USA: MICHELLE PFEIFFER AND JESSICA LANGE TEAM UP WITH JASON ROBARDS FOR AN ACTING TOUR-DE-FORCE IN "A THOUSAND ACRES"

Record ID: 387184

  • Title: USA: MICHELLE PFEIFFER AND JESSICA LANGE TEAM UP WITH JASON ROBARDS FOR AN ACTING TOUR-DE-FORCE IN "A THOUSAND ACRES"
  • Date: 15th September 1997
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (RECENT) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) JASON ROBARDS SAYING, "IT KNOCKED MY SOCKS OFF I MEAN, I HAVEN'T CRIED IN A LONG TIME IN A FILM OR ANYTHING, UH, I CRIED A COUPLE TIMES WHEN FRIENDS DIED, BUT I HAD A SOBBING INSIDE FOR WHAT HAD HAPPENED, AND THAT'S WHAT THEY DID. I HAD TO BITE MY LIP, HAD TO WIPE MY EYES. IT'S STRANGE, I UH, DEEPLY
  • Embargoed: 30th September 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA3GOIH9QTKRZEHSRRAQ485JUN2
  • Story Text: Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange have fulfilled a career-long dream by playing sisters in the new film, "A Thousand Acres." The film, which premiered in Los Angeles last week, sees Pfeiffer and Lange play Rose and Ginny Cook, two of three daughters of the indomitable patriarch, Larry Cook (Jason Robards).

    The Cook family has tilled the fields of its thousand-acre farm in Iowa for many generations.

    As the film opens, Larry Cook has decided to split the farm into three pieces and divide it equally among Rose, Ginny and his third daughter Caroline, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.

    Caroline is the only one who hesitates, as she is more interested in pursuing her career as a lawyer in the city. As a result, she is shunned by her father.

    But the carving up of the farm doesn't go so smoothly. Soon after Rose and Ginny take over its operations, their father, despondent and bored without his farm to work, begins to regret his decision and takes his anger out on his girls.

    The town begins to suspect Rose and Ginny of having swindled their own father out of the land he loves.

    As the tensions mount, dark secrets from the family's past begin to emerge, including sexual abuse and marital infidelity.

    Through it all, Rose and Ginny only have each other to rely on.

    "A Thousand Acres" is based on a novel by author Jane Smiley.

    Before its publication, both Pfeiffer and Lange were sent copies of the book and both fell in love with it.

    They had been looking for a project to do together for a long time and they decided this would be it.

    Upon publication, the novel quickly became a best-seller, winning the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle award in 1991.

    Inspired by Shakespeare's epic tragedy, "King Lear," Smiley's story tells of a father dividing his kingdom amongst his daughters.

    The consequences of that divide his family and force them to face the truth about themselves and each other.

    It was this connection to "King Lear" that attracted Australian director Jocelyn Moorhouse. She says since studying the play at school, she had wanted to make a movie of it.

    Her other feature film credits include "How To Make an American Quilt" and the psychological drama "Proof."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register