The inaugural Dan Ireland Award, a juried cash prize of $3,000 for the director of the best film in the Louisiana International Film Festival’s New Visions / New Voices Category is sponsored by Winifred and Kevin Reilly, Jr., Renee Zellweger, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dennis Yares and Greg Kachel.
In addition to his long career as a director, teacher and co-founder of the Seattle International Film Festival, Dan Ireland served as the Artistic Director of Liff until his untimely death on April 14, 2016. The Dan Ireland Award was created in order to commemorate his dedication to new talent, storytellers and visionaries.Speaking at the Dan Ireland Award Ceremony, Chesley Heymsfield, Executive Director of Liff, said about Dan, “It was very hard for our entire team because when you work at an organization like this which is a grassroots community built organization to support local people, you become like family and it was very...
In addition to his long career as a director, teacher and co-founder of the Seattle International Film Festival, Dan Ireland served as the Artistic Director of Liff until his untimely death on April 14, 2016. The Dan Ireland Award was created in order to commemorate his dedication to new talent, storytellers and visionaries.Speaking at the Dan Ireland Award Ceremony, Chesley Heymsfield, Executive Director of Liff, said about Dan, “It was very hard for our entire team because when you work at an organization like this which is a grassroots community built organization to support local people, you become like family and it was very...
- 5/16/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. -- One of the strangest cinematic love stories in recent memory, "The Whole Wide World" has the advantage of being true. An account of the lengthy and bizarre relationship between famous pulp-fiction writer Robert E. Howard ("Conan the Barbarian", "Red Sonja") and a Texas schoolteacher named Novalyne Price, the film boasts outstanding performances by Vincent D'Onofrio and rising star Renee Zellweger. Recently shown at the Hamptons International Film Festival, the film will be released commercially by Sony Pictures Classics, which will need to handle this special item with kid gloves.
Howard, a highly idiosyncratic figure, lived with his parents in the small town of Cross Plains, Texas, in the 1930s, churning out fantasy, adventure and science-fiction tales at a ferocious pace. They appeared in various magazines specializing in pulp fiction, including Weird Tales and Amazing Stories. For several years, he was involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with the young teacher. Although their relationship ended with his death by suicide in 1936 (he was only 30), she wrote about it decades later in an acclaimed memoir, "One Who Walked Alone", upon which this movie is based.
Howard was an anti-social loner who was obsessed with his mother (played by Ann Wedgeworth) and who had the habit of loudly acting out his stories while writing them; he was considered more than a little odd by the townspeople. But he was endlessly fascinating to Novalyne, who aspired to be a writer herself. Their unconventional relationship, in which she wins his love but is unable to domesticate him or cure him of his demons, is detailed in Michael Scott Myers' episodic screenplay.
D'Onofrio, who has proved himself to be an intensely charismatic, highly physical and chameleon-like actor, is riveting as Howard. He beautifully expresses the writer's dual personalities: the socially inadequate, shy, fumbling gentleman and the blustery, confident figure who liked to imagine himself as his favorite character, Conan. Zellweger, who has the much less flashy role, is greatly impressive as Novalyne, who has more than a few contradictions of her own. Shifting effortlessly between the role's comic and more dramatic demands, she demonstrates a charm and range that bodes well for her upcoming co-starring role with Tom Cruise in "Jerry Maguire". Myers' screenplay is admirably subtle, although it does meander a bit too long in its storytelling; the film could benefit from some trimming. Dan Ireland's direction skillfully establishes the small-town Texas atmosphere and beautifully captures the nuances of an emotionally complex story.
THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD
A Sony Pictures Classics release
Presented by the Kushner-Locke Co.
in association with Cineville
Director Dan Ireland
Screenplay Michael Scott Myers
Executive producers Donald Kushner,
Peter Locke, Gregory Cascanate
Co-executive producer Robert Strauss
Producers Carl-Jan Colpaert, Dan Ireland,
Vincent D'Onofrio, Kevin Reidy
Director of photography Claudio Rocha
Editor Luis Colina
Music Hans Zimmer
Color/stereo
Cast:
Robert E. Howard Vincent D'Onofrio
Novalyne Price Renee Zellweger
Mrs. Howard Ann Wedgeworth
Dr. Howard Harve Presnell
Clyde Benjamin Mouton
Running time -- 111 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
Howard, a highly idiosyncratic figure, lived with his parents in the small town of Cross Plains, Texas, in the 1930s, churning out fantasy, adventure and science-fiction tales at a ferocious pace. They appeared in various magazines specializing in pulp fiction, including Weird Tales and Amazing Stories. For several years, he was involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with the young teacher. Although their relationship ended with his death by suicide in 1936 (he was only 30), she wrote about it decades later in an acclaimed memoir, "One Who Walked Alone", upon which this movie is based.
Howard was an anti-social loner who was obsessed with his mother (played by Ann Wedgeworth) and who had the habit of loudly acting out his stories while writing them; he was considered more than a little odd by the townspeople. But he was endlessly fascinating to Novalyne, who aspired to be a writer herself. Their unconventional relationship, in which she wins his love but is unable to domesticate him or cure him of his demons, is detailed in Michael Scott Myers' episodic screenplay.
D'Onofrio, who has proved himself to be an intensely charismatic, highly physical and chameleon-like actor, is riveting as Howard. He beautifully expresses the writer's dual personalities: the socially inadequate, shy, fumbling gentleman and the blustery, confident figure who liked to imagine himself as his favorite character, Conan. Zellweger, who has the much less flashy role, is greatly impressive as Novalyne, who has more than a few contradictions of her own. Shifting effortlessly between the role's comic and more dramatic demands, she demonstrates a charm and range that bodes well for her upcoming co-starring role with Tom Cruise in "Jerry Maguire". Myers' screenplay is admirably subtle, although it does meander a bit too long in its storytelling; the film could benefit from some trimming. Dan Ireland's direction skillfully establishes the small-town Texas atmosphere and beautifully captures the nuances of an emotionally complex story.
THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD
A Sony Pictures Classics release
Presented by the Kushner-Locke Co.
in association with Cineville
Director Dan Ireland
Screenplay Michael Scott Myers
Executive producers Donald Kushner,
Peter Locke, Gregory Cascanate
Co-executive producer Robert Strauss
Producers Carl-Jan Colpaert, Dan Ireland,
Vincent D'Onofrio, Kevin Reidy
Director of photography Claudio Rocha
Editor Luis Colina
Music Hans Zimmer
Color/stereo
Cast:
Robert E. Howard Vincent D'Onofrio
Novalyne Price Renee Zellweger
Mrs. Howard Ann Wedgeworth
Dr. Howard Harve Presnell
Clyde Benjamin Mouton
Running time -- 111 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
- 11/4/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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