- Title: USA: NEW FILM "AMONG GIANTS" STARS RACHEL GRIFFITHS AND PETE POSTLETHWAITE
- Date: 23rd April 1999
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 15, 1998) (RTV-LA) (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) PETE POSTLETHWAITE SAYING OF HIS NUDE LOVE SCENES, There's always fear. There's always fear for whatever you do. Fear of climbing, fear of taking your clothes off, but, I mean, they're the kind of things that you face as an actor, I think. I mean, eventually, you know, you should be
- Embargoed: 8th May 1999 13:00
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- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA5OCSTBKS8FSZNZOVUG031QWZV
- Story Text: Fresh from her stint as an Oscar nominee for her work in "Hilary and Jackie," Australian actress Rachel Griffiths teams up with prior Oscar nominee Pete Postlethwaite to explore high-rise love in Northern England in the new film "Among Giants."
"Among Giants" is a group portrait of working class Englishmen, their life style and their love-hate relationship with a profession that's both dangerous and financially insecure.Rugged rock climbers, they earn their living taking risky free-lance work painting the electrical towers connecting power lines over hundreds of miles of English countryside.
In their spare time, they hang out in pubs listening to local bands playing American country music.While working as a team at high elevations, slapping paint on the girders of power stations hovering over the moors around Sheffield, they sing American pop songs like "Stand by Me."
Pete Postlewaite plays the crew foreman, Ray.In "Giants,"
he and his eccentric crew must paint a hundred towers before the power company turns on the electricity.He falls for Rachel Griffiths as Gerry, a wiry, curt, backpacking mountaineer from Australia who is drifting around England pursuing outdoor adventure and trying to avoid romantic entanglements.
Ray and Gerry had met while she was hitchhiking around looking for cliffs to scale, and she impulsively asks to join Ray's crew, becoming its only female member.Like Ray,she climbs rocks for fun.He takes her to his secret places, to his garden on top of an immense gas tank and the naturally cascading shower under its cooling towers where they dance and frolic naked.
The two of them try to settle down together but it goes against their natures.The love that develops between Gerry and Ray, who is divorced with two children and a bitter ex-wife, is something that sneaks up on them.That bond has a lot to do with their being fellow adventurers who share a fear of commitment and an addiction to heights and to unspoiled views and seeming freedom they provide.
Adding to the intrigue is the presence of Ray's much younger best friend and roommate, Steve (James Thornton), a hothead and charming womaniser who views Gerry with a mixture of suspicion and suppressed desire.He and Gerry have a short fling whichs serves to illustrate Gerry's mercurial nature.
Her love affair with Ray soon ends.She falls from a cliff and lands on her back.The crew that loved each other for a little while moves on.
It's no coincidence that these offbeat characters should have the same spirit as the unemployed miners in "The Full Monty."
Both "Among Giants" and "The Full Monty" share the same screenwriter, Simon Beaufoy, who penned "Giants" first.
Among the films in which Pete Postlethwaite has appeared are "In the Name of the Father," "The Usual Suspects,"
"Amistad," and "The Lost World."
Griffiths starred in "Muriel's Wedding" and "My Best Friend's Wedding", and won an Oscar nomination this year for playing the flutist Hilary du Pre in "Hilary and Jackie."
"Among Giants" is Sam Miller's debut as a feature director.He has worked extensively in television.His cinematographer was Witold Stok."Among Giants" was shot entirely on location in and around Sheffield. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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