Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
Encyclopedia
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is a 1994 film
scripted by writer
/director
Alan Rudolph and former Washington Star
reporter Randy Sue Coburn. Directed by Rudolph, it starred Jennifer Jason Leigh
as the writer
Dorothy Parker
and depicted the members of the Algonquin Round Table
, a group of writers, actors and critics who met almost every weekday from 1919 to 1929, at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel
.
The film was an Official Selection at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival
and was nominated for the Palme d'Or
. The film was a critical but not a commercial success.
Peter Benchley
, who played editor Frank Crowninshield
, is the grandson of Robert Benchley
, the humorist who once worked underneath Crowninshield. Actor Wallace Shawn
is the son of William Shawn
, the longtime editor of The New Yorker
.
' illustrations in a collection of Robert Benchley's essays. After making The Moderns
, a film about American expatriates in 1920s Paris, Rudolph wanted to tackle a fact-based drama set in the same era. He began work on a screenplay with novelist and former Washington Star journalist Randy Sue Coburn about legendary writer Dorothy Parker. In 1992, Rudolph attended a Fourth of July party hosted by filmmaker Robert Altman
who introduced him to actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. Rudolph was surprised by her physical resemblance to Parker and was impressed by her knowledge of the Jazz Age
. Leigh was so committed to doing the film that she agreed to make it for "a tenth of what I normally get for a film".
The screenplay originally focused on the platonic relationship between Parker and Robert Benchley, but this did not appeal to any financial backers. There still was no interest even when Altman came on board as producer. The emphasis on Parker was the next change to the script, but Rudolph still had no luck finding financing for "a period biography of a literate woman." Altman used his clout to persuade Fine Line Features
and Miramax - two studios he was making films for - to team up, with the former releasing Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle domestically and the latter handling foreign distribution. Altman claimed that he forced the film to be made by putting his own money into it and "I put other projects of mine hostage to it. I did a lot of lying".
Rudolph shot the film in Montreal
because the building facades in its old city most closely resembled period New York City
. Full financing was not acquired until four weeks into principal photography.
The film's large cast followed Leigh's lead and agreed to work for much lower than their usual salaries. Rudolph invited them to write their own dialogue, which resulted in a chaotic first couple of days of principal photography. Actor Campbell Scott remembered, "Everyone hung on to what they knew about their characters and just sort of threw it out there." Actress Jennifer Beals discussed this in her appearance on the Jon Favreau
documentary program Dinner for Five
, wherein she stated that much dialogue was improvised in the style of the real-life characters actors were playing, but that many of those characters were not integral to the plot. As such, many of the actors had much larger parts that were edited down to nearly nothing. The cast trusted their director during the 40-day shoot. They stayed in a run-down hotel dubbed Camp Rudolph and engaged in all-night poker games. Leigh chose not to participate in these activities, preferring to stay in character on and off camera. She did a great amount of research for the role and said, "I wanted to be as close to her as I possibly could." To this end, Leigh stayed for a week at the Algonquin Hotel and read Parker's entire body of work. In addition, the actress listened repeatedly to the two existing audio recordings of Parker in order to perfect the writer's distinctive voice. Leigh found that Parker "had a sensibility that I understand very, very well. A sadness. A depression."
where it divided film critics. It was rumored afterwards that Leigh re-recorded several scenes that were too difficult to understand because of her accent but she denied that this happened. The film was an Official Selection at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival
and was nominated for the Palme d'Or
. The film was a critical but not a commercial success.
1994 in film
1994 was a significant year in film.The top grosser worldwide was The Lion King, which to date stands as the highest-grossing traditionally-animated film of all time...
scripted by writer
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
/director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Alan Rudolph and former Washington Star
Washington Star
The Washington Star, previously known as the Washington Star-News and the Washington Evening Star, was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C. between 1852 and 1981. For most of that time, it was the city's newspaper of record, and the longtime home to columnist Mary McGrory and...
reporter Randy Sue Coburn. Directed by Rudolph, it starred Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
as the writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
and depicted the members of the Algonquin Round Table
Algonquin Round Table
The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle", as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929...
