Welcome back to A History of Film Festivals in 100 Movies - This is Episode 15.
Enchanted April - directed by Mike Newell and the Palm Springs International Film Festival - which kicks off this week January 2, and runs through the 13th.
Mike Newell is an English film and television director and producer, who won the BAFTA for Best Direction for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), which also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film, and directed the films Donnie Brasco (1997) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
The Palm Springs International Film Festival - Run by the Palm Springs International Film Society, the festival does feature American independent films, but the focus from its inception was to shine a spotlight on international cinema, along with its spectacular Awards Gala.
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The Early Years of Mike Newell
Newell was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, as the son of amateur actors,and was educated at St Albans School. He read English at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He then attended a three-year training course at Granada Television with the intention of entering the theatre.
Newell directed various British TV shows from the 1960s onwards (such as Spindoe, credited as Cormac Newell, and Big Breadwinner Hog), but eventually shifted his focus to film direction.
His first feature-length project was The Man in the Iron Mask (1977), a made-for-television film. The Man in the Iron Mask is a 1977 television film loosely adapted from the 1847–1850 novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas and presenting several plot similarities with the 1939 film version.
His first critically acclaimed movie - made for TV - was Bad Blood (1981), concerning the 1941 manhunt for the New Zealand mass-killer Stan Graham played by Jack Thompson. This was followed by Dance with a Stranger (1985), a biographical drama starring Miranda Richardson as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK.
The film won critical acclaim, and aided the careers of two of its leading actors, Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett. The story of Ellis has resonance in Britain because it provided part of the background to the extended national debates that led to the progressive abolition of capital punishment from 1965.
For his directorial efforts, Newell won the Award of the Youth at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.
The theme song, a cover version of Peggy Lee's 1951 track "Would You Dance with a Stranger?", was performed by Mari Wilson and released as a single.
The Origins of PSIFF
Palm Springs International Film Festival is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. Originally promoted by Mayor Sonny Bono, it started in 1989 (the year I graduated with my Film Studies Degree from UCSB) and is held annually in January. It is run by the Palm Springs International Film Society,
In 1989, he pulled a team together that could put into action the planning and logistical support that had been developed over the course of the previous year.
That first year's Festival, in January of 1990, was an immediate success, drawing more than 17,000 filmgoers in the course of its five-day run, and generating positive press coverage from publications including the Los Angeles Times, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter.
Newell Is Ready for Prime Time
Thanks to the critical acclaim for Dance with a Stranger, Newell moved on to Enchanted April.
Enchanted April is a 1991 British historical drama film directed by Newell. The screenplay by Peter Barnes was adapted from Elizabeth von Arnim's best selling 1922 novel “The Enchanted April.” It stars Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence, Polly Walker, and Joan Plowright, with Alfred Molina, Michael Kitchen, and Jim Broadbent in supporting roles.
Here’s a brief summary:
When married British women Rose Arbuthnot (Miranda Richardson) and Lottie Wilkins (Josie Lawrence) decide to take a break from their respective spouses, they stay at a castle in Italy for a quiet holiday. Joining the ladies is Caroline Dester (Polly Walker), a young socialite, and Mrs. Fisher (Joan Plowright), an older aristocrat. Liberated from their daily routines, the four women ease into life in rural Italy, and each finds herself transformed by the experience.
The film premiered as the opening night gala of the London Film Festival on 6 November 1991, before having its US Premiere as the Opening Night film at the 3rd annual PSIFF. The Festival was already generating buzz, growing its audience and thrilled with its Artistic Director Darryl McDonald, who I had the pleasure of knowing and working with over the years.
In addition to the critical acclaim (holds an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.) and audience response, the film earned its share of awards recognition.
