Watch is a film directed by Stephen Daldry released in 2002. At the time of release, the picture made a splash, amazing the audience and critics with an unusual plot, fine directorial work and brilliant cast - the three main characters were performed by some of the best American actresses. Information, interesting facts and reviews about the movie "Watch" - later in this article.
Plot
The main characters of the film "Clock" are characters living at different times. These are three women, interconnected by thin lines of vital threads and very similar fates. The viewer gets acquainted with three women from 1923, 1951 and 2001, while simultaneously observing one day in the life of each from the moment of awakening until the night. For each of the three heroines - the famous English writer Virginia Woolf, ordinary Los Angeles housewife Laura Brown and New York business woman Clarissa Vaughn - the day shown on the screen becomes difficult in deciding whether to continue the struggle for a life that has reached an impasse, or to commit suicide. All three women are somehow related to Wolfe's novel Mrs. Dalloway.
For the correct perception of the picture from the very beginning, the Russian-speaking audience needs to avoid confusion with the name. In the original, it sounds like "Hours" - "hours", in the understanding of the measure of time, and not the measuring device ("Clock").
The trailer for the movie Watch with Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep can be seen below.
Virginia Woolf
The plot of the film "Clock" begins with the events of 1941, when the prominent English writer Virginia Woolf committed suicide by drowning in a river. Then the viewer will meet one day in the life of a writer in 1923 in Richmond. On this day, she began work on her famous novel, Mrs. Dalloway.
At about noon, Virginia's sister Vanessa arrives with three children. The woman planned to have dinner with her sister and her husband, but she hurries and leaves after the writer, along with her nephews and niece, bury the bird who died in the garden, and then talks with the children about the death of her book heroine. In parting, Virginia kisses her sister on the lips. The experienced shock prompts her to suddenly move to London. Her husband Leonard finds her at the station and persuades her to return home. The writer claims that in a state of mental distress, life in Richmond is tantamount to death, to which Leonard promises to return to the capital soon.
For a deeper immersion in the role in the movie "The Clock," Kidman read all the existing letters, works, and memoirs of Virginia Woolf.
Other roles in the novel were played by:
- Leonard - Stephen Dillane.
- Vanessa - Miranda Richardson.
- Lottie - Lindsay Marshall.
- Nelly - Linda Bassett.
Laura Brown
The second actress of the film, with whom the viewer meets, was Julianne Moore, who played the role of Laura Brown, a housewife from Los Angeles. She lives with her husband and young son, is pregnant with a second child. Laura looks very unhappy - she is passionate about reading, is sexually attracted to her friend Kitty and decides to commit suicide in the midst of a weekday. However, the attempt is unsuccessful, and at the end of the day the viewer sees a woman crying in the bathroom. Her husband calls her to bed, and swallowing tears, Laura promises to come soon.
The role could be played by Gwyneth Paltrow and Emily Watson, but, barely seeing the samples of Julianne Moore, Stephen Doldry realized that he had found his actress.
Other actors in the movie "Clock" in the short story:
- Dan Brown - John C. Reilly.
- Richie - Jack Rovello.
- Kitty - Tony Collette.
Clarissa Vaughn
The role of the third heroine of the film, an editor from New York, Clarissa Vaughn, was performed by the great actress Meryl Streep. Her day begins with buying flowers for her close friend, Laura Brown's son Richard, dying of AIDS. Once Clarissa and Richard were in love with each other, now the woman lives with her mistress, continuing to take care of an old friend, without whom she still can not imagine life.
Clarissa decides to have a party in honor of Richard and spends the day preparing for the event, but when the hero of the occasion is not there, the woman goes to him and becomes a witness to suicide - before her eyes Brown is thrown out of the window.
After this event, Clarissa meets with Richard's mother, and the viewer learns the continuation of the story of Laura Brown - having given birth to a second child, the woman left her husband and children, having fled to Canada.
The film ends with a repeat of the suicide scene of Virginia Woolf, which is accompanied by a quote from the writer's death note addressed to Leonard:
It is necessary to face life - always. Finally understand her as she is and love her. And then - abandon her. But there are always years between us, love is long hours.
Other roles in the novel were played by:
- Richard - Ed Harris.
- Sally - Allison Jenny.
- Julia - Claire Danes.
- Louis - Jeff Daniels.
Connecting links
All threads that somehow connect the three heroines of the film can be divided into several points.
- The novel "Mrs. Dalloway." Wolfe started writing this book, Brown read it, and Won is often jokingly called "Mrs. Dalloway" because of the love of having parties.
- A quote from the novel that Mrs. Dalloway decides to buy flowers. With these words, the writer begins the work, the housewife begins reading the book, and the editor begins her day.
- Hint of homosexual relationships. Despite the fact that the attraction to women from Wolfe is not proven, according to the plot of the picture, in a fit of feelings, she kisses her sister. Unhappy married Laura Brown kisses her friend, and Clarissa Vaughn is an open bisexual woman and lives with her beloved woman.