, a group of writers, actors and critics who met almost every weekday from 1919 to 1929, at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel
Algonquin Hotel
The Algonquin Hotel is a historic hotel located at 59 West 44th Street in Manhattan . The hotel has been designated as a New York City Historic Landmark....
.
The film was an Official Selection at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival
1994 Cannes Film Festival
The 1994 Cannes Film Festival started on 12 May and ran until 23 May. The Palme d'Or went to the American film Pulp Fiction directed by Quentin Tarantino.-Official Selection:*Clint Eastwood *Catherine Deneuve...
and was nominated for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
. The film was a critical but not a commercial success.
Peter Benchley
Peter Benchley
Peter Bradford Benchley was an American author, best known for his novel Jaws and its subsequent film adaptation, the latter co-written by Benchley and directed by Steven Spielberg...
, who played editor Frank Crowninshield
Frank Crowninshield
Francis Welch Crowninshield , better known as Frank or Crownie , was an American journalist and art and theatre critic best known for developing and editing the magazine Vanity Fair for 21 years, making it a pre-eminent literary journal.-Personal life:Crowninshield was born June 24, 1872 in Paris,...
, is the grandson of Robert Benchley
Robert Benchley
Robert Charles Benchley was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor...
, the humorist who once worked underneath Crowninshield. Actor Wallace Shawn
Wallace Shawn
Wallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
is the son of William Shawn
William Shawn
William Shawn was an American magazine editor who edited The New Yorker from 1952 until 1987.-Education and Early Life:...
, the longtime editor of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
.
The Vicious Circle
- Jennifer Jason LeighJennifer Jason LeighJennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
played Dorothy ParkerDorothy ParkerDorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles.... - Campbell ScottCampbell ScottCampbell Scott is an American actor, director, producer, and voice artist.-Life and career:Scott was born in New York City, the son of George C. Scott, an actor, director, and producer, and Colleen Dewhurst, a Canadian-born actress. He graduated from Lawrence University in 1983. His brother is...
played Robert BenchleyRobert BenchleyRobert Charles Benchley was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor... - Martha PlimptonMartha PlimptonMartha Campbell Plimpton is an American actress and singer and former model. Plimpton is a screen, stage and television actress. She first appeared as Jonsy in the feature film River Rats before rising to prominence in the Richard Donner film The Goonies portraying the character Stef...
played Jane GrantJane GrantJane Grant was a New York City journalist who co-founded The New Yorker with her first husband, Harold Ross.-Her life:... - Sam RobardsSam RobardsSam Prideaux Robards is an American actor.-Life and career:Robards was born in New York City, the son of actors Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall. He began his acting career in 1980 in an off-Broadway production of Album, and made his feature film debut in director Paul Mazursky's 1982 film Tempest....
played Harold RossHarold RossHarold Wallace Ross was an American journalist and founder of The New Yorker magazine, which he edited from the magazine's inception in 1925 to his death.... - Lili TaylorLili TaylorLili Anne Taylor is an American actress notable for her appearances in such award-winning indie films as Mystic Pizza, Say Anything..., Short Cuts and I Shot Andy Warhol, and the acclaimed TV show Six Feet Under....
played Edna FerberEdna FerberEdna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big , Show Boat , and Giant .-Early years:Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,... - James LeGrosJames LeGrosJames LeGros is an American film and television actor. He is known as a star of independent films with a diversified body of work in the early to mid 1990s.-Personal life:...
played Deems TaylorDeems TaylorJoseph Deems Taylor was a U.S. composer, music critic, and promoter of classical music.-Career:Taylor initially planned to become an architect; however, despite minimal musical training he soon took to music composition. The result was a series of works for orchestra and/or voices... - Nick Cassavetes played Robert SherwoodRobert E. SherwoodRobert Emmet Sherwood was an American playwright, editor, and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in New Rochelle, New York, he was a son of Arthur Murray Sherwood, a rich stockbroker, and his wife, the former Rosina Emmet, a well-known illustrator and portrait painter known as Rosina E. Sherwood...
