Guinevere (film)

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Guinevere

Directed by	Audrey Wells
Produced by	Jonathan King Brad Weston
Written by	Audrey Wells
Starring	Stephen Rea Sarah Polley Jean Smart Gina Gershon
Music by	Christophe Beck Mikael Sandgren
Cinematography	Charles Minsky
Editing by	Dody Dorn
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	September 24, 1999
Running time	104 min
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	US$2,600,000
IMDb profile

Guinevere (1999) is a film about the artistic and romantic relationship between a young student and her older mentor.

The film was written and directed by Audrey Wells and stars Stephen Rea, Sarah Polley, Jean Smart, and Gina Gershon. The running time is 105 minutes. The film was a 1999 Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize nominee.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Sarah Polley plays Harper Sloane, a misfit in her snobbish and upperclass family, who has just gotten accepted to Harvard. At her sister's wedding, after being sent out from her hiding place in the storage room with a bottle of champagne, she meets Connie Fitzpatrick (Stephen Rea), a bohemian photographer who takes an instant liking to her and gives her the nickname of "Guinevere". Her visit to his flat in order to pick up the wedding photographs soon blossoms into a full-blown affair, and Harper eventually moves in with Connie as he instructs her in the ways of art, in particular photography.

After a brutal confrontation with Deborah Sloane, and Harper's discovery that Connie has a history of relationships with young women, the film comes to a climax in a downtrodden L.A. hotel, after a tumultuous five year relationship between the two of them, when Harper knows it's time for her to leave Connie. She returns only once, as he is dying from cirrhosis of the liver, and meets the other Guineveres he has had. But she is the only one who stays with him as he dies and describes his personal view of heaven to him, which she affectionately titles "The Connie Special".