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Links
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Official
Web site |
| Budget |
21 million |
Filmming
Location |
.7/24
~ 9/04/2003
Los Angeles, USA |
Date
Released
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2004.09.10
Toronto Film Festival
2004.10.01
New York/LA
2005.04.13
France |
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$292.177 in LA & New York
for 4 sites (10/1-10/3)
$12,596,975 (1/02/2005)
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| DVD
& Video |
2005.03.24
in US
- Amazon.com
- Amazon.fr
- FNAC.com
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I Heart Huckabees (2004)
DIRECTOR: David O. Russell
CAST: Jason Schwartzman; Dustin Hoffman; Lily Tomlin; Jude Law; Mark Wahlberg; Naomi Watts
SYNOPSIS
Albert Markovski (Schwartzman), head of the Open Spaces Coalition, has been experiencing an alarming series of coincidences the meaning of which escapes him. With the help of two Existential Detectives, Bernard and Vivian Jaffe (Hoffman and Tomlin), Albert examines his life, his relationships, and his conflict with Brad Stand (Law), an executive climbing the corporate ladder at Huckabees, a popular chain of retail superstores. When Brad also hires the detectives, they dig deep into his seemingly perfect life and his relationship with his spokesmodel girlfriend, the voice of Huckabees, Dawn Campbell (Watts). Albert pairs up with rebel firefighter Tommy Corn (Wahlberg) to take matters into their own hands under the guidance of the Jaffes' nemesis, the French radical Caterine Vauban (Huppert).
NOTE
Although Isabelle is nicely among the ensemble of the cast – ranked only under Dustin Hoffman, the director rather consumes her images – accumulated from her entire splendid career - for granted, than makes efforts on servering them well in the right places of the film. Not only because she is frequently framed off the center of the picture, but also because that extremely humiliated sex scene. There was an argument between her and the director David O. Russell about whether to film it or not - she thought it was vulgar while he didn't. As professional as she was, she compromised and did the scene for him eventually. And it proves that she was right, and that two shots are really vulgar and totally unnecessary. The film could have been better without them.
The same comic roles she was ever assigned – ‘8 Women’s old maid and ‘Amateur’s virgin-porn writer – are far better than this French radical nihilist. The first two films have paid enough respect to her and given her room to show “who she is”. But in “I Heart Huckabees”, you can not find any single moment that really belongs to her. She was so badly treated, even humiliated. In my memory, only Jean-Luc Godard has ever used her in such a vulgar and violent way. But it's Godard and it's fit in his films well.
I’m
very disappointed how she was “USED” and "WASTED" in I
HEART HUCKABEES. I never see Hollywood could give real
roles to the European stars. (for more discussion, go to
the FORUM.) - FORUM
QUOTE
David O. Russell
Fox Searchlight Offical Website
She's serious, intense, French and very sexy. She's practically a legend in France, and has the most impeccable style and taste, but she's also willing to have her face be slammed in the mud.
David O. Russell
"Puts his whole heart into zany interview", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Oct.7, 2004
Yeah, Jason's my alter ego. When I saw him in "Rushmore," I thought, that's me! I wrote "Huckabees" for him. Everything about him is like me. ... Do you know that there's a picture of him as a baby in Isabelle Huppert's lap? And in my movie he (has a sex scene with) her. Think of that!
Isabelle Huppert
Fox Searchlight Offical Website
Everyone who worked on this film wonders what it is about," admits Isabelle. "But there's so much going on in the movie, you can't really put it into words. I would say it is a modern fable about our modern world, and about how people have such different views of how to get along inside it." "Basically, Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman think that everthing is meant to happen, and my character believes the opposite. They think positive, I think negative. They are American. I am French. And I want to take my revenge on them."
He has his own vision," she observes. "In this movie, nothing is predicatable. I believe if things are predictable, then it's not a good sign. For me, the unpredictability of the film made it a totally compelling experience."
Isabelle
Huppert
Interviewed by
Stella
Papamichael from
BBC
How
did you really feel about rolling around in the mud with Jason
Schwartzman?
That was the only scene that was clear to me in the film. It was clearly written
that he was going to plunge me into that mud so there was no surprise at all.
I didn't expect it to be such a striking scene for people because that is what
they talk most about to me. I don't know what images it takes people back to
- probably some primitive image. Usually a love scene is primitive, but doing
it in the mud makes it even more so. I think it plays on several levels - it's
playful, childish and it's violent as well. (more)
AWARD
Premiere at Toronto Film Festival - Viacom Galas, September 10, 2004
TRIVIA
- Isabelle replace Catherine Deneuve to play the sexy French
ninilist Caterine Vauban.
- On the day shooting sex in the mud, Isabelle told Jason,
that 20 years before when he was one-year-old, his mother
allowed her to rock him for the whole day, when she visited
his home. (from commentary track of DVD release)
- The film earns$73,044 per theatre
in its firrst weekend, shattered records to become
the biggest feature film opening of the last two
years and the fifth biggest opening of all time
on a per-theater basis.
REVIEW
Stars Gets Serious at an Existential Comedy, Fashion Wire Daily, Sept. 23, 2004
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Village Voice, September 28th, 2004
American Soul, Aisle Five, New York Press, September 28, 2004
'Huckabees' director comfortable with existentialism, slapstick, Sept. 30, 2004
Screwball Seeks Self, Newsday, Oct. 1, 2004
On a Stroll in Angstville With Dots Disconnected, New York Times, Oct. 1, 2004
Let's get metaphysical, Daily Bulletin, Oct.3, 2004
A Film with "Heart", New York Newsday, Oct. 3, 2004
Put his whole heart into Zany Interview, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Oct. 7, 2004
Director's as out-there as Huckabees, Philadephia Inquirer, Oct. 10 2004
"It was enough
for me to see meaninglessness and cruelty..."
BBC, Nov. 3, 2004
I
heart Huckabees, The Times (London), 11 Nov. 2004
More
Reviews.... if you have comments on this film, go to
the FORUM
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