- David ThorntonDavid Thornton (actor)David Thornton is an American actor. He is the husband of Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Cyndi Lauper, whom he married in 1991. Their son, Declyn Wallace Thornton Lauper, was born on November 19, 1997.- Filmography :...
played George S. KaufmanGeorge S. KaufmanGeorge Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers... - Tom McGowanTom McGowanThomas "Tom" McGowan is an American actor, known for his recurring roles on Frasier, as KACL station manager Kenny Daly; Everybody Loves Raymond, as Ray's friend Bernie; and on The War at Home, as Dave Gold's friend Joe. McGowan also appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm as a disgruntled fan of Larry's...
played Alexander WoollcottAlexander WoollcottAlexander Humphreys Woollcott was an American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine and a member of the Algonquin Round Table.... - Chip ZienChip ZienChip Zien is an American actor. He is best known for playing the lead role of the Baker in the original Broadway production of Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim...
played Franklin Pierce AdamsFranklin Pierce AdamsFranklin Pierce Adams was an American columnist, well known by his initials F.P.A., and wit, best known for his newspaper column, "The Conning Tower", and his appearances as a regular panelist on radio's Information Please... - Gary BasarabaGary BasarabaGary Basaraba is a Canadian actor best known for playing American police officers. He appeared as Sergeant Richard Santoro on Steven Bochco's Brooklyn South and Officer Ray Heckler on Boomtown....
played Heywood BrounHeywood BrounHeywood Campbell Broun, Jr. was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, now known as The Newspaper Guild. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he is best remembered for his writing on social issues and... - Jane AdamsJane Adams (actress)Jane Adams is an American film, television and theatre actress.- Early life :Adams was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Janice, an administrative assistant, and William Adams, an engineer. She has a younger brother, Jonathan, and was raised in Wheaton, Illinois and Bellevue, Washington...
played Ruth HaleRuth Hale (feminist)Ruth Hale was a freelance writer who worked for women's rights in New York City, USA, during the era before and after World War I... - Matt MalloyMatt MalloyMatt Malloy is an American character actor. He has had numerous roles in both film and TV often portraying the beleaguered everyman. Malloy's only starring role to date was alongside Aaron Eckhart in the critically acclaimed black comedy, In the Company of Men...
played Marc ConnellyMarc ConnellyMarcus Cook Connelly was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930.-Biography:... - Rebecca MillerRebecca MillerRebecca Augusta Miller is an American film director, screenwriter and actress, most known for her films Personal Velocity: Three Portraits , The Ballad of Jack and Rose, and Angela,and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee all of which she wrote and directed.-Life and career:Born in Roxbury,...
played Neysa McMeinNeysa McMein-Life:Born Marjorie Moran in Quincy, Illinois, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1913 went to New York City. After a brief stint as an actress, she turned to commercial art... - Jake JohannsenJake JohannsenJake Johannsen is an American comedian.Johannsen attended Iowa State University in the early 1980s, originally majoring in veterinary medicine, and then later changing to chemical engineering. He left after three years in college and relocated to San Francisco, California in order to pursue a...
played John Peter TooheyJohn Peter TooheyJohn Peter Toohey was an American writer and publicist. He is best known as a member of the Algonquin Round Table.... - David Gow played Donald Ogden StewartDonald Ogden StewartDonald Ogden Stewart was an American author and screenwriter.-Life:His hometown was Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Yale University, where he became a brother to the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity , in 1916 and was in the Naval Reserves in World War I.After the war he started to write and found...
