Danny Huston in Ivansxtc will be available on Blu-ray September 29th From Arrow Video
Danny Huston, Peter Weller and Lisa Enos star in this biting satire on the behind-the-scenes of the Hollywood film industry, with all its drink and drug-fueled excess, from director Bernard Rose.
Opening with the death of its titular protagonist, ivansxtc goes back in time to chart the final days of hot-shot Tinseltown agent Ivan Beckman (Huston) and his fast-paced, wheeler-dealer lifestyle, which will ultimately lead him to an early grave after a shock cancer diagnosis.
Loosely based on Leo Tolstoy’s celebrated 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and featuring a searing performance by Danny Huston at its core and wonderfully sleazy turn from Peter Weller as Ivan s biggest client, ivansxtc is a powerful meditation on life, death and morality set against the glitzy backdrop of La La Land.
Special Edition Contents
High-Definition Blu-ray (1080p...
Danny Huston, Peter Weller and Lisa Enos star in this biting satire on the behind-the-scenes of the Hollywood film industry, with all its drink and drug-fueled excess, from director Bernard Rose.
Opening with the death of its titular protagonist, ivansxtc goes back in time to chart the final days of hot-shot Tinseltown agent Ivan Beckman (Huston) and his fast-paced, wheeler-dealer lifestyle, which will ultimately lead him to an early grave after a shock cancer diagnosis.
Loosely based on Leo Tolstoy’s celebrated 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and featuring a searing performance by Danny Huston at its core and wonderfully sleazy turn from Peter Weller as Ivan s biggest client, ivansxtc is a powerful meditation on life, death and morality set against the glitzy backdrop of La La Land.
Special Edition Contents
High-Definition Blu-ray (1080p...
- 9/4/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Notes from Hollywoodland: Rose’s Heady, Meaningful Tolstoy Update
“It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going up,” realizes the titular protagonist of Leo Tolstoy’s famed novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Considered a masterpiece of Russian literature and published in 1886, director Bernard Rose takes the text and transposes it to the turn of the following century in Hollywood with his 2000 film Ivans xtc., an undertaking that sounds tedious but actually makes for quite an apt and inspired adaptation. One hardly needs to be readily familiar with Tolstoy’s novella to appreciate or understand what the film is ultimately up to, but doing so provides an alternative subtext in approaching what Rose is doing—specifically that one of humankind’s most enduring tragedies is to embrace the superficialities of existence instead of building a meaningful life, just as as Tolstoy’s character...
“It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going up,” realizes the titular protagonist of Leo Tolstoy’s famed novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Considered a masterpiece of Russian literature and published in 1886, director Bernard Rose takes the text and transposes it to the turn of the following century in Hollywood with his 2000 film Ivans xtc., an undertaking that sounds tedious but actually makes for quite an apt and inspired adaptation. One hardly needs to be readily familiar with Tolstoy’s novella to appreciate or understand what the film is ultimately up to, but doing so provides an alternative subtext in approaching what Rose is doing—specifically that one of humankind’s most enduring tragedies is to embrace the superficialities of existence instead of building a meaningful life, just as as Tolstoy’s character...
- 8/15/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Reviewer: James van Maanen
Ratings (out of five): ***
The Kreutzer Sonata, directed and co-written (with Lisa Enos) by Bernard Rose tracks the journey of a jealous husband's relationship with his pianist wife. A modern adaptation of a Tolstoy novella, the film has a number of good things to warrant a recommendation. The movie leaves all credit information, save its title, to the end, a fact I was grateful for when I finished considering the quality of the director's previous works (Paperhouse, Candyman, Immortal Beloved and Anna Karenina). Yet, it is my second favorite of his films I've seen so far (his most recent work, Mr. Nice with Rhys Ifans, is even better). ...
Ratings (out of five): ***
The Kreutzer Sonata, directed and co-written (with Lisa Enos) by Bernard Rose tracks the journey of a jealous husband's relationship with his pianist wife. A modern adaptation of a Tolstoy novella, the film has a number of good things to warrant a recommendation. The movie leaves all credit information, save its title, to the end, a fact I was grateful for when I finished considering the quality of the director's previous works (Paperhouse, Candyman, Immortal Beloved and Anna Karenina). Yet, it is my second favorite of his films I've seen so far (his most recent work, Mr. Nice with Rhys Ifans, is even better). ...
- 5/8/2012
- by weezy
- GreenCine
Film Review: The Kreutzer Sonata
Edinburgh International Film Festival
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- Leo Tolstoy's story of compulsive jealousy set to the disturbing chords of Ludwig Van Beethoven's "The Kreutzer Sonata" is given a lurid screen treatment by British director Bernard Rose. Danny Huston plays a wealthy and cultured man whose love for his beautiful pianist wife (Elisabeth Rohm) is undone by his ungrounded fear that she is being unfaithful with a hunky young violinist (Matthew Yang King).
