.gif)
Unfaithful (film)
Encyclopedia
Unfaithful is a 2002 American erotic
drama film
directed by Adrian Lyne
and starring Richard Gere
, Diane Lane
and Olivier Martinez
. It was adapted by Alvin Sargent
and William Broyles Jr.
from the French
film The Unfaithful Wife (1968) (La Femme infidèle) by the noted director Claude Chabrol
. It tells about a couple living in suburban New York City whose marriage goes dangerously awry when the wife indulges in an adulterous fling with a stranger she encounters by chance in Manhattan.
The production was unusual for its demanding and extended sex scenes shot through smoke. Lyne shot a total of five endings, based on his experience with the controversial content of Fatal Attraction
.
Unfaithful grossed $
52 million in North America
and a total of $119 million worldwide. Despite mixed to negative reviews overall, Lane received much praise for her performance. She won awards for best actress from the National Society of Film Critics
and New York Film Critics
, and was nominated for a Golden Globe
and an Academy Award for Best Actress
.
) and Edward Sumner (Gere
) are a couple who live in suburban New York City. Their marriage is solid and loving but lacking passion. One day, Connie journeys into the city, where she is caught in a windstorm. As she seeks a taxi, she bumps into a stranger (Martinez
). They both fall and Connie scrapes her knees. The stranger offers to let her use his apartment to clean up. At that moment, an empty cab goes by, but Connie accepts the offer instead of heading back to the train station. The stranger introduces himself as Paul Martel, a Frenchman
who buys and sells used books. When Martel makes small advances toward her, Connie becomes uncomfortable and decides to leave . He lets her go but gives her a book of Persian poetry, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
as a gift.
Later that night, Connie mentions the incident to her husband. The next morning, after Edward and their son Charlie (Sullivan
) leave, she picks up the poetry book. Paul's business card falls out. She takes the train into the city again and calls him from Grand Central Station. He invites her over for coffee. He makes her coffee and shows her how to read a book in braille
. But when Paul begins caressing her hands, Connie decides to leave. Later that night, Connie seems distracted, obviously thinking about Paul. The next morning she shows up at his door. When Connie enters Paul's apartment, he asks her to dance. She obliges and they begin flirting with each other. As the record they are dancing to begins to skip, she decides that what they are doing is a mistake. Paul tells her, "There is no such thing as a mistake. There is what you do and what you don't do." Connie replies, "I can't do this," and starts to leave the building. But when she has to come back into the apartment for her coat, Paul grabs her and kisses her and then they engage in intercourse.
Connie and Paul begin a passionate sexual affair
. Edward soon suspects something when his wife increases the frequency of her visits to Manhattan. She uses her work on a charity event as an excuse, but Edward finds holes in her stories when he speaks with mutual friends. She shows less interest in him, i.e., removing her wedding ring to wash the dishes. Eventually, one of Edward's business partners catches a glimpse of Connie and Paul fawning over each other in a cafe and tells Edward, who hires a detective (Chianese
) to follow Connie. On a day when Edward was out of town, Connie and Paul enjoyed time in a movie theatre, leading her to forget to pick up her son from the school. The detective returns with pictures of Connie and Paul, which devastate Edward.
Connie sees Paul with another woman and attacks him, but he denies that the woman is special. She is enraged and they begin to fight in his building, but their anger turns into passion . Edward decides to visit Paul's apartment but leaves when unable to enter, and misses seeing Connie leave. He returns moments later, gets in and confronts Paul. Already upset, he is stunned to see a snow globe there, which he recognizes as his own gift to Connie. Paul says that Connie bought it for him as a gift, and Edward hits the other man with the globe and kills him. Edward cleans up the blood, wipes away his fingerprints and wraps Paul's body in a rug. As he works, the phone rings, and Edward hears Connie leaving a message that she must end the affair. Edward erases the message and leaves, putting the body in his car's trunk. Later that night, he drops it off at a dump.
Two police detectives arrive at the Sumner home. They explain that Paul's wife had reported him missing and they had found Connie's phone number in his apartment. She claims to have met him only once. A week later, the detectives return and tell Connie that they found Paul's body. She becomes upset while repeating her earlier story; Edward backs her up and adds that he never met Paul. Later that night, collecting Edward's clothes for the dry cleaner's, Connie finds the private detective's photos and realizes that Edward knows about the affair. She concludes that he murdered Paul after noticing the snow globe has been returned to their home. Underneath the globe, she discovers a hidden compartment containing a photograph of her, Edward and Charlie, with an anniversary message from Edward, which causes Connie to cry.
