Entertainment Daily: An American Rhapsody - Nastassja Kinski talks about this film based on a true story
TAPE: EF01/0582
IN_TIME: 13:45:16
DURATION: 3:52
SOURCES: APTN/Paramount Classics
RESTRICTIONS: No re-use/re-sale of film/video/tv clips without clearance
DATELINE: L.A., August 2001
SHOTLIST
1. Film trailer 'An American Rhapsody' (Courtesy of Paramount Classics)
2. SOT Nastassja Kinski - "I knew a lot about the political situation, I knew what has happened to people in general, similar things. To actually talk to the person that was that person, that child who it happened to, it was wonderful to be able to do that."
3. Film clip 'An American Rhapsody'
4. SOT Nastassja Kinski - "When she left it's like you don't really know if it was going to work out, if she is ever going to see her child again so that was absolutely... I think you get to have strengths when you have to because they probably would have been killed or put in jail or seperated from their children."
5. Film clip 'An American Rhapsody'
6. SOT Scarlett Johansson - "It was easy for us to fall in to the mother daughter relationship. I think the hardest thing for us was to act like we despised each other because we really got along so well. It would be like we were cuddling and then it would be action and then it would be arraugh!!."
7. Film clip 'An American Rhapsody'
8. SOT Nastassja Kinski - "I{f anyone asked me I would say no absolutely not but yet if it's the survival of your whole family, maybe, if that was the plan and it was solid as it could be, we all have to survive."
9. Film clip 'An American Rhapsody'
NASTASSJA KINSKI BREATHES LIFE INTO COLD WAR
Nastassja Kinski's new movie, An American Rhapsody has had its fair share of publicity in the run up to its North American release today (August 10th). It opened the prestigious Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic - its world premiere - and then had a high profile North American premiere for it's US release. Nastassja Kinski attended both events.
The movie tells the true-life story of filmmaker, Eva Gardos, who directed the film. It relates her early childhood separation from her parents. Her family was forced to flee Hungary during the Cold War, and left the young Eva (played by 6-year-old Hungarian Kelly Endresz-Banlaki) behind for the first six years of her life.
Eva grows up on a farm in Hungary with a couple she thinks are her parents until a red cross worker whisks her off to Los Angeles where she is confronted with the full force of American 1950s consumerism.
Years later the teenage Eva (Scarlett Johansson) is a troubled woman. In the conformity of 1950s America her parents have insisted they deny their past and while Eva looks and acts like any other all American teenager, a part of her still yearns for the Hungarian farm where she spent her formative years.
When she attempts to go back, things come to a head with her mother.
Gardos, an experienced film editor, made her directing debut with "An American Rhapsody" which has won critical praise for its screenplay.
Award winning actress Nastassja Kinski ("Paris, Texas," The Claim, Tess, Cat People) portrays the mother tortured by the separation from her daughter. Kinski, who is also a mother, says she identified closely with the role, and the plight of many whose families were displaced and sometimes never reunited.
Scarlett Johansson ( The Horse Whisperer, Home Alone 3) enjoyed the experience of working with Nastassja Kinski. For actor Tony Goldwyn (Bounce, The Sixth Day, Kiss The Girls), who plays Eva's father, "An American Rhapsody" represented a unique challenge: The film required him to learn and deliver a portion of his lines in Hungarian, an experience he described as "a trip."
Reviews so far have been mixed, ranging from "An absorbing and heartfelt memoir of immigrant life" to accusing Gardos of turning "a poignant tale of displacement into melodrama."
An American Rhapsody goes on limited release in the USA from 10th August.
FILM CLIP DETAILS
American Rhapsody
Paramount Pictures
1 213 956 5000