- Leni ParkerLeni ParkerLeni Parker is a Canadian television and film actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Da'an in Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict.-Education and early career:...
played Beatrice Kaufman - J.M. Henry played Harpo MarxHarpo MarxAdolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
Husbands, wives, lovers and friends of the Round Table
- Jennifer BealsJennifer BealsJennifer Beals is an American actress and a former teen model. She is known for her roles as Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former...
played Gertrude Benchley - Peter BenchleyPeter BenchleyPeter Bradford Benchley was an American author, best known for his novel Jaws and its subsequent film adaptation, the latter co-written by Benchley and directed by Steven Spielberg...
played Frank CrowninshieldFrank CrowninshieldFrancis Welch Crowninshield , better known as Frank or Crownie , was an American journalist and art and theatre critic best known for developing and editing the magazine Vanity Fair for 21 years, making it a pre-eminent literary journal.-Personal life:Crowninshield was born June 24, 1872 in Paris,... - Matthew BroderickMatthew BroderickMatthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...
played Charles MacArthurCharles MacArthurCharles Gordon MacArthur was an American playwright and screenwriter.-Biography:Charles MacArthur was the second youngest of seven children born to stern evangelist William Telfer MacArthur and Georgiana Welsted MacArthur. He early developed a passion for reading... - Keith CarradineKeith CarradineKeith Ian Carradine is an American actor who has had success on stage, film and television. In addition, he is a Golden Globe and Oscar winning songwriter. As a member of the Carradine family, he is part of an acting "dynasty" that began with his father, John Carradine.-Early life:Keith...
played Will RogersWill RogersWilliam "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s.... - Amelia CampbellAmelia CampbellAmelia Campbell is a Canadian-born, American-raised actress. She was born in Montreal but grew up in Ithaca, New York, USA. She mostly works in the theatre but occasionally makes film appearances in films. Notable roles include The Paper, My Louisiana Sky, Single White Female, and Lorenzo's Oil...
played Mary Brandon Sherwood - Jon FavreauJon FavreauJonathan Kolia "Jon" Favreau is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and comedian. As an actor, he is best known for his roles in Rudy, Swingers , Very Bad Things, and The Break-Up. His notable directorial efforts include Elf, Iron Man and its sequel, and Cowboys & Aliens...
played Elmer RiceElmer RiceElmer Rice was an American playwright. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1929 play, Street Scene.-Early years:... - Peter GallagherPeter GallagherPeter Killian Gallagher is an American actor, musician and writer. Since 1980, Gallagher has played many roles in numerous Hollywood films. He starred as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series The O.C. from 2003 to 2007...
played Alan CampbellAlan Campbell (screenwriter)Alan K. Campbell was an American writer, actor, and screenwriter. He and his wife, Dorothy Parker, were a popular screenwriting team in Hollywood from 1934 to 1963.... - Malcolm GetsMalcolm GetsHugh Malcolm Gerard Gets is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Richard in the American television sitcom Caroline in the City. Gets is also a dancer, singer, composer, classically trained pianist, vocal director, and choreographer. He has a small part in the film adaptation of...
played F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott FitzgeraldFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost... - Heather Graham played Mary Kennedy Taylor
- Andrew McCarthyAndrew McCarthyAndrew Thomas McCarthy is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the 1980s films St. Elmo's Fire, Mannequin, Weekend at Bernie's, Pretty in Pink, and Less Than Zero, and more recently for his role in the television shows Lipstick Jungle, White Collar and Royal Pains.-Career:McCarthy...
played Edwin Pond Parker II - Gisèle Rousseau played Polly AdlerPolly AdlerPearl "Polly" Adler was an American madam and author of Russian-Jewish origin.The oldest of nine children of Gertrude Koval and Morris Adler, Polly Adler emigrated to America from Yanow, Russia, near the Polish border at the age of 14 just before World War I. The war stopped her family from...
- Randy Lowell played Alvan Barach
Fictional characters
- Stephen BaldwinStephen BaldwinStephen Andrew Baldwin is an American actor, director, producer and author. One of the Baldwin brothers, he is known for his roles as William F. Cody in the western show The Young Riders and as Stuart in the movie Threesome...
played Roger Spalding - Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Se7en and Emma...
played Paula Hunt - Wallace ShawnWallace ShawnWallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
played Horatio Byrd
Development
Director Alan Rudolph was fascinated with the Algonquin Round Table as a child when he discovered Gluyas WilliamsGluyas Williams
Gluyas Williams was an American cartoonist, notable for his contributions to The New Yorker and other major magazines.Born in San Francisco, California, he graduated from Harvard in 1911...
