todd McCarthy of 'The Hollywood Reporter' said, "Kidman is terrific in certain scenes and merely very good in others; there are a few too many moments of her traipsing around Spain, blond hair flying glamorously, not knowing quite what shes doing there. But for the most part, she rivets ones attention, lifting the entire enterprise by her presence. Odie Henderson, writing for Roger Ebert.com, praised both actors performances while lauding the film's throwback feeling of romance. "The actors are first-rate, down to the supporting roles...This is Kidman's best work in years, smart, brassy, funny, sexy and tough. She brings her A-game because Owen's showier role must be legendary, a larger than life evocation of masculinity suited for the name Hemingway. Cinematographer Rogier Stoffers introduces Owen in a desaturated fishing sequence that culminates in an explosion of bright red blood. Owen's Hemingway grabs the bull by the horns, resisting clich just barely enough to feel the breath of caricature on his neck. His Russian Roulette pissing contest with an uncredited, equally macho and over the top Robert Duvall is a highlight of the film. Anyone with a romantic appreciation of the male gender will swoon at Owen's constantly revealed chest hair. Everyone else can worship, as Kaufman's camera does, at the altar of Kidman's lower body, with its "legs that start at her shoulders."
'The New York Times' panned the film, characterizing it as "a disheartening misfire: a big, bland historical melodrama built on platitudes about honor and the writing life that crams in actual figures and incidents but does little to illuminate them, or to make us care about the romance at its center." In a similar vein Vanity Fair observed that "none of the reviews quite prepared me for the unchained malady of 'Hemingway & Gellhorn'." Of the director they say "its as if Kaufman answered the call of wild and it turned out to be a loon." The Huffington Post described it as "a gigantic missed opportunity, a jaw-droppingly trying waste of time. Don't let the fancy names in the cast fool you: This is a stupid, stupid movie." Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 49% score based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 5.33/10.
Accolades
{| class="wikitable sortable"|-
! Year
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
! Ref.
|-
| rowspan="30"|
| rowspan="9"| Online Film & Television Association Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Motion Picture or Miniseries
|
| align="center" rowspan="9"|
|-
| Best Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
| Nicole Kidman
|
|-
| Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
| David Strathairn
|
|-
| Best Direction of a Motion Picture or Miniseries
| Philip Kaufman
|
|-
| colspan="2"| Best Cinematography in a Non-Series
|
|-
| colspan="2"| Best Costume Design in a Non-Series
|
|-
| colspan="2"| Best Makeup/Hairstyling in a Non-Series
|
|-
| colspan="2"| Best Production Design in a Non-Series
|
|-
| colspan="2"| Best Visual Effects in a Non-Series
|
|-
| rowspan="5"| Primetime Emmy Awards
| Outstanding Miniseries or Movie
| Peter Kaufman, Trish Hofmann, James Gandolfini,
Alexandra E. Ryan, Barbara Turner, Nancy Sanders,
and Mark Armstrong
|
| align="center" rowspan="15"|
|-
| Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
| Clive Owen
|
|-
| Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
| Nicole Kidman
|
|-
| Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
| David Strathairn
|
|-
| Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special
| Philip Kaufman
|
|-
| rowspan="10"| Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards
| Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie
| Geoffrey Kirkland, Nanci Noblett, and Jim Erickson
|
|-
| Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie
| Rogier Stoffers
|
|-
| Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
| Ruth Myers and Adina Bucur
|
|-
| Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries or a Movie
| Yvette Rivas and Frances Mathias
|
|-
| Outstanding Makeup for a Miniseries or a Movie (Non-Prosthetic)
| Gretchen Davis, Kyra Panchenko, and Paul Pattison
|
|-
| Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score)
| Javier Navarrete
|
|-
| Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie
| Walter Murch
|
|-
| Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
| Douglas Murray, Peter Horner, Kim Foscato,
Steve Boeddeker, Casey Langfelder, Andrea Gard,
Pat Jackson, Daniel Laurie, Goro Koyama, Andy Malcolm,
and Joanie Diener
|
|-
| Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie
| Nelson Stoll, Lora Hirschberg, Peter Horner, and
Douglas Murray
|
|-
| Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role
| Chris Morley, Kip Larsen, Nathan Abbot, and Chris Paizis
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| Satellite Awards
| colspan="2"| Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television
|
| align="center" rowspan="3"|
|-
| Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television
| Clive Owen
|
|-
| Best Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television
| Nicole Kidman
|
|-
| Television Critics Association Awards
| colspan="2"| Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries, and Specials
|
| align="center"|
|-
| Women Film Critics Circle Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Theatrically Unreleased Movie by or About Women
|
| align="center"|
|-
| Women's Image Network Awards
| Actress Made for Television Movie
| Nicole Kidman
|
| align="center"|
|-
| rowspan="16"|
| American Cinema Editors Awards
| Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television
| Walter Murch
|
| align="center"|
|-
| American Society of Cinematographers Awards
| Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Motion Picture/Miniseries
| Rogier Stoffers
|
| align="center"|
|-
| Art Directors Guild Awards
| Excellence in Production Design Award Television Movie or Mini-Series
| Geoffrey Kirkland, Nanci Noblett, William Beck,
Gerard Howland, and Jim Erickson
|
| align="center"|
|-
| Cinema Audio Society Awards
| Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Movies and Mini-Series
| Nelson Stoll, Lora Hirschberg, Pete Horner, Douglas Murray,
Marc Blanes Matas, Andy Greenberg, and Don White
|
| align="center"|
|-
| Costume Designers Guild Awards
| Outstanding Made for Television Movie or Miniseries
| Ruth Myers
|
| align="center"|
|-
| Directors Guild of America Awards
| Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Miniseries
| Philip Kaufman
|
| align="center"|
|-
| rowspan="2"| Golden Globe Awards
| Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film
| Clive Owen
|
| align="center" rowspan="2"|
|-
| Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film
| Nicole Kidman
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| Golden Reel Awards
| Best Sound Editing Long Form Music in Television
| Joanie Diener
|
| align="center" rowspan="2"|
|-
| Best Sound Editing Long Form Sound Effects and Foley in Television
| Douglas Murray, Pete Horner, Kim Foscato,
Steve Boeddeker, Andrea Gard, Pat Jackson,
Casey Langfelder, Goro Koyama, and Andy Malcolm
|
|-
| Guild of Music Supervisors Awards
| Best Music Supervision for Television Long Form and Movie
| Evyen Klean
|
| align="center"|
|-
| rowspan="2"| Screen Actors Guild Awards
| Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
| Clive Owen
|
| align="center" rowspan="2"|
|-
| Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
| Nicole Kidman
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| Visual Effects Society Awards
| Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program
| Nathan Abbot, Kip Larsen, Chris Morley, and Chris Paizis
|
| align="center" rowspan="2"|
|-
| Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program
| Nathan Abbot, Shelley Campbell, Chris Morley, and
Chris Paizis
|
|-
| Writers Guild of America Awards
| Long Form Original
| Jerry Stahl and Barbara Turner
|
| align="center"|
|}
References
Buy Hemingway & Gellhorn now from Amazon
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