Unfaithful (film)
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| Unfaithful | |
|---|---|
| Image:Unfaithful movie.jpg Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Adrian Lyne |
| Produced by | Adrian Lyne Arnon Milchan G. Mac Brown |
| Written by | Alvin Sargent and William Broyles Jr. (Screenplay) From La Femme infidèle by Claude Chabrol |
| Starring | Diane Lane Richard Gere Olivier Martinez Erik Per Sullivan |
| Music by | Jan A.P. Kaczmarek |
| Cinematography | Peter Biziou |
| Editing by | Anne V. Coates |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | May 10, 2002 |
| Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $50,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $119,137,784 (Worldwide) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Unfaithful is a 2002 American drama film directed by Adrian Lyne. It was adapted by Alvin Sargent and William Broyles Jr. from the French language film La Femme infidèle by Claude Chabrol. The film is about Constance (Diane Lane) and Edward (Richard Gere), a couple living in the New York City suburbs whose marriage goes dangerously awry when she indulges in an adulterous fling with Paul (Olivier Martinez), a mysterious book dealer. Lyne's repeated takes for the film's sex scenes were very demanding for the actors involved, especially for Lane who had to be emotionally and physically fit for the scenes. To prepare for the initial love scene between Constance and Paul, Lyne had Lane watch the film Aimée & Jaguar. She and Martinez would also talk over the scenes in his trailer beforehand but once on set felt uncomfortable until several takes in.
The film grossed USD $52 million in North America and a total of $119 million worldwide. It also received largely mixed to negative reviews with Diane Lane receiving widespread praise for her performance. She would go on to win the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Actress.
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[edit] Plot
Constance (Diane Lane) and Edward Sumner (Richard Gere) are a couple living in the New York City suburbs and whose marriage lacks passion. One day, Constance takes a train into Manhattan's Grand Central Station but has difficulty trying to walk through the area in a windstorm. As she chases after taxis, she bumps into a stranger (Olivier Martinez). They both fall but Connie scrapes her knees. The stranger offers to take Constance to his apartment to clean off the scrape. At that moment, an empty cab goes by, but she decides to take the stranger up on his offer, instead of heading back to the train station. He introduces himself as Paul Martel, a Frenchman who buys and sells used books. Constance decides that she feels uncomfortable and tells Paul that she needs to go home. He lets her go but gives her a book of poetry, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, as a gift. There is an attraction with each other, since she is also fluent in French. Later that night, Constance tells her husband about the incident but does not elaborate on her visit to Paul's apartment. The next morning, after Edward and their son Charlie leave, she picks up the poetry book. Paul's business card falls out. She then takes the train into Manhattan again and calls him from Grand Central. He invites her over for coffee. When Constance enters Paul's apartment, he asks her to dance. At first, she is hesitant, decides that it is wrong, and then starts to leave the building. But when she has to come back into the apartment because she forgot her coat, Paul grabs her and kisses her, and she responds eagerly.
Constance and Paul start having a sexual affair. Later, Edward begins to suspect something when his wife increases the frequency with which she visits Manhattan by telling him of a charity event that she's doing, and when she no longer seems to be interested in him. Little things shows signs of her unfaithfulness, like when he notices her wedding ring is off her finger when she was doing the dishes. After Edward runs into one of his colleagues at the parking lot of a railroad train station, he realizes that his wife has been lying to him, when she had used the colleague as an excuse for coming into the city to pick up donations for her charity event. Edward then hires a detective (Dominic Chianese) to follow her.
The detective comes back with pictures of Connie and Paul, which devastates Edward. Connie sees Paul with another woman in the city, and she confronts him about it, but he tells her that the woman is just someone, not anybody special. She is angry at him, but she makes up with him in a fit of rage. Edward decides to go visit Paul but is unable to get into the man's apartment. As Edward is about to leave, he sees Connie come out of the building, get into her car and drive off. Edward enters the building and confronts Paul. Edward is very upset, and he can't think straight. He's in a momentary stage of disbelief. Edward finds a snow globe in the apartment, which Paul explains was given to him by Connie as a present. Paul seems to be calm about the whole situation, even offering Edward something to drink. Paul tells Edward that it's nothing, that maybe she just wanted to give him a present, but Edward is shocked and very hurt, as he originally gave his wife the globe as an anniversary present. In a sudden moment of rage Edward uses the snow globe to hit Paul several times on the head, which kills him. Edward manages to clean up the blood and wipe his fingerprints from everything he touched. He wraps Paul's dead body in a rug. The phone rings and Constance leaves a message on the answering machine saying that she needs to end the affair. Edward erases the message and leaves. He dumps Paul's body in the trunk of his car, and later that night, drives the body to the dump and leaves it among the garbage.