- Imperfect suicide. On this day, the writer Wolfe decides to commit suicide, which she will carry out after 18 years. She also concocts the death of her heroine Dalloway, but then transfers it to another character. Laura Brown takes sleeping pills, but survives, and Clarissa decides to leave the world after a dying friend and former lover.
- Separate connection between Wolf and Brown, between Brown and Won. The waves of the river that took the life of Virginia exactly 10 years ago, as if overwhelming Laura in a dying dream. The connection between Laura and Clarissa is Richard Brown, a son of the first woman and beloved of the second, dying of AIDS.
Filming
As mentioned above, the director of the film "Watch" was the Englishman Stephen Doldry, previously known for his film "Billy Elliot", and subsequently shot the famous tape "Reader", "Terribly Loud, Extremely Close" and "Dump". The screenplay of David Hayer, which fell into Doldry’s hands in 2000, was so impressed with the director that he read it and the original source of the same name by Michael Cunningham in one day, determined to film the material.
The short story about each heroine was shot separately. First, in New York, all the material was shot with Meryl Streep - it was not difficult, because Clarissa Won existed in modern times, and the places where she appeared during the day were described in detail by the author of the book.
The second in line was Julianne Moore - the modern resort city of Fort Lauderdale, located in southern Florida, acted as her place of residence, namely Los Angeles of the 50s. It is curious that the scene in which the lost consciousness of Laura is flooded with river water was shot for real: a giant cube-pavilion with room decorations on a special cable was loaded into an even larger tank filled to the top with water taken from a nearby lake.
The last scenes filmed with the participation of Nicole Kidman. The suburbs of London, in which Virginia Woolf lived at that time, had to be shot in London itself - the real area has changed a lot from the moment the famous writer lived and committed suicide there. Each shooting day, Kidman began with a complex makeup using a false nose, giving a portrait resemblance to Wolfe. The producer of the picture, Harvey Weinstein, was against the “ugliness” of the actress, but the director insisted and was not mistaken - Nicole herself later admitted that in this form she could only get used to the image by looking only in the mirror for a second.
Julianne Moore did not escape the need to make up, playing the role of the elderly Laura Brown in the short story about Clarissa Vaughn. For the sake of a short appearance on the screen, the actress spent 6 hours in the make-up chair.
The visual “rhymes” that simply filled the film were talentedly woven together by cameraman Seamus McGarvey and editing director Peter Boyle. Costume designers and decorators of the environment of the heroines also tried to create multiple "roll calls" - in the style of clothing, similar wallpaper, mirrors and interior items.
Technical details
The duration of the movie "Hours" is 114 minutes. He was shot by Miramax in English, in the United States and the United Kingdom, using a budget of $ 25 million.
The film premiered in the United States on December 15, 2002, after which limited screenings took place in cinemas in the United States and Canada from December 2002 to January 2003. On February 9, 2003, the Watch was presented as part of the Berlin Film Festival, and on February 14, dedicated to Valentine's Day, the world premiere of the painting took place in the USA, Great Britain, Ireland and South Korea. The Russian premiere took place on April 3, 2003. The last was a movie rental in Croatia - on July 19, 2015, it was presented at the Pula Film Festival. The total box office for the entire rental period brought the creators more than $ 100 million.
Soundtrack
The soundtracks for the film "The Clock" were written by the American composer Philip Glass, best known for the musical accompaniment of the paintings "Thin Blue Line", "Truman Show" and "Leviathan". For his excellent work, Glass won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Soundtrack, and was nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy Award. The music for the film was released as a separate album by Elektra and Nonesuch in 2002.
Quotes
Many viewers of the film “Clock” found deep and touching quotes in their hearts and minds.
All women's life is like one day. Just one day. And in this day her whole life.
We do this. All people do this. They live for the sake of others.
I wanted to write about everything. About everything that happens around. About your flowers when you bring them. About this towel. About the smell. About how it feels. About all our feelings - yours and mine. About the story. What we were ... About everything together, honey! Because everything is mixed. I could not. I couldn’t. What would not be threatened - it turned out less. Naked, ridiculous pride. Stupidity. I wanted to embrace the immense ...
She is a self-confident mistress, and she is going to have a party. And, perhaps, due to the fact that she is confident in herself, everyone thinks that she is all right. But this is not so.
All my life I could do everything. Besides the only thing I wanted.
“What happens when we die?” “What happens? We return to where we came from.
When I'm with him, I feel ... I live. And when I'm not with him, everything seems so stupid.
I remember when I woke up one day at dawn, and it felt like anything was possible. And I remember how I thought then: "Here it is - the beginning of happiness, And, of course, there will be more further." But then I did not understand that this was not the beginning. This was happiness itself. Right then, at that moment.
Someone must die so that others value life more.
Watch life in the face. Always face life and understand it for what it is. Finally understand her. And to love her for who she is. And then ... abandon her.
There are always years between us. Always years. Always love. Always a watch.
If I could think clearly, I would say that I fight alone in the darkness in total darkness and only I know, only I understand my condition.
