A Walk with Love and Death
A Walk with Love and Death | |
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Directed by | John Huston |
Screenplay by | Dale Wasserman |
Based on | A Walk with Love and Death 1961 novel by Hans Koningsberger |
Produced by | Carter DeHaven |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Edward Scaife |
Edited by | Russell Lloyd |
Music by | Georges Delerue |
Color process | Color by DeLuxe |
Production company | 20th Century Fox |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2,410,000[1] |
A Walk with Love and Death is a 1969 American historical-drama film directed by John Huston and starring Anjelica Huston and Assi Dayan.
Plot
The story is based on the 1961 novel by Hans Koningsberger, set at the time of the 1358 uprising of the peasants of northern France known as the Jacquerie. Heron of Fois (Assi Dayan), a student from Paris, crosses territory devastated by the upheaval and the ferocious reprisals of the nobility. He meets with Claudia (Anjelica Huston), the aristocratic daughter of a royal official killed by the peasants, and they attempt to reach Calais. In the novel, Heron's intended final destination is Oxford University while in the film "the sea" less specifically comes to represent an abstract freedom. While differing in their views of the Jacquerie—Heron sympathises with the exploited peasantry, and Claudia sees their rising as mindless savagery—the young couple become lovers. In the end, they fail to escape the chaotic violence around them but await death "strangely happy - we had stopped running from them and we had our hour".
Cast
- Anjelica Huston as Claudia
- Assi Dayan as Heron of Fois (as Assaf dayan)
- Anthony Higgins as Robert of Loris (as Anthony Corlan)
- John Hallam as Sir Meles
- Robert Lang as Pilgrim Leader
- Guy Deghy as The Priest
- Michael Gough as Mad Monk
- George Murcell as The Captain
- Eileen Murphy as Gypsy Girl
- Anthony Nicholls as Father Superior
- Joseph O'Conor as Pierre of St. Jean (as Joseph O'Connor)
- John Huston as Robert the Elder
- John Franklyn as Whoremaster
- Francis Heim as Knight Lieutenant
- Melvyn Hayes as First Entertainer
- Barry Keegan as Peasant Leader
- Nicholas Smith as Pilgrim
- Antoinette Reuss as Charcoal Woman
- Gilles Ségal as Entertainer
- Med Hondo as Entertainer
- Luis Masson as Entertainer
- Eugen Ledebur as Goldsmith
- Otto Dworak as Innkeeper
- Max Sulz as Peasant
- John Veenenbos as Monk
- Dieter Tressler as Major Domo
- Paul Hör as Peasant Boy
- Myra Malik as Peasant Girl
- Michael Baronne as Soldier
- Yvan Strogoff as Soldier
Production
The film marked the screen debut of Huston's daughter Anjelica Huston.[2] It also marked the screen debut of Israeli actor Assi Dayan, son of Moshe Dayan.[3] John Huston plays the role of a noble who defects to the rebels.
Anjelica Huston had been in the running to play Juliet in director Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, but John Huston withdrew her from consideration when he decided to cast her as Claudia in A Walk with Love and Death. Huston felt that she was wrong for the role, and has commented on the experience that her father "miscast me first time out and I think he realized that. I was ready to act, but I wasn't ready to act for him...I was difficult, I didn't want to act with no makeup, although I'd have done it for Franco."[4] Father and daughter had a fractious relationship on set, with the young Anjelica's having difficulty learning her lines and focusing, and her father grew more impatient and angry at directing her.[5]
Music
The musical score was the work of the French composer Georges Delerue. It incorporated medieval folk music themes, making extensive use of lute, harpsichord, and recorders.
Box office
The film was not a box-office success,[3] but John Huston noted in his autobiography An Open Book (1980) that it was highly praised in France, where there was a greater understanding of the historical context.
According to Fox records, the film required $3,900,000 in rentals to break even and by 11 December 1970 had made $825,000.[6] In September 1970 the studio reported it had lost $1,637,000 on the film.[7]
Reception
Some contemporary reviewers considered that the film held up the past as a mirror of the events of 1968, when it was made. Comparisons were variously made with the Vietnam War or the Paris rioting of May/June that year, which required filming to be relocated to Austria and Italy. However a recent and detailed analysis of both novel and film by the essayist Peter G. Christensen concludes that the story is literally a period one, intended to evoke the turbulence of its 14th-century setting rather than illustrating cultural or generational issues of the late 1960s.[8]
See also
References
- ^ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p256
- ^ A Walk with Love and Death at Allmovie
- ^ a b [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1115409.html Long night's journey into day, Uri Klein, Haaretz
- ^ Susan King (2019-05-17). "Anjelica Huston's magical movie life, from 'Prizzi's Honor' to 'John Wick'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
- ^ Anjelica Huston (2013). A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York. Scribner. p. 178.
- ^ Silverman, Stephen M (1988). The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox. L. Stuart. p. 328. ISBN 978-0-8184-0485-6.
- ^ Silverman p 259
- ^ Peter G. Christensen (23 June 2010). John Huston. Essays on a Restless Director. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. pp. 160–172. ISBN 978-0-7864-5853-0.
External links
- A Walk with Love and Death at IMDb
- A Walk with Love and Death at AllMovie
- A Walk with Love and Death at the TCM Movie Database
- A Walk with Love and Death at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- A Walk with Love and Death review at The New York Times
- A Walk with Love and Death review at Time Out
- A Walk with Love and Death at Rotten Tomatoes
- 1969 films
- 1969 romantic drama films
- 20th Century Fox films
- American romantic drama films
- American epic films
- 1960s English-language films
- Films scored by Georges Delerue
- Films based on American novels
- Films directed by John Huston
- Films set in France
- Films set in the 14th century
- Hundred Years' War films
- 1960s American films
- Films set in medieval France