Falling Angels Wallpapers

Falling Angels MOVIES WALLPAPERS

Release Date: February 18, 2005 (NY)
Studio: Film Movement
Director: Scott Smith
Screenwriter: Esta Spalding
Starring: Miranda Richardson, Callum Keith Rennie, Katharine Isabelle, Kristin Adams, Mont� Gagn�, Mark McKinney, Carman Fielding, Courtney Goodison, Melissa Brown, Kett Turton, Ingrid Nilson, Kristina Hughes, Jonathan Bastian
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: FilmMovement.com

SYNOPSIS
Set against the backdrop of the 1960�s, free love, the Cold War, and the dawn of feminism, Falling Angels is a wickedly funny story of three sisters coming of age in a wildly dysfunctional family. Based on Barbara Gowdy�s novel, Falling Angels is a keen observation of the destructive effects of secrecy and the bonds of duty between parents and children.
REVIEW
Successfully adapting Canadian author Barbara Gowdy's 1990 novel, "Falling Angels" is a dysfunctional-family tale that confirms soph helmer Scott Smith ("Rollercoaster") as a keen observer of character drama, particularly in the realm of teenage turmoil. Set in late-1960s Toronto suburbia, pic deftly balances elements of pathos, humor and the grotesque while maintaining a low-key tenor. That artful restraint might actually hinder theatrical exposure, as selling points are not obvious or easily encapsulated. However, topliner Miranda Richardson's presence should help, in tandem with good reviews and better word-of-mouth wherever feature gains a foothold. Ancillary prospects, particularly in broadcast, should be brisk. Esta Spalding's expert screenplay compresses some story elements, but otherwise remains true to the book in both plot and tone. It's 1969, but the counterculture hasn't yet reached the protags' tidy 'burb -- a fact that especially irks Lou (Katherine Isabelle), most outwardly disgruntled among the Field family's three nearly adult daughters. She's openly sarcastic and hostile toward dad Jim (Callum Keith Rennie), whom she blames for all their woes. It's not an unreasonable accusation. While he maintains the extroverted, back-slapping manner suitable to his job as a used-car salesman, Jim runs the household like a drill sergeant, and his frequent explosions of temper suggest deeper instability. Resulting tense climate has already taken a severe toll on mom Mary (Richardson), a onetime dancer who's long since checked out -- she sits on the living room couch, watching TV and drinking cocktails. Relegated to being both housekeepers and caregivers, the daughters each find their own ways of coping. Private chain-smoker Lou has vague fantasies of rebellion, which find a seemingly perfect mentor in the form of self-styled hippie Tom (Kett Turton), a fellow student newly arrived from the States. Pretty-in-pink blonde Sandy (Kristin Adams) is eager to use traditional feminine charm toward any possible escape. She lunges at the first man to come along, married would-be swinger Reg (Mark McKinney). Wallflowerish Norma (Monte Gagne) is the lone daddy's-girl. She also carries a torch for the dark secret everyone else would prefer to keep buried: The girls once had an infant brother who was either accidentally or intentionally dropped from Niagara Falls. As story builds from one small event to another, the clan's uneasy insularity unravels. Things climax during one long night of intercut activities: Lou and Tom do LSD in the backyard bomb shelter; drunken Jim gives Norma a wee-hours driving lesson; Sandy, meeting her lover in a cheap motel, is informed his twin brother (McKinney again) wants to join the "party;" and a briefly neglected mom climbs onto the roof, bringing things full circle to the funeral sequence that starts pic. Interspersed are glimpses of the event that did most to damage them all. Ten years earlier, Jim had forced the family into that bomb shelter for two weeks' "practice" dominated by both parents' alcohol consumption. Grim as much of content is, atmosphere is often mordantly comic, even during the most appalling incidents. Smith handles complex, troubling agenda here with quiet skill, while an exemplary cast maintains sympathy without pushing for sentiment. Richardson's glazed, M.I.A. mother reps a nice change of pace from her usual, more brittle screen characters. Smith ably manages to offset Jim's ogre-ish behavior with a hapless pathos -- as does McKinney, in a more caricatured role. But pic belongs primarily to the young female thesps, who are excellent. While at first glance it appears that classic "smart one" Lou will be major focus here, there's satisfaction in the way that story eventually gives equal weight to each daughter's progress. Lenser Greg Middleton's concise compositions, a soundtrack of mostly lesser-known period songs, and sharp design all convey the slightly garish feel of '60s Canadian suburbia with amusing strokes that stop short of outright satire. Tech aspects are accomplished. .
Reviewed By - DENNIS HARVEY.(www.variety.com)