Interesting Facts
During the filming of such an extraordinary picture, it could not do without a number of interesting stories, unusual cases and just funny incidents. For example, the following fact is well known: Meryl Streep was mentioned in a Cunningham novel. In the short story about Clarissa Vaughn, a Hollywood celebrity starred near the flower shop, where the main character appeared in the story. Given this fact and not being able to shoot the Strip in the title role and as a guest star, Stephen Doldry decided to appear as a cameo himself, and played the role of a passerby near a flower shop.
Fans of actress Nicole Kidman are well aware that the star is left-handed. But since the writer Virginia Woolf was right-handed, Kidman learned to write with her right hand and achieved some success - now she is equally good at both hands.
During the filming, Kidman was very accustomed to a false nose. Later, she repeatedly used the makeup of Virginia Woolf to move around the city and remain unrecognizable to fans and paparazzi.
It was the name "Watch" that Virginia Woolf assumed for her famous work, "Mrs. Dalloway."
It is curious that the creators of the film did not follow what books Laura Brown reads - besides Mrs. Dalloway at the woman’s bed are the books Under the Canopy by A. Merdock and D. Cessil's Lord of Melbourne. These works were first published in 1954, so Laura, who lives in 1951, could not have them.
The film shows that Leonard Wolfe, the husband of the writer, is engaged in editing the printing galleys. In fact, he never did the layout himself because of the tremor that appeared during the course of a chronic illness - Virginia herself was doing it, who enjoys, calmness and inspiration from painstaking monotonous work.
Awards and nominations
The “Watch” tape was awarded a huge number of not only nominations for the most prestigious film awards in the USA and other countries, but also victories in most of them. However, despite as many as 9 nominations for an Oscar in the categories of "Best Film", "Best Director", "Adapted Screenplay", "Main female role", "Secondary female role", "Secondary male role", "Montage", " Costumes "and" Best Soundtrack "only Nicole Kidman could get the coveted statuette, becoming the best actress of 2003 according to the American Film Academy. In addition, in the nomination "Best Actress" in the movie "Watch" Nicole Kidman was nominated 9 more times, becoming the winner of the Berlin Film Festival, BAFTA and Golden Globe.
In total, the picture received more than 80 awards of all major film awards in the world. The winners were awarded 23 nominees, among which, in addition to the above:
- "Best Movie" from the National Council of Film Critics of the United States and the Vancouver Film Awards.
- "Best Foreign Film" from the Norwegian festival "Amanda" and the German film award "Lola".
- "Best American film" from the Danish film award "Robert".
- "Best Director" for Stephen Daldry of the Vancouver Film Awards.
- "Best Actress" for Meryl Streep from the Berlin Film Festival and the LGBT Outfest Film Festival.
- "Best Actress" for Julianne Moore from the Berlin Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
- "Best Supporting Actress" for Tony Collett from the Boston Association of Film Critics and Vancouver Film Awards.
- "Best Screenplay" for David Hayer and Michael Cunningham from the University of California Drama.
- "Best Adapted Screenplay" for David Hayer from the American Writers Guild.
- "British Screenwriter of the Year" for David Hayer from the Society of London Film Critics.
- "Best Soundtrack" for Philip Glass from BAFTA.
- Best Cinematography for Seamus McGarvey at the Evening Standard British Film Awards
- "The Best Cast" for Daniel Sui from CSA.
- "Best Trailer for a Dramatic Movie" from the Golden Trailer Award.
The opinion of critics
The film “Watch” received a large number of positive reviews from professional critics. On the Rotten Tomatoes website, the picture won 80% of the positive reviews received based on 192 reviews, which is a very high result for an intellectual tape.
On the Metacritick website, the film's rating is 8 points out of 10. Most reviewers found the picture very deep, touching, noting a bright start, despite the tragic plot and thoughts of the main characters about suicide.
Reviews of the Nicole Kidman stand apart from the critics of the movie “Clock”. Her game was called surprisingly accurate, soulful, taking on the soul. Cinema experts agreed that, without using a large number of biographical cliches about the famous writer, the actress was able to convey her personality traits more than anyone else.
But the negative reviews of the film "Watch" in 2002 also found a place. The critics who remained unsatisfied wrote in the minuses of the picture the lack of a plot basis that was superior to or at least equal to the stated pathos.
Spectator reviews
The film "Watch" since 2002 still finds its loyal viewers around the world. On the Russian Kinopoisk resource, the number of positive reviews of the picture is 10 times more than negative - this suggests that allegorical cinema, affecting the themes of suicide, loneliness and same-sex love, is not at all alien to our viewer.
In the positive reviews of the film "Watch", viewers often mention not only a great acting game, an unusual plot, and to this day actual problems of human relationships. Many people like the film because of its refined poetic beauty - metaphorical scenes thought out to the smallest detail captivated viewers who have lost the habit of painting and have left a trace in their hearts forever.
In the negative reviews about the film “Watch,” dissatisfied viewers agreed with critics - the plot seemed unfinished, weak or boring (to someone all together). At the same time, almost everyone who spoke out negatively all the same positively noted the game of all actresses, calling this aspect the main (or only) merit of the picture.