Edward and Connie confront each other. She burns the photographs; he offers to turn himself in. Connie rejects this and insists they will get through the crisis together. Later the couple are shown in their car stopped at an intersection, debating their next move; outside, the traffic lights change several times from red to green and back. The camera pulls back to reveal their car in front of a police station.
Lyne cast Lane in the role of Constance after seeing her in the film, A Walk on the Moon
. He felt that the actress "breathes a certain sexuality. But she's sympathetic, and I think so many sexy women tend to be tough and hard at the same time." Lyne also wanted Gere and Lane to gain weight in order to portray the comfort of a middle-age couple. In particular, he wanted Gere to gain 30 pounds and left donuts in the actor's trailer every morning.
Lyne asked director of photography Peter Biziou, with whom he made 9½ Weeks
, to shoot Unfaithful. After reading the script, Biziou felt that the story was appropriate for the classic 1.85:1 aspect ratio because, "so often has two characters working together in the frame." During pre-production, Biziou, Lyne and production designer Brian Morris used a collection of still photographs as style references. These included photos from fashion magazines and shots by prominent photographers.
Initially, the story was set against snowy exteriors, but this idea was rejected early on. Principal photography started on March 22, 2001 and wrapped on June 1, 2001 with Lyne shooting in continuity whenever possible. The film was primarily shot in New York City
. During the windstorm sequence where Connie first meets Paul, it rained and Lyne used the overcast weather conditions for the street scenes. The director also preferred shooting practical interiors on location so that the actors could "feel an intimate sense of belonging", Biziou recalls. The cinematographer also used natural light as much as possible.
At times, Lyne's directing took its toll on the cast and crew. In a scene taking place in an office, the director pumped it full of smoke, an effect that "makes the colors less contrasty, more muted". According to Biziou, "The texture it gives helps differentiate and separate various density levels of darkness farther back in frame". The smoke was piped in for 18 to 20 hours a day and Gere remembers, "Our throats were being blown out. We had a special doctor who was there almost all the time who was shooting people up with antibiotics for bronchial infections". Lane acquired an oxygen bottle in order to survive the rigorous schedule.
The film has many explicit sex scenes, including a tryst in a restaurant bathroom and a passionate exchange in an apartment building hallway. Lyne's repeated takes for these scenes were demanding for the actors, especially for Lane, who had to be emotionally and physically fit for the scenes. To prepare for the initial love scene between Paul and Constance, Lyne had the actors watch clips from Fatal Attraction
, Five Easy Pieces
, and Last Tango in Paris
. Lane and Martinez would also talk over the scenes in his trailer beforehand. Once on the set, they felt uncomfortable until several takes in. She said, "My comfort level with it just had to catch up quickly if I wanted to be the actress to play it." Martinez was not comfortable with nudity. Lane said that Lyne would often shoot a whole magazine of film, "so one take was as long as five takes. By the end, you're physically and emotionally shattered."
Lane had not met Martinez before filming, and they did not get to know each other well during the shoot, mirroring the relationship between their characters. A full four weeks of the schedule was dedicated to the scenes in Paul's loft, which was located on the third floor of a six-story building located on Greene Street. Biziou often used two cameras for the film's intimate scenes to reduce the number of takes that had to be shot.
Following negative reactions from test audiences, the studio reinstated the original ending; a few weeks before the film was to open in theaters, Lyne asked Gere and Lane to return to Los Angeles
for re-shoots of the ending. Lyne claimed that the new ending was more ambiguous than the original and was the original one by screenwriter Alvin Sargent. Lyne also thought the new ending would "it would be more interesting and provoke more discussion".
$14 million with an average of $5,374 per screen. It made $52 million in North America
and a total of $119 million worldwide, well above its $50 million budget.