Best of the Fest

SERIES TITLES FROM THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM ARE ABBREVIATED AS FOLLOWS: CWC (CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA), DISC (DISCOVERY), MAST (MASTERS), MM (MIDNIGHT MADNESS), PA (PLANET AFRICA), PC (PERSPECTIVE CANADA), RtR (REAL TO REEL), SP (SPECIAL PRESENTATION), VDN (VIDA DE NOVO: THE NEW BRAZILIAN CINEMA), VIS (VISIONS). We know that 100 film reviews are a lot for even the most dedicated cineaste to read through. So to make it easy, here's our critical list of the top 10 unmissable films at the Toronto International Film Festival. These are the ones for which you should beg, borrow or steal a ticket (see How to do the Festival sidebar below) -- or even consider standing in line for a few hours.
Reviewed By - JASON ANDERSON, KIM LINEKIN, JOEL MCCONVEY, ADAM NAYMAN AND CATHARINE TUNNACLIFFE.

FALLING ANGELS This treat from director Scott Smith, based on the Barbara Gowdy novel, will be accused of being a typically Canadian film: it's dark, weird and unsettling. But it's also alive with production designer Rob Gray's skewed rendering of tacky, chartreuse-laden late '60s decor, and the stunning cinematography of Greg Middleton, who veers between bleak claustrophobic greys and surreal colours to eye-popping effect. The story of three sisters coping with their catatonic mother (Richardson) and dictatorial father (Rennie) moves slowly, but Ginger Snaps' Katharine Isabelle provides a fine axis as Lou, the most rebellious of the three angels. All this, plus Mark McKinney in a scene-stealing role that's both extremely disturbing and utterly hilarious.
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_09.04.03/film/tiff.html

Falling Angels, based on the novel by Barbara Gowdy, is one of the most effective family dramas to emerge in a good long while. Set at the end of the 1960s, the film follows the Field family through their trials and tribulations over a particularly tumultuous couple of months. Mother Mary (Miranda Richardson) spends the majority of her day lying on the couch, hopped up on pills to deal with her depression - while dad Jim (Callum Keith Rennie) uses his military background to run his household. Their three daughters have problems of their own: Lou (Katherine Isabelle) is a rebellious sort who's just begun a relationship with a draft dodger from the States; Sandy (Kirsten Adams) has also started seeing someone, a sleazy shoe salesman (played a little too convincingly by Mark McKinney), and honestly hopes to settle down with him; Norma (Monte Gagne) is the outcast of the family, with her extremely low self-confidence and fixation on their dead brother. Not surprisingly, Falling Angels doesn't contain much in the way of plot - that's par for the course with movies of this type - but the characters are so compelling here that it's barely noticeable until the very end (which goes on a bit longer than it should). Director Scott Smith has a keen eye for '60s details (the film feels authentic, from the Volkswagen minibus that Lou's boyfriend drives to the old-school TV commercials that can occasionally be glimpsed), and he's assembled a pitch-perfect cast. Rennie surely must've been tempted to channel Robert Duvall's tough-as-nails Great Santini character, but he manages to turn Jim into a far more complex figure. His good intentions rarely wind up the way he hopes (a routine Scrabble game turns into an awkward spelling battle between Jim and Lou), mostly because he refuses to see things from his wife or daughters' point of view. The only weak link is Miranda Richardson's Mary; the character isn't developed to the extent where we understand her indolence. Jim's behavior would indicate that Mary's been forced to withdraw completely from the world, but the screenplay never really allows us to get under her skin. Still, that's a minor complaint for a film that's otherwise surprisingly moving and emotional
Reviewed By - David Nuisair (www.reelfilm.com)