Later, two police detectives show up at the Sumner home. They say that Paul's wife had reported him missing and they found Constance's phone number in his apartment. She says that she only met him once, but she is surprised at hearing that he had a wife. This shows that Paul was also unfaithful to his wife, and to his mistress. A week later, the detectives come back and say that they have found Paul's body at the dump. She becomes very upset but maintains that she only met him once. Edward also tells the police that he'd never met Paul before. Later that night when Constance drops off Edward's clothes to the dry cleaners, she finds the photos of Paul and herself, and realizes that Edward must have known about the affair. She later finds out that Edward murdered Paul when she sees that the snow globe she gave to Paul is now back in her home. Edward and Constance confront each other. She burns the photographs and he offers to turn himself in. Constance replies that he shouldn't and they will get through it together. She picks up the snow globe and the bottom of it comes loose. Inside is a note from Edward saying that she is the best part of every day. Life goes on, and Edward and Connie seem to be trying to continue living with their lives, and Connie pretends that she had taken that empty cab infront of Paul's apartment building, and refused his offer of coming upstairs. Later, Edward and Connie are in their car stopped at an intersection, talking about what they should do next. As this conversation goes on for a long time, the traffic lights change many times from red to green and back again, casting light on their faces. Finally, the camera pulls back to reveal that their car is stopped in front of a police station.
[edit] Cast
- Diane Lane as Constance "Connie" Sumner
- Richard Gere as Edward "Ed" Sumner
- Erik Per Sullivan as Charlie Sumner
- Olivier Martinez as Paul Martel
- Myra Lucretia Taylor as Gloria
- Michelle Monaghan as Lindsay
- Chad Lowe as Bill Stone
- Erich Anderson as Bob Gaylord
- Kate Burton as Tracy
- Margaret Colin as Sally
- Larry Gleason as Tim
- Dominic Chianese as Frank Wilson
[edit] Production
According to actor Richard Gere, an early draft of the screenplay that he read several years ago presented the Sumners with a dysfunctional sexual relationship that gave Constance partial justification for having an affair.[1] According to the actor and director Adrian Lyne, the studio wanted to change it so that the Sumners had a bad marriage with no sex and thereby creating greater sympathy for Constance. However, both men were opposed to this change.[1] Lyne felt that the studio's suggestions would have robbed the film of any drama, stating, "I wanted two people who were perfectly happy. I loved the idea of the totally arbitrary nature of infidelity." The Sumners' relationship was rewritten so that they had a good marriage and that her affair was the result of a chance meeting.[1]
During pre-production, the producers received a video taped audition from Olivier Martinez and he ended up receiving the part. Paul was not originally envisioned as being French but became so when Martinez was cast.[2] Lyne said, "I think it helps one understand how Connie might have leapt into this affair - he's very beguiling, doing even ordinary things."[2] Once cast in the role, Martinez, with Lyne's approval, changed some of his dialogue and the approach to the scene where he first seduces Diane Lane's character while she is reading a braille book. According to Martinez, "The story that was invented before was much more sensual, erotic and clear."[2] Lyne cast Lane in the role of Constance after seeing her in the film, A Walk on the Moon.[1] He felt that the actress, "breathes a certain sexuality. But she's sympathetic, and I think so many sexy women tend to be tough and hard at the same time."[3] Lyne also wanted Gere and Lane to gain weight in order to reflect the comfort of a middle-age couple. In particular, he wanted Gere to gain 30 pounds and would leave doughnuts in the actor's trailer every morning.[4]
Lyne asked director of photography Peter Biziou, with whom he made 9 1/2 Weeks with, to shoot Unfaithful.[5] After reading the script, Biziou felt that the story lent itself to the classic 1.85:1 aspect ratio because, "so often has two characters working together in the frame." During pre-production, Biziou, Lyne and production designer Brian Morris used a collection of still photographs as style references. These included photos from fashion magazines and shots by prominent photographers.[5]
Initially, the story was set against snowy exteriors but this idea was rejected early on.[5] Principal photography started on March 22, 2001 and wrapped on June 1, 2001 with Lyne shooting in continuity whenever possible. Much of the film was shot in Greenwich Village. During the windstorm sequence where Connie first meets Paul, it rained and Lyne used the overcast weather conditions for the street scenes. The director also preferred shooting practical interiors on location so that the actors could "feel an intimate sense of belonging," Biziou recalls. The cinematographer also used natural light as much as possible.[5]