' illustrations in a collection of Robert Benchley's essays. After making The Moderns
The Moderns
The Moderns is a 1988 film by Alan Rudolph, which takes place in 1926 Paris during the period of the Lost Generation and at the height of modernist literature...
, a film about American expatriates in 1920s Paris, Rudolph wanted to tackle a fact-based drama set in the same era. He began work on a screenplay with novelist and former Washington Star journalist Randy Sue Coburn about legendary writer Dorothy Parker. In 1992, Rudolph attended a Fourth of July party hosted by filmmaker Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
who introduced him to actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. Rudolph was surprised by her physical resemblance to Parker and was impressed by her knowledge of the Jazz Age
Jazz Age
The Jazz Age was a movement that took place during the 1920s or the Roaring Twenties from which jazz music and dance emerged. The movement came about with the introduction of mainstream radio and the end of the war. This era ended in the 1930s with the beginning of The Great Depression but has...
. Leigh was so committed to doing the film that she agreed to make it for "a tenth of what I normally get for a film".
The screenplay originally focused on the platonic relationship between Parker and Robert Benchley, but this did not appeal to any financial backers. There still was no interest even when Altman came on board as producer. The emphasis on Parker was the next change to the script, but Rudolph still had no luck finding financing for "a period biography of a literate woman." Altman used his clout to persuade Fine Line Features
Fine Line Features
Fine Line Features was the speciality films division of New Line Cinema. It produced, purchased, distributed and marketed films of a more "indie" flavor than its parent company...
and Miramax - two studios he was making films for - to team up, with the former releasing Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle domestically and the latter handling foreign distribution. Altman claimed that he forced the film to be made by putting his own money into it and "I put other projects of mine hostage to it. I did a lot of lying".
Rudolph shot the film in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
because the building facades in its old city most closely resembled period New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Full financing was not acquired until four weeks into principal photography.
The film's large cast followed Leigh's lead and agreed to work for much lower than their usual salaries. Rudolph invited them to write their own dialogue, which resulted in a chaotic first couple of days of principal photography. Actor Campbell Scott remembered, "Everyone hung on to what they knew about their characters and just sort of threw it out there." Actress Jennifer Beals discussed this in her appearance on the Jon Favreau
Jon Favreau
Jonathan Kolia "Jon" Favreau is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and comedian. As an actor, he is best known for his roles in Rudy, Swingers , Very Bad Things, and The Break-Up. His notable directorial efforts include Elf, Iron Man and its sequel, and Cowboys & Aliens...
documentary program Dinner for Five
Dinner for Five
Dinner for Five is a television program in which actor/filmmaker Jon Favreau and a revolving guest list of celebrities eat, drink and talk about life on and off the set and swap stories about projects past and present...
, wherein she stated that much dialogue was improvised in the style of the real-life characters actors were playing, but that many of those characters were not integral to the plot. As such, many of the actors had much larger parts that were edited down to nearly nothing. The cast trusted their director during the 40-day shoot. They stayed in a run-down hotel dubbed Camp Rudolph and engaged in all-night poker games. Leigh chose not to participate in these activities, preferring to stay in character on and off camera. She did a great amount of research for the role and said, "I wanted to be as close to her as I possibly could." To this end, Leigh stayed for a week at the Algonquin Hotel and read Parker's entire body of work. In addition, the actress listened repeatedly to the two existing audio recordings of Parker in order to perfect the writer's distinctive voice. Leigh found that Parker "had a sensibility that I understand very, very well. A sadness. A depression."
Reaction
A rough cut of Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle was screened at the 1993 Cannes Film FestivalCannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
where it divided film critics. It was rumored afterwards that Leigh re-recorded several scenes that were too difficult to understand because of her accent but she denied that this happened. The film was an Official Selection at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival
1994 Cannes Film Festival
The 1994 Cannes Film Festival started on 12 May and ran until 23 May. The Palme d'Or went to the American film Pulp Fiction directed by Quentin Tarantino.-Official Selection:*Clint Eastwood *Catherine Deneuve...
and was nominated for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
. The film was a critical but not a commercial success.