Everywhere you look, Canadian filmmakers are conjuring the past with grim nostalgia. In Emile, from Vancouver writer-director Carl Bessai, a dithering Sir Ian McKellan stars as an expatriate professor who comes home to be haunted by bloody apparitions of his two brothers, who died violently on the old family farm. McKellan and Deborah Kara Unger, who plays his resentful niece, create a delicate tension, but the film hinges on flashbacks that play like Hallmark cards from hell. Buried family trauma is more effectively rendered in Falling Angels, a darkly comic gem of suburban Gothic drama. Based on Barbara Gowdy's 1989 novel, it's about three sisters growing up in '60s suburbia with a beer-swilling, tyrannical father (Callum Keith Rennie) and a catatonic mother (Miranda Richardson) -- a family scarred by the suspicious death of a first-born baby boy who tumbled from the mother's arms into Niagara Falls. Falling Angels evokes the extreme moods of an era as volatile as puberty, one that swings from forcible confinement in a backyard fallout shelter to flirting with sex and drugs in a Volkswagen van. Falling Angels is one of three new adaptations of Canadian fiction, along with The Republic of Love (Carol Shields) and The Snow Walker (Farley Mowat). Each picture possesses an overwhelming sense of place, with characters enveloped by cold, alien landscapes. Falling Angels is set amid the suffocating kitsch of suburban Toronto. But for financial reasons, Vancouver director Scott Smith had to shoot in Saskatchewan, where he found a vintage suburb better preserved than the one that inspired the novel.
Source: �Dreaming of Oblivion� MacLeans.ca by Brian D. Johnson
http://www.macleans.ca/culture/films/article.jsp?content=20030915_65453_65453
ACCLAIM
DGC Craft Awards 2004 Nominated � Outstanding Achievement in Direction, Feature Film Movement, Scott Smith Nominated � Outstanding Achievement in Production Design, Feature Film, Rob Gray Genie Awards 2004 Won � Best Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design, Rob Gray, Christina Kuhnigk Won � Best Achievement in Music � Original song, Ken Whiteley for the song �Tell Me� Nominated � Best Achievement in Overall Sound Nominated � Best Achievement in Sound Editing Nominated � Best Adapted Screenplay, Esta Spalding Nanaimo infest Film Festival 2003 Won � Silvie Award Toronto Film Festival Group Named one of Canada�s top ten films of 2003 Panel Statements: Comedy so biting even the art direction is infused with satire, Falling Angels takes family dysfunction to new depths, the depths of a bomb shelter. � Lee Anne Gillan I loved this movie. An oddball tale of an oddball family, always on the verge of falling apart, but somehow stepping back from the edge at the last minute. Scott Smith`s handling of the Barbara Gowdy novel proves he is an accomplished stylist to watch in years to come. The performances by Katharine Isabelle and Callum Keith Rennie are outstanding. � Bill Evans Rarely has a recreation of the late �60s been quite as wondrously garish as it is in Scott Smith`s savvy adaptation of Barbara Gowdy`s tragicomedy about a family in free fall. But the movie`s knack for telling details and period quirks is matched by the strength and subtlety of the cast as the characters try (and fail) to avoid the perils of adolescence, parenthood, grief and, of course, the bomb. Unfortunately for this family, the shelter in the backyard is only good for one of those things. � Jason Anderson
CAST
Miranda Richardson - Mary Field Callum Keith Rennie - Jim Field Katherine Isabelle - Lou Field Kristin Adams - Sandy Field Mont� Gagn� - Norma Field Mark McKinney - Reg/Ron
CREW
Director/Writer - Scott Smith Screenplay - Esta Spalding Producer - Robin Cass Director of Photography - Gregory Middleton Production Designer - Rob Gray Editing - Reginald Harkema Costume Designer - Brenda Shenher Original Music - Ken Whitely
DVD FEATURES
Enhanced for Widescreen TV (16x9) Closed Captioned Biographies This Month�s Short Film: Scott Smith�s Ten Highlights from the Film Movement Series
PRODUCTION NOTES
ADAPTING TO SCREEN AND KEEPING TRUE TO THE FAMILY Barbara Gowdy (Author of the novel) on adapting to film: �Right from beginning what was important to me was that the tone and intent of the movie remain faithful to the book. A number of people before Esta and Scott had tried and failed to adapt this novel. Oddly, the ones who were most faithful to the book delivered the less successful screenplays. I knew Esta would have to tear the book apart and make something new and to allow for a more cinematic tension. What I felt I brought to the process by reading scripts was the question �were these still my characters?� That is what I was looking for; to make sure I could hear the voices of my time and my place. The collaborative process is new to me, and this was a terrific experience. I learned things that I will definitely take to future creative endeavours.� Esta Spalding (screenwriter) on adapting the novel: �A month after I found out I was doing the adaptation, I ran into Barbara at a party in Toronto and she pulled me aside and said she didn�t care if what happens in the book doesn�t happen in the movie, as long as the characters are true. The characters being true was the horizon line I was always walking towards. The best affirmation that I�d done it right was when Barbara read it, and said this was the way she would have written it.