(48% for their "Cream of the Crop" designation). CNN
film critic Paul Tatara wrote, "The audience when I saw this one was chuckling at all the wrong times, and that's a bad sign when they're supposed to be having a collective heart attack." Entertainment Weekly
critic Owen Gleiberman
awarded the film an "A-" grade and praised Lane for delivering "the most urgent performance of her career", writing that she "is a revelation. The play of lust, romance, degradation, and guilt on her face is the movie's real story." Roger Ebert
, of the Chicago Sun-Times
wrote, "Instead of pumping up the plot with recycled manufactured thrills, it's content to contemplate two reasonably sane adults who get themselves into an almost insoluble dilemma." In the Los Angeles Times
, the critic Kenneth Turan wrote, "The only performer who manages to get inside her character is Lane. Whether it's her initial half-distrustful tentativeness, her later sensual abandon or her never-ending ambivalence, Lane's Constance seems to be actually living the role in a way no one else matches, a way we can all connect to."
Stephen Holden in the New York Times praised the "taut, economical screenplay" that "digs into its characters' marrow (and into the perfectly selected details of domestic life) without wasting a word. That screenplay helps to ground a film whose visual imagination hovers somewhere between soap opera and a portentous pop surrealism." USA Today
gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and Mike Clark wrote, "Diane Lane also reaches a new career plateau with her best performance since 1979's A Little Romance
." In his review for the Washington Post, Stephen Hunter wrote, "In the end, Unfaithful leaves you dispirited and grumpy: All that money spent, all that talent wasted, all that time gone forever, and for what? It's an ill movie that bloweth no man to good." David Ansen
, in his review for Newsweek
, wrote, "Unfaithful shows what a powerful, sexy, smart filmmaker Lyne can be. It's a shame he substitutes the mechanics of suspense for the real suspense of what goes on between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife." Andrew Sarris
, in his review for The New York Observer, wrote, "Ultimately Unfaithful is escapism in its purest form, and I am willing to experience it on that level, even though with all the unalloyed joy on display, there's almost no humor," and concluded that it was "one of the very few mainstream movies currently directed exclusively to grown-ups."
, the New York Film Critics Circle awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe
and an Academy Award for Best Actress
. Entertainment Weekly
ranked Unfaithful the 27th on their "50 Sexiest Movies Ever" list.
Sex in film
Sex in film refers to the presentation in motion pictures of sexuality and sex acts, including love scenes. Sex scenes have been depicted in film since the silent era of cinematography. Many actors and actresses have exposed parts of their bodies or dressed and behaved in ways considered sexually...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for directing films that focus on sexually charged characters and often uses natural light, a fog machine and other effects to create eroticized atmospheres...
and starring Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
, Diane Lane
Diane Lane
Diane Lane is an American film actress.Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine...
and Olivier Martinez
Olivier Martinez
Olivier Martinez is a French film actor. He became known after roles in several French films such as Un, deux, trois, soleil , which garnered him the César Award for "Most Promising Actor", The Horseman on the Roof , and The Chambermaid on the Titanic...
. It was adapted by Alvin Sargent
Alvin Sargent
Alvin Sargent is an American screenwriter. He has won two Academy Awards for his screenplays and has been involved in the writing of all movies to date in the Spider-Man film series.-Life and career:...
and William Broyles Jr.
William Broyles Jr.
William Dodson Broyles, Jr. is an American screenwriter, who has worked on the television series China Beach, and the films Apollo 13, Cast Away, Entrapment, Planet of the Apes, Unfaithful, The Polar Express, and Jarhead...
from the French
Cinema of France
The Cinema of France comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad.France is the birthplace of cinema and was responsible for many of its early significant contributions. Several important cinematic movements, including the Nouvelle...
film The Unfaithful Wife (1968) (La Femme infidèle) by the noted director Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol was a French film director, a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s...
. It tells about a couple living in suburban New York City whose marriage goes dangerously awry when the wife indulges in an adulterous fling with a stranger she encounters by chance in Manhattan.
The production was unusual for its demanding and extended sex scenes shot through smoke. Lyne shot a total of five endings, based on his experience with the controversial content of Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction is a 1987 American thriller blended with horror, directed by Adrian Lyne and stars Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer. The film centers around a married man who has a weekend affair with a woman who refuses to allow it to end, resulting in emotional blackmail, stalking...
.
