Tropic of Cancer (film)
| Tropic of Cancer | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Joseph Strick |
| Produced by | Joseph Strick |
| Screenplay by |
Betty Botley Joseph Strick |
| Based on |
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller |
| Starring |
Rip Torn James T. Callahan David Baur Laurence Lignères Phil Brown Dominique Delpierre |
| Music by | Stanley Myers |
| Cinematography | Alain Derobe |
| Edited by |
Sidney Meyers Sylvia Sarner |
Production company |
Tropic Productions |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Tropic of Cancer is a 1970 American film based on Henry Miller's loosely autobiographical novel of the same title. Filming took place on location in Paris, produced by Joseph Strick with some help from the author, whose persona was portrayed by Rip Torn and his wife Mona by Ellen Burstyn. The novel had provided a test for American laws on pornography in the early 1960s, and the film was rated X in the United States, which was later changed to an NC-17 rating.[1] In the UK the film was refused a theatrical 'X' certificate by the BBFC. Strick had previously adapted other works of literature - Jean Genet's The Balcony and James Joyce's Ulysses.
Plot
The film is a sex comedy, a series of 'vignettes and sex fantasies' about Americans abroad.
Strick's adaptation does not keep the book in its period - the bohemian Depression milieu of rootless Russian and American exptriates in the Paris of the early 1930s, something for which he was criticised by the critic Pauline Kael. " When the story is made timeless, the characters are out of nowhere, and the author-hero is not discovering a new kind of literary freedom in self-exposure, he's just a dirty not-so-young man hanging around the tourist spots of Paris."
Cast
- Rip Torn as Henry Miller
- James T. Callahan as Fillmore
- David Baur as Carl
- Laurence Lignères as Ginette
- Phil Brown as Van Norden
- Dominique Delpierre as Vite Cheri
- Magali Noël as The Princess
- Raymond Gérôme as M. Le Censeur
- Ginette Leclerc as Madame Hamilton
- Sabine Sun as Elsa
- Sheila Steafel as Tania
- Gladys Berry as American Lady
- George Birt as Sylvester
- Stuart De Silva as Ranji
- Steve Eckardt as Cronstadt
- Philippe Gasté as Train Passenger
- Gisèle Grimm as Germaine
- Eléonore Hirt as Yvette
- Jo Lefevre as Accordionist
- Françoise Lugagne as Iréne
- Edward Marcus as Boris
- Henry Miller as Spectator
- Christine Oscar as Helen
- Elliott Sullivan as Peckover
References
- ↑ Fox, Margalit (June 7, 2010). "Joseph Strick, Who Filmed the Unfilmable, Dies at 86". The New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 2014.