Academy Awards Nomination - Best Supporting Actress for Joan Plowright
Academy Awards Nomination – Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published for Peter Barnes
Academy Awards Nomination - Best Costume Design for Sheena Napier
Golden Globes Award - Best Actress for Miranda Richardson
Golden Globes Award - Best Supporting Actress for Joan Plowright
The programming and positioning of this film was truly ideal for the Festival and for the Palm Springs audience, known as an older, crowd, with a more sophisticated and cultured palette.
And while I was not there for this Opening Night Gala, it was in fact 1992 where I would finally discover the film festival world first hand. I’ll never forget attending the sold out show of Hear My Song. I walked into the lobby for some popcorn, and nearly bumped into lead Adrian Dunbar pacing nervously. Of course, that film received a standing ovation and was eventually released by Miramax.
There have been countless positive reviews of Enchanted April, and comparisons to the best selling novel from the 1920s but here is one of the better YouTube videos from AbookOlive.
The movie did pretty well in terms of international box office, with over 13 million, but likely didn’t reach it’s full potential.
PSIFF Continues to Grow
In the second and third years of the Festival, the quality of the film programming, along with exhibition of major World and US Premieres by filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh, Luc Besson, and Michael Apted, helped the Festival earn a well-deserved reputation as an emerging player in the Festival arena.
And the Festival premiered Mediterraneo, which was Italy’s Oscar Submission. It went on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film and helped to seed what would become the Festival’s anchor mission - to showcase the best of international cinema, which they continue to this day.
Four Weddings and a Funeral
After being recruited by George Lucas to direct episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1993, Newell would make Four Weddings and a Funeral, the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to star Hugh Grant. The film follows the adventures of Charles (Grant) and his circle of friends through a number of social occasions as they each encounter romance. Andie MacDowell co-stars as Charles's love interest Carrie, with Kristin Scott Thomas, James Fleet, Simon Callow, John Hannah, Charlotte Coleman, David Bower, Corin Redgrave, and Rowan Atkinson in supporting roles.
Screenwriter Richard Curtis' own experiences as a wedding attendee inspired Four Weddings and a Funeral. According to Curtis, he began writing the script at age 34, after realizing he had attended 65 weddings in an 11-year period. At one wedding he was propositioned by a fellow guest, but he turned her down and forever regretted it. He has said that he based the origin of Charles and Carrie's romance on that very situation.
Curtis, Newell and the producers began the casting process for Four Weddings in early 1992. Alex Jennings was cast as Charles, but funding for the production fell through in mid-1992. The team continued holding auditions for over a year, seeing roughly 70 actors for the role of Charles before Hugh Grant.
Grant was ready to give up acting as a career when he received the script for Four Weddings and a Funeral; he stated in 2016 that:
"I wasn't really getting any work at all, and then to my great surprise this script came through the letterbox from my agent, and it was really good. And I rang on and said there must be a mistake, you've sent me a good script."
Initially, writer Richard Curtis, who modelled the character of Charles after himself, was opposed to casting Grant in the role, because he thought Grant was too handsome. Curtis favoured casting Alan Rickman, but Rickman refused to audition. Curtis was eventually persuaded by Newell and the producers to approve Grant's casting.
The film was made in six weeks, with a budget under 3 million. Four Weddings and a Funeral would have its world premiere in January 1994 at the Sundance Film Festival.
It opened in the United States on March 11, 1994 in five theaters. The box office receipts from the first five days of the film's general release in the United States so impressed the movie's distributor that it decided to spend lavishly on promotion. The movie also benefited from free publicity because of Grant's reception in the United States, where he became an instant sex symbol and undertook a successful media tour promoting the film.
The movie became an unexpected success and the highest-grossing British film in history at the time, with worldwide box office total of $245.7 million, and receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Additionally, Grant won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the film won the BAFTA Awards Best Film, Best Direction, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Scott Thomas. The film's success propelled Hugh Grant to international stardom, particularly in the United States.
Four Weddings and a Funeral also received critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 134 reviews.
