Patricia Kruijer Movies
Danish filmmaker Kristian Levring directs the Dogme 95-inspired period drama The Intended, co-written by leading lady Janet McTeer. Shot with digital video, the film takes place in the Malaysia jungle during the 1920s. Fortysomething British woman Sarah (McTeer) travels with her younger fiancé, Hamish Winslow (JJ Feild), to a small community near Borneo. Hamish has been hired to survey the land and map a road for a trading post run by a deeply dysfunctional family. The local ruler is tough matriarch Mrs. Jones (Brenda Fricker), who dominates her son William (Tony Maudsley) and nephew Norton (Philip Jackson). When a climate change causes them to become even more isolated, the family tension takes a dark turn. Also starring Olympia Dukakis. The Intended premiered at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janet McTeer, Olympia Dukakis, (more)
Shot against the barren sand dunes of Africa's Namib Desert, The King Is Alive is the fourth film to adhere to the stripped-down aesthetic of the Dogma 95 movement, and the first to bear the directorial stamp of the manifesto's co-author Kristian Levring. The improvised, shot-on-digital video production concerns the exploits of almost a dozen tourists who find themselves stranded when their bus breaks down miles from civilization. A thespian amongst the group, Henry (David Bradley), is the first to suggest that their situation may be more dire than it seems. His doubts send the rest of the folks -- including American travelers Ray (Bruce Davison), Liz (Janet McTeer), Ashley (Brion James), and Gina (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and a high-minded Parisian, Catherine (Romane Bohringer) -- into fits of fear and dread. To get their minds off the heat, hunger, and dehydration, the castaways stage an impromptu reading of Shakespeare's King Lear, which they can only fitfully remember. As their situations worsen, the tourists begin to take out their personal aggressions on one another. The King Is Alive was shown as part of the 2000 Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, (more)
- 1998
Stephen Grynberg wrote and directed this drama, an indie road movie about three strangers who meet at the New York funeral of a mutual friend. They set out for Montana to scatter his ashes. Henry's Southern girlfriend Samantha (Jacqueline McKenzie) is joined by Henry's childhood friend, bureaucratic Walter (Pruitt Taylor-Vince), and Henry's college pal Eric (Simon Baker-Denny). The trio uses postcards instead of a map as they head westward in a Kerouacian journey, narrated in voiceover by the dead Henry (Sam Robards). Along the way, Walter and Samantha become a twosome, and Eric gets involved with a roadside waitress. A former encyclopedia salesman (James Gammons) briefly rides with the group. After Eric and Samantha fight, Eric starts hitchhiking, but they reunite. In Missoula, there's a stopover to see Alex (Kathryne Erbe), Eric's former girlfriend, before they continue on to their destination. The title is a reference to the South Dakota town where the government once kept the M-10. Shown at the 1998 Hamptons Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pruitt Taylor Vince, Simon Baker-Denny, (more)
