USA: LOS ANGELES FILM PREMIERE OF "LIMBO"

Record ID: 705158

  • Title: USA: LOS ANGELES FILM PREMIERE OF "LIMBO"
  • Date: 19th June 1999
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MAY 25, 1999) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) JOHN SAYLES SAYING "I think, you know, the two things you need to know about Limbo is that it's in between Heaven and Hell and that it never ends. It's not purgatory, where you do your time and you eventually get to Heaven. Um, I think a lot of people live in these kind of Limbos." (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) MARY ELIZABETH MASTRONTONIO SAYING Alaska doesn't have all those movie-making ammenities, so we were all in, you know, little, I call them the "kennels," our little, we didn't have nice big trailers or anything like that, but that was all very far away. We were off on a, I think it's called a packman boat, that you get on and it ferries you over to the beach, and even when I saw the film I thought, nobody will know how miserable we were. It was raining, the water was coming down, the water was coming up. It was like there was water everywhere! I couldn't hear them, they couldn't hear me. It was like, when your mouth stops moving, I'll speak, cause I assume that's my cue." (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) JOHN SAYLES SAYING OF THE ALASKAN LOCATION, It's the only place I've ever had to call cut because there were whales breaching behind the actors and upstaging them. So, that's the other side of it. It's just gorgeous and sometimes you have to get the attention of your crew cause they're just blown away by where they're getting to make a movie."
  • Embargoed: 4th July 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACSNEEPMZPFNQYB0NDOG7IBAJC
  • Story Text: Fresh from his screening at the Cannes Film Festival, American independent film darling John Sayles is back with a new film called "Limbo" starring Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio, David Strathairn and newcomer Vanessa Martinez.
    In one of her first screen appearances in three years, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays Donna De Angelo, a struggling singer who has landed in Juneau, Alaska after dragging her teen-age daughter, played by Vanessa Martinez, all over the lower 48 States in search of a career break.
    Once there, she meets and starts to fall in love with a former fisherman turned handyman named Joe Gastineau, played by David Strathairn.His life has been in a limbo of its own ever since a tragic fishing accident 25 years ago forced him to give up the profession he loves.
    Together, Joe, Donna and her daughter set out on a boat trip into Alaska's wilderness that soon turns deadly dangerous and results in them being stranded on a desolate island with no hope of rescue.As they struggle to stay alive, they find themselves settling into a grueling limbo that none of them ever anticipated.
    "Limbo" is the 12th feature film from writer, director, editor John Sayles.His previous work includes the recent Oscar nominee "Lone Star," the Spanish language "Men With Guns," "Matewan," "Eight Men Out" and "Passion Fish," for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, and for which his star Mary McDonnell got a Best Actress nod.
    As with all his other films, "Limbo" relies heavily on location in telling a story.For this project, Sayles brought his cast and crew to the geographically isolated Alaskan city of Juneau, which is bordered on one side by water and the other by mountains which have no through roads to the interior of the continent.
    In the second half of the film, when the main characters find themselves stranded on an island, the crew moved to a even more inaccessible location outside the city that was only reachable by boat.This location, combined with the unpredictable yet constantly wet weather of the region, provided for a thoroughly miserable filming experience for most of the crew.
    On the up side, Sayles and his director of photography Haskell Wexler were able to enjoy and make use of some of the most spectacular wildlife scenery in the world.
    But the difficult location was only one of the challenges that faced Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.The other was to prepare for scenes where her character sings.Although trained as a singer many years ago, Mastrantonio admits she hasn't performed in front of people in years and had a case of the jitters on the day they shot those scenes.
    Mastrantonio's film credits include "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves" with Kevin Costner, "Scarface" with Al Pacino, James Cameron's "The Abyss" and "The Color of Money" with Tom Cruise, for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1986.
    David Strathairn started his acting career in John Sayles' debut film "Return of the Secaucus Seven" and then went on to work with the filmmaker in movies such as "Brother From Another Planet," "Matewan," "Eight Men Out," "City of Hope"
    and "Passion Fish." His other credits include the recent screen version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and the multi-Oscar nominated 1997 film "L.A.Confidential."
    Following its screening in competition at the recent Cannes Film Festival, "Limbo" is now playing in theaters throughout the United States.
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