The Festival Brings out the Stars
Another major factor in the Festival's emergence was the one-two punch of having Jimmy Stewart in 1992, then Frank Sinatra in 1993 attend the Festival to receive awards in back-to-back years. Having such world-renowned talents here in the third and fourth years of the Festival generated huge publicity outside of Palm Springs, and propelled the event forward with both the mainstream media and filmgoers from all across North America. Those were the years and the circumstances that created the event's emergence as a force in the Festival world.
By its fifth year, 1994, the Festival had grown to an audience of 42,000 attendees, filling hotel rooms and restaurants in town during its run (by then extended to 11 days), and drawing audiences and press coverage from across the country. The event commanded major respect from the film industry and filmmakers worldwide, and had drawn large numbers of new visitors to Palm Springs for the first time; many of them decided it was a great place to vacation regularly, and even to own a second home.
In 1995, the PS Film Society launched a shorts festival. The Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films takes place across seven days each June, showing more than 350 short films every year, and hosting a Short Film Market with over 3,000 new short films annually. It also presents a three-day program of seminars, master classes, panels and roundtable discussions with free admission for all filmmaking and industry guests. An AMPAS qualifying Festival, PSISF has hosted 97 short films in its 19-year history that went on to secure Oscar nominations in the short film categories.
Newell’s Career Expands
Donnie Brasco is a 1997 American crime drama film directed by Mike Newell and starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby, James Russo and Anne Heche appear in supporting roles. The film, written by Paul Attanasio, is based on the 1988 nonfiction book “Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia” by Joseph D. Pistone and Richard Woodley.[
Donnie Brasco was released theatrically in North America on February 28, 1997. The film earned $11.6 million from 1,503 theaters during its opening weekend. It went on to earn $41.9 million in North America, and $83 million from other markets, for a total of $124.9 million.
Since these award-winning productions, Newell has directed a number of films in Hollywood, such as Pushing Tin (1999) (starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, and Angelina Jolie) and Mona Lisa Smile (2003) (starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, and Julia Stiles).
The Awards Gala Elevates the Festival
Early in the new century, Harold Matzner took the reins of the Palm Springs organization, adding new Board members and sponsors, and assembling a new management team to run the Festival with a clear artistic vision and a keen eye for the bottom line. He reinvigorated the Awards Gala, making it the star-studded powerhouse it has become. Participating stars include: Kate Winslet, Brad Pitt, Naomi Watts, John Travolta, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Day-Lewis, Charlize Theron, Jake Gyllenhaal, Liam Neeson, and Laura Linney. The event was reborn, routinely generating more than one billion media impressions worldwide.
Newell Joins the Harry Potter Franchise
In 2005, Newell was awarded the BAFTA Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in Directing for his career prior to 2005. Newell became the first British director of the Harry Potter film series with the production of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth adaptation in the series, which became a major critical and financial success worldwide. Newell is heard briefly as the radio announcer at the beginning of the film.
Newell directed Love in the Time of Cholera in 2007 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in 2010. Continuing to work on adaptations, Newell directed Great Expectations (2012) from the novel by Charles Dickens with Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, and Jeremy Irvine in starring roles. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Another Adaptation
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a 2018 historical romantic drama film directed by Mike Newell and written by Kevin Hood, Don Roos and Tom Bezucha, based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
The film was released in a few countries, and here in the US on Netflix. It has been well received but critics and audiences alike.
In 2024, the Shortsfest celebrated its 30th Anniversary, having become the biggest shorts film festival in North America. Here is an article that recaps that history.
Now in its third decade, the Palm Springs International Film Festival has hit its stride, with massive media coverage annually, attracting major stars, and increasing an attendance base that places it among the top three festivals in America.
And that’s a wrap for this edition of A History of Film Festivals in 100 Movies.
Episode 15 - Enchanted April - directed by Mike Newell and the Palm Springs International Film Festival - which again, kicks off this week January 2 , and runs through the 13th.
Hope you have a great holiday and I’ll look forward to reconnecting in 2025!
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