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Stella Hopkins directs her husband – but struggles to get the best out of her cast – in this uneven psychological drama

This peculiar, freakishly uneven but far from meritless psychological drama stars Lisa Pepper as the title character, a soigné but very intense woman in early middle age who seems both on the verge of nervous breakdown and under the influence of some kind of emotional malady. Elyse is married to Stephen Bridges (Aaron Tucker), a successful lawyer, and they have a young son (Griffin Thomas Hollander); the boy is largely looked after by the family’s housekeeper Julia (Julieta Ortiz) while Elyse drifts about through her day, browsing at bookshops, stroking donuts she doesn’t eat, all the while carrying a camera she barely uses even though she’s meant to be a photographer of some sort.

But the placid surface of this Los Angeleno style-magazine existence is suddenly broken...

Elyse Bridges lives in a glamorous house in Los Angeles, with her husband and son, where she spends most of her days lost in thought. But despite an idyllic opening shot set in a postcard suburban setting, something isn’t right in Stella Hopkins’ directorial debut, “Elyse.”

The black-and-white independent movie stars Lisa Pepper in the role of the film’s title character. Anthony Hopkins, the director’s husband, plays a psychiatrist. The rest of the cast of mostly unknowns are newcomers, who Stella cast because she believes one of the purposes of independent film is to shine a spotlight on emerging talent.

Stella has acted in (“The Human Stain”) and produced movies before, but this is her first time behind the camera. She shot “Elyse” in only 13 days last year, financing it through Margam Films, a division of the art company that she runs with with Anthony. “Elyse” is...

"The wayward heart is just a wild animal... beast that needs to be tamed." Gravitas Ventures has released an official trailer for the indie psychological thriller / drama of sorts called Elyse, the first feature made by Anthony Hopkins' Colombian wife named Stella Hopkins. She also co-wrote the screenplay. Memory and hallucination intertwine to expose a history of trauma, revealing Elyse is Catatonic and institutionalized in a State Hospital. Her recovery is reliant on the dissolution of her marriage, the restoration of the relationship with her mother, and the mutual absolution with the nanny's daughter, Carmen. It's the care from Dr. Lewis and the unconditional love from her nurse, David, that promise Elyse a new life. The film stars Anthony Hopkins, Lisa Pepper as Elyse, as well as Aaron Tucker, Tara Arroyave, Fran Tucker, Anthony Apel, Julieta Oritiz, and Danny Jacobs. I'm not sure why they need to blatantly reveal in the synopsis that she's catatonic,...

For her directorial debut, Stella Hopkins zeroed in on a pretty impressive star: her own husband, Oscar winner Sir Anthony Hopkins. That casting only seems fitting for something as close to her heart as “Elyse,” a drama that the Colombian filmmaker said was inspired by her own family life.

Per the film’s official synopsis: “The drama follows the titular character (Lisa Pepper) who, in a psychotic blackout, commits vehicular manslaughter of her son and his nanny. Memory and hallucination intertwine to expose a history of trauma, revealing the truth: Elyse is catatonic and institutionalized in a State Hospital. Her recovery is reliant on the dissolution of her marriage, the restoration of the relationship with her mother, and a mutual absolution with the nanny’s daughter, Carmen. It’s the care from Dr. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) and the unconditional love from her nurse, David, that promise Elyse a new life.

Exclusive: Gravitas Ventures has secured the North American rights to distribute Elyse, the directorial debut drama from Stella Hopkins starring her husband, Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins. Lisa Pepper, Aaron Tucker, Tara Arroyave, Fran Tucker, Anthony Apel, Julieta Oritiz, and Danny Jacobs also star in the film, which will get a theatrical and on-demand release on December 4.

Written by Stella, the drama follows the titular character (Pepper) who, in a psychotic blackout, commits vehicular manslaughter of her son and his nanny. Memory and hallucination intertwine to expose a history of trauma, revealing the truth: Elyse is Catatonic and institutionalized in a State Hospital. Her recovery is reliant on the dissolution of her marriage, the restoration of the relationship with her mother, and the mutual absolution with the nanny’s daughter, Carmen. It’s the care from Dr. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) and the unconditional love from her nurse, David, that promise Elyse a new life.

• Quick Links  Complete Film Listing: Premieres Dramatic Comp:  Docu Comp: World Dramatic Comp: World Docu Comp: Spectrum: Park City at Midnight: Short Film Programs January 18 to 28, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 18, 2007'); Artist Spotlight: Pierre Huyghe a collection of short films by the French multimedia artist rarely seen outside of museum or art gallery contexts.The Last Dining Table (South Korea), directed and written by Gyeong-Tae Roh, an evocation of the issues of environmental pollution and family values decay in a minimalist/surrealist style. Offscreen (Denmark), directed by Christoffer Boe and written by Boe and Knud Romer Jorgensen, about an actor making an intensely private home movie about himself. World premiere.Phantom Love (U.S.), directed by Nina Menkes, a surreal tale about the personal liberation of a woman trapped in a family. Shot in Los Angeles and Rishikesh, India. World premiere. Slipstream (U.S.), directed and written by Anthony Hopkins,

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John Turturro, Camryn Manheim, Jeffrey Tambor, S. Epatha Merkerson, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Lawford and Michael Clarke Duncan have joined the ensemble cast of the Anthony Hopkins-helmed indie Slipstream. Hopkins, Christian Slater, Stella Arroyave, Lisa Pepper, Kevin McCarthy, Gavin Grazer, Aaron Tucker and Lana Antonova already have joined the cast. Penned by Hopkins, Slipstream is a noir comedy about an actor and would-be screenwriter who, at the very moment of his meeting with fate, comes to discover that life is random and fortune is sightless as he is thrown into a vortex where time, dreams and reality collide in an increasingly whirling slipstream. The story is described as a complex, surreal and dreamlike tale of one man's journey.