Unfaithful grossed $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
52 million in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and a total of $119 million worldwide. Despite mixed to negative reviews overall, Lane received much praise for her performance. She won awards for best actress from the National Society of Film Critics
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
and New York Film Critics
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards....
, and was nominated for a Golden Globe
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
and an Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
.
Plot
Constance (LaneDiane Lane
Diane Lane is an American film actress.Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine...
) and Edward Sumner (Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
) are a couple who live in suburban New York City. Their marriage is solid and loving but lacking passion. One day, Connie journeys into the city, where she is caught in a windstorm. As she seeks a taxi, she bumps into a stranger (Martinez
Olivier Martinez
Olivier Martinez is a French film actor. He became known after roles in several French films such as Un, deux, trois, soleil , which garnered him the César Award for "Most Promising Actor", The Horseman on the Roof , and The Chambermaid on the Titanic...
). They both fall and Connie scrapes her knees. The stranger offers to let her use his apartment to clean up. At that moment, an empty cab goes by, but Connie accepts the offer instead of heading back to the train station. The stranger introduces himself as Paul Martel, a Frenchman
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
who buys and sells used books. When Martel makes small advances toward her, Connie becomes uncomfortable and decides to leave . He lets her go but gives her a book of Persian poetry, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám , a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer...
as a gift.
Later that night, Connie mentions the incident to her husband. The next morning, after Edward and their son Charlie (Sullivan
Erik Per Sullivan
Erik Per Sullivan is an American actor best known for his role as Dewey, the younger brother to middle child Malcolm, on the FOX series, Malcolm in the Middle which was on air for 6 years.-Personal life:...
) leave, she picks up the poetry book. Paul's business card falls out. She takes the train into the city again and calls him from Grand Central Station. He invites her over for coffee. He makes her coffee and shows her how to read a book in braille
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
. But when Paul begins caressing her hands, Connie decides to leave. Later that night, Connie seems distracted, obviously thinking about Paul. The next morning she shows up at his door. When Connie enters Paul's apartment, he asks her to dance. She obliges and they begin flirting with each other. As the record they are dancing to begins to skip, she decides that what they are doing is a mistake. Paul tells her, "There is no such thing as a mistake. There is what you do and what you don't do." Connie replies, "I can't do this," and starts to leave the building. But when she has to come back into the apartment for her coat, Paul grabs her and kisses her and then they engage in intercourse.
Connie and Paul begin a passionate sexual affair
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
. Edward soon suspects something when his wife increases the frequency of her visits to Manhattan. She uses her work on a charity event as an excuse, but Edward finds holes in her stories when he speaks with mutual friends. She shows less interest in him, i.e., removing her wedding ring to wash the dishes. Eventually, one of Edward's business partners catches a glimpse of Connie and Paul fawning over each other in a cafe and tells Edward, who hires a detective (Chianese
Dominic Chianese
Dominic Chianese is an American film, television and theatre actor, perhaps best known for his role as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos.-Early life:...
) to follow Connie. On a day when Edward was out of town, Connie and Paul enjoyed time in a movie theatre, leading her to forget to pick up her son from the school. The detective returns with pictures of Connie and Paul, which devastate Edward.
Connie sees Paul with another woman and attacks him, but he denies that the woman is special. She is enraged and they begin to fight in his building, but their anger turns into passion . Edward decides to visit Paul's apartment but leaves when unable to enter, and misses seeing Connie leave. He returns moments later, gets in and confronts Paul. Already upset, he is stunned to see a snow globe there, which he recognizes as his own gift to Connie. Paul says that Connie bought it for him as a gift, and Edward hits the other man with the globe and kills him. Edward cleans up the blood, wipes away his fingerprints and wraps Paul's body in a rug. As he works, the phone rings, and Edward hears Connie leaving a message that she must end the affair. Edward erases the message and leaves, putting the body in his car's trunk. Later that night, he drops it off at a dump.
Two police detectives arrive at the Sumner home. They explain that Paul's wife had reported him missing and they had found Connie's phone number in his apartment. She claims to have met him only once. A week later, the detectives return and tell Connie that they found Paul's body. She becomes upset while repeating her earlier story; Edward backs her up and adds that he never met Paul. Later that night, collecting Edward's clothes for the dry cleaner's, Connie finds the private detective's photos and realizes that Edward knows about the affair. She concludes that he murdered Paul after noticing the snow globe has been returned to their home. Underneath the globe, she discovers a hidden compartment containing a photograph of her, Edward and Charlie, with an anniversary message from Edward, which causes Connie to cry.