� Scott Smith (director) on working with Esta Spalding on the adaptation: �The greatest challenge was to maintain the tone of the book, which was so successful in telling a dark story with such wit. We tried to keep the tension between the humour and the drama constant, so that both were always present. Even the music of two generations, itself in reaction to the previous generation, fights for space. The story is so informed by the physics of reactionism, all these characters, two generations, two sexes, pushing and pulling against each other. So, the movie is full of these little tugs of war, which I think contribute to the larger tugs of war in the movie.� Robin Cass (Producer) on Falling Angels: �Although the movie is absolutely true to the essence of the book but it�s very different in how we have told the story. If we played our cards right, the audience will recognize classic family elements that have to do with the nature of tension in families and the kind of love-hate relationship we sometimes have with our siblings and our parents.� Scott Smith (director) on the patterns in the family that formed the basis of the film: �We talk about this sort of behaviour as �dysfunctional�, but in actual fact, it�s entirely functional. Each member of the family has chosen their role according to some unspoken pact. It�s complicit. It�s reactionary. It�s the tension that they live in, and so they have to go elsewhere to get the expressions of love they really need.� THE LOOK AND FEEL OF THE FILM Cinematography Director of Photography Gregory Middleton gives Falling Angels a true 1960�s feel, with a look that transcends the decades between that era and today. The look was achieved through a combination of art direction and lighting, as well as camera filters and lab technique. �It was all inspired by photos from the �60s, catalogues, magazines, things that had a slightly faded look,� he says. �We looked at that and tried to imitate it. The jumping off point was the concept that there was nowhere to hide for the three daughters � no dark shadows to escape to.� Because the plot is so strong and the characters so compelling, Middleton created a very natural look with nothing overcomplicated that would draw attention to itself and away from the story. Production Design Rather than creating an art-directed version of the 1960�s, production designer Rob Gray set out to capture the real essence of the era for Falling Angels, which he discovered through researching newspapers and documentary footage. �Contrary to film references, it wasn�t the Haight-Ashbury, Yorkville experience,� says Gray, with the benefit of his 16 years as an art director and production designer. �The times were really a throwback to the �50�s and the post war ideals which had enabled the facade of the suburbs to grow. These were much more conservative times than is generally perceived, but at the same time they were very volatile.� Gray wanted to control the space so the Field family would feel imprisoned in their environment. While the backyard bomb shelter was an obvious way to do this, he created the same feeling of confinement in the house by using doorways and frames to create divisions of space, and structuring the colours to the rooms, such as the worn-out golds and almonds of the living room. �At the same time, the kitchen was a little more vibrant with blue patterned paper,� he says. �This gave some relief to the girls, a place to hide from the reminder of their almost non-existent, worn-out mother.� Costume Design Costume designer Brenda Shenher created a parade of the fashions of 1969, dressing the characters to reflect their diverse personalities. The retro look of Falling Angels has a range of influences from Britain�s mods and rockers to The Sound of Music�s Bavarian styles, with the youngest Field daughter, Sandy, most exemplifying the trends of the day. �Sandy was a seamstress and could make the styles, and she was the one interested in looking good, so the strongest look was revealed through her,� says Shenher. �We kept her palette close to her mom�s - fashionable, but like sugar and Barbie.� Like Sandy, Miranda Richardson�s Mary wore soft pinks and blues that reflected her childlike personality, while husband Jim was kept in brown and gray suits. The key for worker bee Norma�s look was utilitarian, like the character. �She�s plain, very malleable, soft and squishy around the edges, so the colours were insignificant, fading into background, which is how she lived her life,� says Shenher. As the most aggressive Field, the harder-edged Lou followed the convention of the day, but in a more androgynous or masculine way. Because he was an outsider from the U.S., Tom�s look is ahead of the community he arrives in, and, with touches like his headband and ankh, he captures that moment in time that straddles the line between hippies and the Beach Boys, a tucked-in, put together look, just before it melted down into torn denims, long hair, and tie dye.
SHORT FILM
Scott Smith (no relation to Falling Angel's Smith)'s
Ten
(USA)

