USA: CHRISTIAN BALES STARS IN FILM OF CONTROVERSIAL NOVEL "AMERICAN PSYCHO"

Record ID: 389164

  • Title: USA: CHRISTIAN BALES STARS IN FILM OF CONTROVERSIAL NOVEL "AMERICAN PSYCHO"
  • Date: 4th April 2000
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (APRIL 4, 2000) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR CHRISTIAN BALE SAYING: "It could very easily have descended into just a slasher pic(ture) and I think some people are expecting it to be like that and some people are hoping that it's going to be like that, some people have accused this movie of not being violent enough. I thi
  • Embargoed: 19th April 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVAF3HGXPVHJS2ORA6691VO420TJ
  • Story Text: Feminist director Mary Harron has brought Bret Easton Ellis' controversial 1991 novel "American Psycho" to the big screen.Welsh actor Christian Bale stars as Patrick Bateman, the souless, sociopathic Wall Street banker who sidelines as a serial killer.
    Harron, who previously directed "I Shot Andy Warhol,"has cast, or re-cast the story as a satire of conspicuous consumption and moral bankruptcy during the go-go Reagan years.
    The project first gained notoriety when Leonardo DiCaprio briefly looked set to star in it as his first post-"Titanic"
    role.Harron's initial casting of Bale in the title role was in jeopardy until the King of the World backed-out, leaving the film with a significantly smaller budget.
    In the film, Ellis' protagonist remains a Donald Trump-worshipping, coke-snorting, insider-trading vapid yet materialistic monster.His opening monologue, intact in the film, cheerfully lists the steps on his daily skin-cleansing regimen.
    Bateman's unstable temperament first gets pushed over the line when co-worker Paul Allen (Jared leto) brandishes a business card slightly more elegant than Patrick's.Paul is quickly dispatched with an expensive axe, then, through Patrick's connivance, supposedly travels to London in a cover-up that at least halfway convinces police detective Kimball (Willem Dafoe).Next, a street prostitute barely escapes intact, then is lured again to a more final date involving coerced bisexual play with a drunken debutante.This segment, involving a chainsaw, teeters on the edge of parody.
    During each murder preparation, Bateman provides monologues on the glories of banal 80's pop music, including the works of Whitney Houston, Phil Collins and Huey Lewis and the News.
    As Bateman's self-control disintegrates, so does any trace of his individuality -- colleagues persistently mis-identify him, while designer clothing labels and reservations at the hippest resstaurants fail to sate the hyper-status conscience lead.
    Welsh-born Bale began his career on film in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of J.G.Ballard's "Empire of the Sun."
    Recent films include "Velvet Goldmine," "Little Women," and "Portrait of a Lady."
    Reese Witherspoon, most recently in "Election," plays Bateman's simpering fiancee; Samantha Mathis portrays his drug-addled mistress.Chloe Sevigny, from "Boys Don't Cry," is cast as Bateman's drab yet vulnerable secretary.
    John Cale, a founding member of "The Velvet Underground,"provided the score for the film.
    While "American Psycho" takes place in the high rent, high rise district of Manhattan, it was shot entirely on location in Toronto, Canada.
    The film's distributor, Lions Gate Films has had previous success marketing highly controversial pictures, including last year's anti-Papist "Dogma."
    The film is presently on screens in North America.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register