Edward and Connie confront each other. She burns the photographs; he offers to turn himself in. Connie rejects this and insists they will get through the crisis together. Later the couple are shown in their car stopped at an intersection, debating their next move; outside, the traffic lights change several times from red to green and back. The camera pulls back to reveal their car in front of a police station.
Cast
- Richard GereRichard GereRichard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
as Ed Sumner - Diane LaneDiane LaneDiane Lane is an American film actress.Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine...
as Connie Sumner - Olivier MartinezOlivier MartinezOlivier Martinez is a French film actor. He became known after roles in several French films such as Un, deux, trois, soleil , which garnered him the César Award for "Most Promising Actor", The Horseman on the Roof , and The Chambermaid on the Titanic...
as Paul Martel - Erik Per SullivanErik Per SullivanErik Per Sullivan is an American actor best known for his role as Dewey, the younger brother to middle child Malcolm, on the FOX series, Malcolm in the Middle which was on air for 6 years.-Personal life:...
as Charlie Sumner - Michelle MonaghanMichelle MonaghanMichelle Lynn Monaghan is an American actress known for her roles in Mission: Impossible III, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Gone Baby Gone, Made of Honor, The Heartbreak Kid, Eagle Eye, and Source Code.-Early life:...
as Lindsey - Chad LoweChad LoweCharles Conrad "Chad" Lowe is an American actor. He is the younger brother of fellow actor Rob Lowe. He won an Emmy Award for his supporting role in Life Goes On as a man suffering with HIV. He has also had recurring roles on ER, Melrose Place, and Now and Again...
as Bill Stone - Erich AndersonErich AndersonErich Anderson is an actor, sometimes credited as E. Erich Anderson, who has starred in film and on television. He is best known for his first film role in the 1984 horror film Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter as Rob Dyer...
as Bob Gaylord - Kate BurtonKate Burton (actress)-Personal life:Burton was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the daughter of producer Sybil Burton and actor Richard Burton . She was thus the stepdaughter of actress Elizabeth Taylor and of Sybil's second husband Jordan Christopher. In 1979, Burton earned a bachelor's degree in Russian studies and...
as Tracy - Margaret ColinMargaret ColinMargaret Colin is an American actress. She is known for her role as Margo Montgomery Hughes # 1 on As the World Turns and for her role as Eleanor Waldorf-Rose on Gossip Girl.-Early life:...
as Sally - Željko IvanekŽeljko IvanekŽeljko Ivanek is an Emmy award-winning Slovenian American actor best known for his role as Ray Fiske on Damages. He is also known for playing Blake Sterling on short-lived NBC series The Event and Emile Danko on Heroes....
as Detective Dean - 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....
as Detective Mirojnick - Dominic ChianeseDominic ChianeseDominic Chianese is an American film, television and theatre actor, perhaps best known for his role as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos.-Early life:...
as Frank Wilson - Michael EmersonMichael EmersonMichael Emerson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Benjamin Linus on Lost and fictional serial killer William Hinks in The Practice.-Early life:...
as Josh - Joseph Badalucco Jr.Joseph Badalucco Jr.Joseph Badalucco Jr. is an American actor, brother of Emmy award-winner Michael Badalucco. His most notable performances include the characters Jimmy Altieri on The Sopranos, and Detective "Jelly" Grimaldi on Third Watch...
