Music
Box
Released
December 1989
Starring
Jessica Lange (as Ann Talbot), Armin Mueller-Stahl, Frederic
Forrest, Donald Moffat, Lukas Haas, Cheryl Lynn Bruce
Directed by Costa-Gavras
123 min.
Box
Office gross - $6.2 million
See
complete credits at Internet
Movie Database
Acclaimed
Greek film director Constantin Costa-Gavras is known for
his political dramas such as Z (1969) and Missing
(1981). In Music Box, the subject of man's inhumanity
to man during World War II is explored as a lawyer must
defend her Hungarian immigrant father who has been accused
of heinous war crimes. Asked about what the film meant to
her, Lange said, "The only thing I know about this
film is that it's a love story. It's about this woman's
devotion and love and commitment to her family and to her
father. I always have to find the simplest line, the most
organic emotional thread."
This
was Lange's first ethnic role and, with dark hair and little
makeup, she gives a raw and intense performance. Her character
goes from total denial toward the accusations against her
father to a gradual horror that they might indeed be true.
She earned her fifth Academy Award nomination but would
lose to Jessica Tandy (for Driving Miss Daisy).
Critical
Sampling:
"She
has the will and the technique to take a role that's really
no more than a function of melodrama and turn this movie
into a cello concerto." - Pauline Kael, New
Yorker
"Lange
gives her most powerful performance since 'Frances'... She
taps equal depths of emotions, but she has to find her way
through a complex web of intrigue to find them. The result
is a more measured and credible performance, one that builds
by relentless increments.." -
Brian D. Johnson, Macleans
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