Ten follows the events of a man who haphazardly commits the ten mortal sins � and all before breakfast. Shot in High-Definition, Smith's light-hearted comedy presents a clean, sophisticated palate that allows the subtle humor of the piece to come through on its own.3:26
BIOS
Scott Smith � Director Based in Vancouver, Smith wrote, produced and directed the award-winning feature film Rollercoaster. A graduate of Simon Fraser University and past resident of the Canadian Film Centre, Smith�s feature film debut starring Brendan Fletcher has screened at over 40 international festivals. Rollercoaster was awarded Best Narrative Feature at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin and Most Popular Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Miranda Richardson - Mary Field Twice nominated for an Oscar� for her performances in Tom and Viv and Louis Malle�s Damage, two-time Golden Globe winner Miranda Richardson has countless credits on stage, television and screen. Born and raised in Great Britain, Miranda studied drama at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School she first appeared on the London stage in 1981. After appearing on many British television series, she began her career in film. After earning a Golden Globe and a New York Film Critic�s Circle Award for her performance in Enchanted April, she appeared as a cold-blooded IRA terrorist in Neil Jordan�s The Crying Game. Recently she�s appeared alongside Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman in the adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Hours. Callum Keith Rennie - Jim Field Gemini and Genie award-winning actor Callum Keith Rennie is one of Canada`s best known and critically acclaimed actors. Callum has worked with some of the industry�s most talented directors. Most recently, he appeared in David Cronenberg�s eXistenZ, Don McKellar�s Last Night; Lynne Stopkewich�s Suspicious River, Bruce MacDonald�s Picture Claire, Christopher Nolan�s Memento, and Keith Berman�s festival hit Flower and Garnet. Katharine Isabelle - Lou After a string of successes that include co-starring with Al Pacino and Robin Williams in Christopher Nolan�s feature film Insomnia, Katharine Isabelle was drawn to Falling Angels because of her connection to the acerbic Lou. Isabelle has starred in Disturbing Behaviour with Katie Holmes and Nick Stahl and The Secret Life of Zoey with Mia Farrow. With an impressive list of feature film credits to her name, Isabelle has also amassed extensive television credits, including numerous appearances on DaVinci�s Inquest, and most recently on The Chris Isaak Show and John Doe. Mark McKinney - Reg/Ron Shelman After starring on two of the most groundbreaking television sketch comedy series to date, Emmy Award nominee Mark McKinney has earned a legion of fans from his tenure on both Kids in the Hall and Saturday Night Live. A winner of six Gemini awards and multiple Emmy nominations for writing and with an extensive list of credits in film, television and stage, Mark has showcased his comedic talents in the feature films The Out of Towners, with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, and two films based on Saturday Night Live characters - Superstar, in which he co-starred with Molly Shannon and Will Ferrell, and The Ladies Man, with Tim Meadows. Esta Spalding � Writer Spalding is a versatile writer whose abilities range from fiction to poetry and screenwriting. No stranger to film, for the last three years she has written for the top-rated series Da Vinci`s Inquest, for which she has been nominated for a Gemini Award and won a WGC Top Ten Award. She has also contributed scripts to The Zack Files and most recently CTV �s new drama series, The Eleventh Hour. Spalding recently published the critically acclaimed novel Mere that she co-wrote with her mother Linda Spalding and is the author of three books of poetry: Carrying Place, Anchoress and Lost August. Esta is a contributing editor to Brick: A Literary Journal, and co-editor of the Brick Anthology Lost Classics. Greg Middleton � Director of Photography An award-winning cinematographer whose films have appeared at the Cannes and Toronto International Film Festivals, Middleton is no stranger to critically acclaimed movies. He received his first of three Genie Award nominations for Lynne Stopkewich�s Kissed, an adaptation of another Barbara Gowdy story. Middleton was also Genie-nominated for his work on The Five Senses, a Director�s Fortnight selection at Cannes, and Raul Sanchez Inglis�s The Falling. Robin Cass � Producer In 1996, Robin produced Lilies, which won the Genie for Best Film of the Year. After winning Best Canadian Film and Most Popular Film at the Toronto International Film Festival, Triptych�s The Hanging Garden played to rave reviews and packed houses, and won four Genie Awards including Best First Feature and Best Screenplay. Recently completed is the adaptation of Governor General and Giller Prize-winning novel by David Adams Richards, The Bay of Love and Sorrows and Deepa Mehta�s adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Carol Shields� The Republic of Love.

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