At times, Lyne's style of directing took its toll on the cast and crew. In a scene taking place in an office, the director pumped it full of smoke, an effect that "makes the colors less contrasty, more muted."[1] According to Biziou, "the texture it gives helps differentiate and separate various density levels of darkness farther back in frame."[5] The smoke was piped in for 18 to 20 hours a day and Richard Gere remembers, "Our throats were being blown out. We had a special doctor who was there almost all the time who was shooting people up with antibiotics for bronchial infections." Lane even went so far as to get an oxygen bottle in order to survive the rigorous schedule.[1]
Lyne shot five different endings based on his experiences with Fatal Attraction.[4] According to Lyne, there was some debate with 20th Century Fox who wanted to "make the marriage gray, the sex bad. I fought that. I tried to explore the guilt, the jealousy - that's what I'm interested in."[9] The studio did not like the film's "enigmatic" ending that refused to punish crimes committed by the characters and imposed a "particularly jarring 'Hollywood' final line."[7] Reportedly, this angered Gere who pushed for the original ending, and coupled with negative reactions from test audiences, the studio reinstated the original ending.[7] However, only weeks before the film was to open in theaters, Lyne asked Gere and Lane to return to Los Angeles for re-shoots for the ending.[1]
[edit] Reaction
On its opening weekend Unfaithful grossed USD $14 million in 2,617 theaters with an average of $5,374 per screen.[10] It would make $52,775,765 in North America and a total of $119,137,784 worldwide[10], well above its $50 million budget.
The film received largely mixed to negative reviews with Diane Lane receiving widespread praise for her performance. It currently has a rating of 47% on Rotten Tomatoes (48% for their "Cream of the Crop" designation). CNN film critic Paul Tatara wrote, "The audience when I saw this one was chuckling at all the wrong times, and that's a bad sign when they're supposed to be having a collective heart attack."[11] Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman awarded the film an "A-" grade and praised Lane for delivering, "the most urgent performance of her career, is a revelation. The play of lust, romance, degradation, and guilt on her face is the movie's real story."[12] Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "Instead of pumping up the plot with recycled manufactured thrills, it's content to contemplate two reasonably sane adults who get themselves into an almost insoluble dilemma."[13]
The studio took out trade ads and mailed copies of the movie to Academy voters by the end of November, picking out what it called the film's "iconic scene" as the theme of its campaign.[14] The scene in question was when Constance recounts her first tryst with Paul as she takes a train home. The studio took a still from the scene and made it the focus of the campaign. According to Tom Rothman, chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, "That scene captured the power of her performance. It's what everyone talked about after they saw her."[14]
Four days before the New York Film Critics Circle's vote, Lane was given a career tribute by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. A day before that, Lyne held a dinner for the actress at the Four Seasons Hotel. Critics and award voters were invited to both.[14] She went on to win the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Actress.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kobel, Peter. "Smoke to Go With the Steam", New York Times, May 5, 2002.
- ^ a b c Topel, Fred. "Olivier Martinez Interview - Unfaithful", About.com: Hollywood Movies, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ Wolk, Josh. "Meet Unfaithful's Diane Lane", Entertainment Weekly, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ a b c Whipp, Glenn. "Uncovered", Los Angeles Times, May 10, 2002.
- ^ a b c d e f Martin, Kevin H. "Broken Vows", American Cinematographer, June 2002.
- ^ a b Murray, Rebecca. "Diane Lane Interview - Unfaithful", About.com: Hollywood Movies, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ a b c Bhattacharya, Sanjiv. "Memory Lane", The Guardian, May 26, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ Iley, Chrissy. "Always In and Out of Passion", The Times, June 10, 2002.
- ^ Wloszczyna, Susan. "Director Adrian Lyne, faithful to sexual themes", USA Today, May 9, 2002.
- ^ a b "Unfaithful", Box Office Mojo, August 24, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ Tatara, Paul. "Sexually charged Unfaithful falls flat", CNN, May 9, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen. "Unfaithful", Entertainment Weekly, May 17, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ Ebert, Roger. "Unfaithful", Chicago Sun-Times, May 10, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
- ^ a b c Bowles, Scott. "Studio keeps Unfaithful out in open", USA Today, January 15, 2003. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
[edit] External links
- Unfaithful at the Internet Movie Database
- Unfaithful at Rotten Tomatoes
- Unfaithful at Box Office Mojo
- Movie stillsde:Untreu
es:Infidelidad (película) fr:Infidèle (film, 2002) it:Unfaithful - L'amore infedele sv:Unfaithful