as a Train Conductor
Production
According to actor Gere, an early draft of the screenplay, which he read several years ago, presented the Sumners as suffering from a dysfunctional sexual relationship. It gave Connie some justification for having an affair. According to the actor and to director Lyne, the studio wanted to change the storyline so that the Sumners had a bad marriage with no sex, to create greater sympathy for Connie. Both men opposed the change; Lyne in particular felt that the studio's suggestions would have robbed the film of any drama: "I wanted two people who were perfectly happy. I loved the idea of the totally arbitrary nature of infidelity." The Sumners' relationship was rewritten as a good marriage, with her affair the result of a chance meeting.Pre-production
During pre-production, the producers received a video-taped audition from Olivier Martinez, who was selected for Paul. His character was portrayed as French once Martinez was cast. Lyne said, "I think it helps one understand how Connie might have leapt into this affair--he's very beguiling, doing even ordinary things." Once cast in the role, Martinez, with Lyne's approval, changed some of his dialogue and the scene in which he first seduces Lane's character, while she is looking at a book in braille. According to Martinez, "The story that was invented before was much more sensual, erotic and clear."Lyne cast Lane in the role of Constance after seeing her in the film, A Walk on the Moon
A Walk on the Moon
A Walk On The Moon is a 1999 drama film starring Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Liev Schreiber and Anna Paquin. The movie, which was set against the backdrop of the Woodstock festival of 1969 and the moon landing of that year, was distributed by Miramax Films.- Plot summary :Pearl Kantrowitz and her...
. He felt that the actress "breathes a certain sexuality. But she's sympathetic, and I think so many sexy women tend to be tough and hard at the same time." Lyne also wanted Gere and Lane to gain weight in order to portray the comfort of a middle-age couple. In particular, he wanted Gere to gain 30 pounds and left donuts in the actor's trailer every morning.
Lyne asked director of photography Peter Biziou, with whom he made 9½ Weeks
9½ Weeks
9½ Weeks is a 1986 erotic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger. It is based on the novel of the same name by Elizabeth McNeill....
, to shoot Unfaithful. After reading the script, Biziou felt that the story was appropriate for the classic 1.85:1 aspect ratio because, "so often has two characters working together in the frame." During pre-production, Biziou, Lyne and production designer Brian Morris used a collection of still photographs as style references. These included photos from fashion magazines and shots by prominent photographers.
Principal photography
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...
. During the windstorm sequence where Connie first meets Paul, it rained and Lyne used the overcast weather conditions for the street scenes. The director also preferred shooting practical interiors on location so that the actors could "feel an intimate sense of belonging", Biziou recalls. The cinematographer also used natural light as much as possible.
At times, Lyne's directing took its toll on the cast and crew. In a scene taking place in an office, the director pumped it full of smoke, an effect that "makes the colors less contrasty, more muted". According to Biziou, "The texture it gives helps differentiate and separate various density levels of darkness farther back in frame". The smoke was piped in for 18 to 20 hours a day and Gere remembers, "Our throats were being blown out. We had a special doctor who was there almost all the time who was shooting people up with antibiotics for bronchial infections". Lane acquired an oxygen bottle in order to survive the rigorous schedule.
The film has many explicit sex scenes, including a tryst in a restaurant bathroom and a passionate exchange in an apartment building hallway. Lyne's repeated takes for these scenes were demanding for the actors, especially for Lane, who had to be emotionally and physically fit for the scenes. To prepare for the initial love scene between Paul and Constance, Lyne had the actors watch clips from Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction is a 1987 American thriller blended with horror, directed by Adrian Lyne and stars Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer. The film centers around a married man who has a weekend affair with a woman who refuses to allow it to end, resulting in emotional blackmail, stalking...
, Five Easy Pieces
Five Easy Pieces
Five Easy Pieces is a 1970 American drama film written by Carole Eastman and Bob Rafelson, and directed by Rafelson. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Susan Anspach. The cast also includes Billy 'Green' Bush, Fannie Flagg, Ralph Waite, Sally Struthers, Lois Smith, Toni Basil, and...
, and Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris is a 1972 Italian romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci which portrays a recent American widower who takes up an anonymous sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman...
. Lane and Martinez would also talk over the scenes in his trailer beforehand. Once on the set, they felt uncomfortable until several takes in. She said, "My comfort level with it just had to catch up quickly if I wanted to be the actress to play it." Martinez was not comfortable with nudity. Lane said that Lyne would often shoot a whole magazine of film, "so one take was as long as five takes. By the end, you're physically and emotionally shattered."
Lane had not met Martinez before filming, and they did not get to know each other well during the shoot, mirroring the relationship between their characters. A full four weeks of the schedule was dedicated to the scenes in Paul's loft, which was located on the third floor of a six-story building located on Greene Street. Biziou often used two cameras for the film's intimate scenes to reduce the number of takes that had to be shot.
