Two Lovers
UW Cinematheque 821 University Ave., UW Vilas Hall, Room 4070, Madison, Wisconsin
media release: Director: James Gray
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Gwynneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw
Phoenix delivers a quietly devastating performance as Leonard, a melancholic Brooklyn man torn between the promise of a stable future with the kind-hearted Sandra (Shaw) and his consuming obsession with his enigmatic neighbor Michelle (Paltrow). An American reimagining of Dostoevsky’s White Nights, director Gray (Paper Tiger, We Own the Night) transforms the classic tale of unrequited love into a lived-in, authentic portrait of contemporary New Yorkers yearning for human connection. “A film of unusual perception, played at perfect pitch by Phoenix, Shaw, Paltrow and the other actors…It is calm and mature” (Roger Ebert).
Admission is free, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times.
Three White Nights
In October at the Cinematheque, three master filmmakers utilize Fyodor Dostoevsky’s enduring short story White Nights to discover new, different, and personal visions within its tale of lonely hearts, chance encounters, and impossible love. From Luchino Visconti’s luminous dreamscape of postwar longing Le notti bianche, to Robert Bresson’s quietly transcendent Parisian reverie Four Nights of a Dreamer, to James Gray’s deeply felt contemporary Brooklyn reimagining Two Lovers, each film reflects the anxieties and romantic ideals of its own time while remaining faithful to Dostoevsky’s profound understanding of desire, memory, and human connection.
