Boogie Woogie (film)
Encyclopedia
Boogie Woogie is a 2009 comedy film
set in the art world
of contemporary London
. It is based on the book of the same name written by Danny Moynihan, who adapted his own book on the New York art world of the 1990s and titled it based on "Victory Boogie-Woogie
", a Piet Mondrian
painting.
The film was produced by Eric Eisner
and Leonid Rozhetskin
, and directed by Duncan Ward. It stars Gillian Anderson
, Alan Cumming
, Heather Graham, Danny Huston
and Christopher Lee
.
It premiered on 26 June 2009 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
.
, its cast of characters devouring each other in a small world awash with big money. Set against the backdrop of contemporary London and the international art scene, it casts an eye over the appetites and morality of some of its major players. Dealers, collectors, artists, wannabes vie with each other in a world in which success and downfall rest on a thin edge.
New York years.
Dennis Hopper
originally held the option to adapt the novel into a screenplay for a film to be set in New York City; later, Moynihan's friend, Duncan Ward, a documentary film-maker, became involved, with Rachel Weisz
agreeing to play the "central, nubile gallerist" role eventually portrayed by Graham
After Weisz dropped out, producers switched the film's location to London for cost reasons; Moynihan "discovered then-unknown Amanda Seyfried
living around the corner in Chelsea" and got her cast as an "art-world nymphet"; Charlotte Rampling
, a family friend of Moynihan's, got a cameo appearance
. Principal photography
took place in London in December 2006.
article about the film that focuses on
"who inspired its unsavoury characters"—called it "The Devil Wears Prada
and Hangs Out at Private Views, but with a lot more sex and naughty bits." According to a National Public Radio review, "just about all the acting in this otherwise pedestrian satire is fabulous, and for want of other diversions you might amuse yourself itemizing all the squandered talent"; the film conflates "black comedy
with cynicism" and "ends, dispiritingly, pretty much where it began." The Daily Beast
called it a "dead-on satire of the contemporary art world that is loved by the very audience it savages." Rex Reed
called it a "tepid spoof that only occasionally evokes a reluctant smile" and said it "failed to capture the nuances or craft a more brutal, incisive exposé of the art milieu."
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
set in the art world
Art world
The art world is composed of all the people involved in the production, commission, preservation, promotion, criticism, and sale of art. Howard S. Becker describes it as "the network of people whose cooperative activity, organized via their joint knowledge of conventional means of doing things,...
of contemporary London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It is based on the book of the same name written by Danny Moynihan, who adapted his own book on the New York art world of the 1990s and titled it based on "Victory Boogie-Woogie
Victory Boogie-Woogie
Victory Boogie-Woogie is the last, unfinished, work by the Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondriaan. Left incomplete in 1944, since 1998 it has been in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. It was purchased at a cost of 80 million guilders from the American collector Samuel Irving Newhouse...
", a Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian , was a Dutch painter.He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism...
painting.
The film was produced by Eric Eisner
Eric Eisner
Eric Eisner is the son of Disney magnate Michael Eisner and a producer. He currently co-owns the film production company L+E Productions.-Career in Entertainment:...
and Leonid Rozhetskin
Leonid Rozhetskin
Leonid Rozhetskin is a financier and lawyer who is missing under suspicious circumstances after disappearing from his villa in Jūrmala, Latvia on March 16, 2008.- Early life and education :...
, and directed by Duncan Ward. It stars Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...
, Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
, Heather Graham, Danny Huston
Danny Huston
-Early life:Huston was born in Rome, Italy. He hails from the illustrious Huston acting and filmmaking dynasty. He is the son of legendary director John Huston, half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston and screenwriter Tony Huston, uncle of actor Jack Huston, stepbrother of Allegra Huston, and...
and Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
.
It premiered on 26 June 2009 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
Edinburgh International Film Festival
The Edinburgh International Film Festival is an annual fortnight of cinema screenings and related events taking place each June. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival...
.
Plot
Boogie Woogie is a comedy of mannersComedy of manners
The comedy of manners is a genre of play/television/film which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young...
, its cast of characters devouring each other in a small world awash with big money. Set against the backdrop of contemporary London and the international art scene, it casts an eye over the appetites and morality of some of its major players. Dealers, collectors, artists, wannabes vie with each other in a world in which success and downfall rest on a thin edge.
