FRANCE: DIRECTOR ROBERT ALTMAN AND ACTRESS MIRANDA RICHARDSON SPEAK ABOUT THEIR NEW FILM 'KANSAS CITY'
Record ID:
731053
FRANCE: DIRECTOR ROBERT ALTMAN AND ACTRESS MIRANDA RICHARDSON SPEAK ABOUT THEIR NEW FILM 'KANSAS CITY'
- Title: FRANCE: DIRECTOR ROBERT ALTMAN AND ACTRESS MIRANDA RICHARDSON SPEAK ABOUT THEIR NEW FILM 'KANSAS CITY'
- Date: 13th May 1996
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 13, 1996) (RTV) RICHARDSON SAYING IT WAS FABULOUS, IT WAS VERY LIBERATING. HE WANTS YOUR CREATIVE INPUT ALL THE TIME AND HE WANTS YOU TO HAVE FUN BECAUSE HE IS HAVING A BALL ALL THE TIME, YOU KNOW, IT'S THE PLACE HE MOST WANTS TO BE. AND THIS MOVIE HE WANTED TO MAKE FOR A VERY LONG TIME AND HE LOVED ALL THE ELEMENTS OF IT. (ENGLISH)
- Embargoed: 28th May 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CANNES, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVADMFZELWNQ7E6MNINVXZ738VLT
- Story Text: Director Robert Altman and actress Miranda Richardson attended the screening of Altman's latest movie, "Kansas City" at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday (May 12).
Altman returned to his birthplace in "Kansas City" using the rich jazz music tradition of the town as a lynch-pin for the feature.
Set around the Hey-Hey Bar in Kansas City circa 1930, Altman uses a jazz contest as a backdrop for the plot, a kidnapping gone wrong.
Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson and Harry Belfonte "Kansas City" unrolls as telegraph operator (Leigh) kidnaps a politician's wife (Richardson) to try to free her hoodlum husband from the grasp of mafia boss Seldom Seen (Belafonte).
All the characters in the film are based on real people, with the exception of the role played by Leigh.
The uneasy relationship between Leigh and her captive is framed against a famous jazz contest between tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, with a 14-year-old Charlie Parker in the audience.
Altman explained why jazz music takes such a prominent place in "Kansas City".
Like the two competitors in jazz competition, Leigh and Richardson gradually come to respect each other.
After Leigh fails to save her husband from death, Richardson shoots her in what Altman called "a mercy killing to give her the peace she could not have" -- to the strains of Duke Ellington's "Solitude". - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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