Told in flashbacks, the film has a steady undercurrent of dread since what has just happened as the film begins is revealed only at the end in a very gory and not entirely unexpected climax. Huston's narration holds the attention and his sexual antics with Rohm (from TV's "Law and Order") are quite heated but the film doesn't really illuminate what drives sexual jealousy. Sure to be admired at festivals, the film's boxoffice prospects remain iffy.
Huston plays Edgar Hudson, a rich man who runs a well-funded charitable foundation. While he later reveals he was once married, there is little information about him beyond what he relates in the voice-over. He meets pianist Abigail at a party. They immediately commence rutting like it was going out of style.
They marry but life changes when two infants arrive and it's not long before Abigail is longing for some independence. Edgar takes that as her wishing to be with other men. When a handsome violinist is hired to play at a charity event, his imagination starts to run wild.
The musical selection they are to play is Beethoven's Opus 47 No. 9, known as "The Kreutzer Sonata". Rose cuts back and forth to the complicated and sometimes furious music as events, real and imagined, transpire and Edgar begins to froth at the mouth and eye the kitchen carving knives.
Anjelica Huston shows up for a quiet scene toward the end as Edgar's concerned sister, who senses that all is not well. The film veers from that restraint to all-out passion although Danny Huston does a good job of conveying the growing madness behind Edgar's cultivated demeanor while Rohm gives herself selflessly to her performance, baring all physically and emotionally.
Rose has done Tolstoy before ("Anna Karenina" and "Ivanxtc", both with Huston) and explored the madness in Beethoven's music ("Immortal Beloved"), but he also makes horror films such as "Candyman". As the film mixes all three elements, only the composer is likely to make it out in one piece.
Production Companies: Animandala, Giant Door Productions. Cast: Danny Huston, Elisabeth Rohm, Matthew Yang King, Anjelica Huston. Director/Director of Photography/Editor: Bernard Rose. Screenwriters: Lisa Enos, Bernard Rose. Based on the novel by: Leo Tolstoy. Producers: Naomi Despres, Lisa Enos. Executive Producer: Lisa Henson. Music: Ludwig Van Beethoven. Sales Agent: Independent. No rating, 100 minsutes.
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- Leo Tolstoy's story of compulsive jealousy set to the disturbing chords of Ludwig Van Beethoven's "The Kreutzer Sonata" is given a lurid screen treatment by British director Bernard Rose. Danny Huston plays a wealthy and cultured man whose love for his beautiful pianist wife (Elisabeth Rohm) is undone by his ungrounded fear that she is being unfaithful with a hunky young violinist (Matthew Yang King).
Told in flashbacks, the film has a steady undercurrent of dread since what has just happened as the film begins is revealed only at the end in a very gory and not entirely unexpected climax. Huston's narration holds the attention and his sexual antics with Rohm (from TV's "Law and Order") are quite heated but the film doesn't really illuminate what drives sexual jealousy. Sure to be admired at festivals, the film's boxoffice prospects remain iffy.
Huston plays Edgar Hudson, a rich man who runs a well-funded charitable foundation. While he later reveals he was once married, there is little information about him beyond what he relates in the voice-over. He meets pianist Abigail at a party. They immediately commence rutting like it was going out of style.
They marry but life changes when two infants arrive and it's not long before Abigail is longing for some independence. Edgar takes that as her wishing to be with other men. When a handsome violinist is hired to play at a charity event, his imagination starts to run wild.
The musical selection they are to play is Beethoven's Opus 47 No. 9, known as "The Kreutzer Sonata". Rose cuts back and forth to the complicated and sometimes furious music as events, real and imagined, transpire and Edgar begins to froth at the mouth and eye the kitchen carving knives.
Anjelica Huston shows up for a quiet scene toward the end as Edgar's concerned sister, who senses that all is not well. The film veers from that restraint to all-out passion although Danny Huston does a good job of conveying the growing madness behind Edgar's cultivated demeanor while Rohm gives herself selflessly to her performance, baring all physically and emotionally.
Rose has done Tolstoy before ("Anna Karenina" and "Ivanxtc", both with Huston) and explored the madness in Beethoven's music ("Immortal Beloved"), but he also makes horror films such as "Candyman". As the film mixes all three elements, only the composer is likely to make it out in one piece.
Production Companies: Animandala, Giant Door Productions. Cast: Danny Huston, Elisabeth Rohm, Matthew Yang King, Anjelica Huston. Director/Director of Photography/Editor: Bernard Rose. Screenwriters: Lisa Enos, Bernard Rose. Based on the novel by: Leo Tolstoy. Producers: Naomi Despres, Lisa Enos. Executive Producer: Lisa Henson. Music: Ludwig Van Beethoven. Sales Agent: Independent. No rating, 100 minsutes.
- 6/19/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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