Cast
- Gillian AndersonGillian AndersonGillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...
as Jean Maclestone - Alan CummingAlan CummingAlan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
as Dewey Dalamanatousis - Heather GrahamHeather GrahamHeather Joan Graham is an American actress. She has appeared in such films as Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Lost in Space, Bowfinger, From Hell, Anger Management, and The Hangover...
as Beth Freemantle - Danny HustonDanny Huston-Early life:Huston was born in Rome, Italy. He hails from the illustrious Huston acting and filmmaking dynasty. He is the son of legendary director John Huston, half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston and screenwriter Tony Huston, uncle of actor Jack Huston, stepbrother of Allegra Huston, and...
as Art Spindle - Christopher LeeChristopher LeeSir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
as Mr Alfred Rhinegold - Joanna LumleyJoanna LumleyJoanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...
as Mrs Alfreda Rhinegold - Charlotte RamplingCharlotte RamplingCharlotte Rampling, OBE is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English-language as well as French and Italian cinema.- Early life :...
as Emille - Amanda SeyfriedAmanda SeyfriedAmanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...
as Paige Oppenheimer - Stellan SkarsgårdStellan SkarsgårdStellan John Skarsgård is a Swedish actor, known internationally for his film roles in Angels & Demons, Breaking the Waves, The Hunt for Red October, Ronin, Good Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist,...
as Bob Maclestone - Jaime Winstone as Elaine
- Simon McBurneySimon McBurneySimon Montagu McBurney, OBE is an English actor, writer and director. He is the founder and artistic director of Théâtre de Complicité in England, now called Complicite.-Early life:...
as Robert Freign - Meredith OstromMeredith OstromMeredith Joy Ostrom is an actress/model/Painter.From Swedish, German, English and Lithuanian descent. A graduate of New York University, Tisch school of the arts. She has emerged as an artist since 2007...
as Joany - Gemma AtkinsonGemma AtkinsonGemma Louise Atkinson is an English actress, television personality and glamour and lingerie model.-Personal life:...
as Charlotte Bailey - Jan Uddin as Art's Partner
- Jack HustonJack HustonJack Alexander Huston is an English actor. Huston had a starring role in Neighborhood Watch and filmed Outlander with James Caviezel and Sophia Myles...
as Jo Richards
Production
Danny Moynihan's novel for Boogie Woogie was published in 2000, based on his hedonisticHedonism
Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure .-Etymology:The name derives from the Greek word for "delight" ....
New York years.
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
originally held the option to adapt the novel into a screenplay for a film to be set in New York City; later, Moynihan's friend, Duncan Ward, a documentary film-maker, became involved, with Rachel Weisz
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz born 7 March 1970)is an English-American film and theatre actress and former fashion model. She started her acting career at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she co-founded the theatrical group Cambridge Talking Tongues...
agreeing to play the "central, nubile gallerist" role eventually portrayed by Graham
After Weisz dropped out, producers switched the film's location to London for cost reasons; Moynihan "discovered then-unknown Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...
living around the corner in Chelsea" and got her cast as an "art-world nymphet"; Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling, OBE is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English-language as well as French and Italian cinema.- Early life :...
, a family friend of Moynihan's, got a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
. Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
took place in London in December 2006.
Reception
Richard Clayton—in a Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
article about the film that focuses on
"who inspired its unsavoury characters"—called it "The Devil Wears Prada
The Devil Wears Prada (film)
The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy-drama film, a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine...
and Hangs Out at Private Views, but with a lot more sex and naughty bits." According to a National Public Radio review, "just about all the acting in this otherwise pedestrian satire is fabulous, and for want of other diversions you might amuse yourself itemizing all the squandered talent"; the film conflates "black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
with cynicism" and "ends, dispiritingly, pretty much where it began." The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...
called it a "dead-on satire of the contemporary art world that is loved by the very audience it savages." Rex Reed
Rex Reed
Rex Taylor Reed is an American film critic and former co-host of the syndicated television show At the Movies. He currently writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for The New York Observer.-Life and career:...
called it a "tepid spoof that only occasionally evokes a reluctant smile" and said it "failed to capture the nuances or craft a more brutal, incisive exposé of the art milieu."