Post-production
Lyne shot five different endings to Unfaithful based on his experiences with Fatal Attraction, whose initial ending was rejected by the test audience. According to Lyne, he had some debate with the 20th Century-Fox officials, who wanted to "make the marriage gray, the sex bad. I fought that. I tried to explore the guilt, the jealousy—that's what I'm interested in". The studio did not like the film's "enigmatic" ending, which they felt failed to punish crimes committed by the characters. It imposed a "particularly jarring 'Hollywood' final line," which angered Gere.Following negative reactions from test audiences, the studio reinstated the original ending; a few weeks before the film was to open in theaters, Lyne asked Gere and Lane to return to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
for re-shoots of the ending. Lyne claimed that the new ending was more ambiguous than the original and was the original one by screenwriter Alvin Sargent. Lyne also thought the new ending would "it would be more interesting and provoke more discussion".
Reception
Unfaithful opened on May 10, 2002 in 2,617 theaters and grossed USDUnited States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$14 million with an average of $5,374 per screen. It made $52 million in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and a total of $119 million worldwide, well above its $50 million budget.
Critical response
The film received largely mixed reviews, though Diane Lane earned widespread praise for her performance. It currently has a rating of 47% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
(48% for their "Cream of the Crop" designation). CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
film critic Paul Tatara wrote, "The audience when I saw this one was chuckling at all the wrong times, and that's a bad sign when they're supposed to be having a collective heart attack." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
critic Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
awarded the film an "A-" grade and praised Lane for delivering "the most urgent performance of her career", writing that she "is a revelation. The play of lust, romance, degradation, and guilt on her face is the movie's real story." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
wrote, "Instead of pumping up the plot with recycled manufactured thrills, it's content to contemplate two reasonably sane adults who get themselves into an almost insoluble dilemma." In the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, the critic Kenneth Turan wrote, "The only performer who manages to get inside her character is Lane. Whether it's her initial half-distrustful tentativeness, her later sensual abandon or her never-ending ambivalence, Lane's Constance seems to be actually living the role in a way no one else matches, a way we can all connect to."
Stephen Holden in the New York Times praised the "taut, economical screenplay" that "digs into its characters' marrow (and into the perfectly selected details of domestic life) without wasting a word. That screenplay helps to ground a film whose visual imagination hovers somewhere between soap opera and a portentous pop surrealism." USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and Mike Clark wrote, "Diane Lane also reaches a new career plateau with her best performance since 1979's A Little Romance
A Little Romance
A Little Romance is a 1979 romantic comedy film, starring Laurence Olivier and Diane Lane in her film debut. It was directed by George Roy Hill. The screenplay is written by Allan Burns and George Roy Hill, based on a novel by Patrick Cauvin...
." In his review for the Washington Post, Stephen Hunter wrote, "In the end, Unfaithful leaves you dispirited and grumpy: All that money spent, all that talent wasted, all that time gone forever, and for what? It's an ill movie that bloweth no man to good." David Ansen
David Ansen
David Ansen is a reviewer and senior editor for Newsweek, where he has been reviewing movies since 1977. He came to Newsweek after several years as the chief film critic at Boston's The Real Paper...
, in his review for Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, wrote, "Unfaithful shows what a powerful, sexy, smart filmmaker Lyne can be. It's a shame he substitutes the mechanics of suspense for the real suspense of what goes on between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife." Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris is an American film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism.-Career:Sarris is generally credited with popularizing the auteur theory in the U.S...
, in his review for The New York Observer, wrote, "Ultimately Unfaithful is escapism in its purest form, and I am willing to experience it on that level, even though with all the unalloyed joy on display, there's almost no humor," and concluded that it was "one of the very few mainstream movies currently directed exclusively to grown-ups."
Awards and nominations
The studio campaign's theme consisted of what the studio called the film's "iconic scene": Constance recalling her first tryst with Paul as she takes a train home. According to Tom Rothman, chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, "That scene captured the power of her performance. It's what everyone talked about after they saw her." Four days before the New York Film Critics Circle's vote, Lane was given a career tribute by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. A day before that, Lyne held a dinner for the actress at the Four Seasons Hotel. Critics and award voters were invited to both. Lane won the National Society of Film CriticsNational Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
, the New York Film Critics Circle awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
and an Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
ranked Unfaithful the 27th on their "50 Sexiest Movies Ever" list.