2004 film by Wong Kar-wai, Michelangelo Antonioni, Steven Soderbergh
Eros
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by
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Written by
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Based on
| That Bowling Alley on the Tiber
by Michelangelo Antonioni (segment "Il filo pericoloso delle cose")
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Produced by
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Starring
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Cinematography
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Edited by
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Music by
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Production
company
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Distributed by
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Release dates
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- 10 September 2004
(
2004-09-10
)
(
Venice
)
- 3 December 2004
(
2004-12-03
)
(Italy)
- 8 April 2005
(
2005-04-08
)
(USA)
- 12 May 2005
(
2005-05-12
)
(Hong Kong)
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Running time
| 104 minutes
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Countries
| - Hong Kong
- United States
- Italy
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Languages
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Box office
| $1.5 million
[1]
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Eros
is a 2004
anthology film
consisting of three
short segments
:
The Hand
directed by
Wong Kar-wai
in
Mandarin
,
Equilibrium
by
Steven Soderbergh
in English, and
The Dangerous Thread of Things
by
Michelangelo Antonioni
in Italian. Each segment addresses the themes of love and sex.
[2]
Plot
[
edit
]
- The Hand
Miss Hua, a 1960s high-end
call girl
is visited by a shy dressmaker's assistant Zhang, to take her measure. He hears the sounds of sex, as he waits in her living room. He is drawn towards her but there is no meeting ground between the two individuals from completely different classes. She summons him when her client leaves. She tells him, she will supply him with an aid to his memory. He will think about her while designing her clothes, she says.
[3]
[4]
- Equilibrium
Nick Penrose is an advertising executive in the year 1955 under enormous pressure at work. He tells his psychiatrist Dr. Pearl about a recurring dream of a beautiful naked woman in his apartment, as they discuss the possible reasons why his stress seems to manifest itself in the erotic dream.
[3]
[4]
- The Dangerous Thread of Things
A bored couple, Christopher and Cloe, take a stroll near a resort on a lake on the coast of Tuscany. Visiting a restaurant on the beach, they see a sexy young woman, Linda. Linda tells him where she lives, inside a crumbling medieval tower. He goes to visit her and they have sex. As Christopher leaves the place, the two women later encounter each other on the beach, both naked.
[3]
[4]
[5]
Cast
[
edit
]
The Hand
- Gong Li
as Miss Hua
- Chang Chen
as Xiao Zhang, Jin's apprentice
- Feng Tien
as Master Jin
- Luk Auntie as Hua's Servant, Ying
- Jianjun Zhou as Hua's Lover, Zhao
Equilibrium
The Dangerous Thread of Things
- Christopher Buchholz
as Christopher
- Regina Nemni as Cloe
- Luisa Ranieri
as The Girl / Linda
- Cecilia Luci as Girl by the Cascade
- Karima Machehour as Girl by the Cascade
Production
[
edit
]
Development
[
edit
]
After having produced Antonioni's
Beyond the Clouds
in 1995, France-based producer
Stephane Tchalgadjieff
came up with the idea of doing a trilogy with "eros" as the subject, with one segment directed by the Italian director. The concept was to have two major younger directors, who have been on record to say that they have been influenced by his filmmaking, accompany him. Each would do a segment in total freedom, unaware of the other two. Two French producers, Raphael Berdugo and
Jacques Baralong
with Italian producer
Domenico Procacci
joined him.
[6]
Amedeo Pagani, producer and Antonioni's friend, was asked to participate but given Antonioni's medical status, he refused to be involved in the movie. "Michelangelo is a good friend but I think it's not a good idea to have him directing an erotic feature in his condition".
[7]
After Antonioni's approval, production development on
Eros
officially began in 2001: after discussing possible directors, the group of producers selected
Wong Kar-wai
and
Pedro Almodovar
to helm the other two short films. During the Italian press tour for
Talk to Her
in March 2002, Almodovar declared to be "happy, thrilled and honored to share a film with a master like Antonioni"
[8]
Wong Kar-wai, for his part, said that the Italian director "had been the guiding light for me and filmmakers of my generation so I'm deeply honored to participate in this project and show him my gratitude".
[9]
Almodovar's withdrawal
[
edit
]
Almodovar was supposed to start pre-production and location scouting in early April 2002, on a screenplay based on the sexual initiation of a 8-year-old boy.
[8]
After several delays in finishing the script and being pressed for time as the production of his film
Bad Education
approached, he was forced to withdraw.
During an event to celebrate Antonioni's 90th birthday in September 2002, his wife Enrica announced that Almodovar had left the project and would be replaced by Steven Soderbergh.
[10]
It was also announced that the Spanish director was in talks to create the interstitial segment that would link the three parts of the film together.
[11]
Soderbergh declared that he had accepted the job because he simply wanted his name "on a poster with Michelangelo Antonioni's"
[6]
Casting
[
edit
]
Antonioni didn't want familiar faces in his segment and also needed actors that were at ease with the nude scenes. Casting commenced in summer 2001.
Christopher Buchholz
, son of German actor
Horst Buchholz
, was cast in the role of Christopher, the husband. The actor was originally uncomfortable with the sex scenes, since a particular sequence from the original script required full front nudity. The scene was eventually cut and never filmed.
[12]
Former dancer
Regina Nemni
got the part of Cloe, the wife and newcomer Luisa Ranieri, popular at the time for a
Nestea
commercial, was cast as Linda.
Having written a less erotic script, Soderbergh got easy access to A-list actors for the main roles. On February 27, 2003,
Variety
reported that both
Robert Downey Jr.
and
Alan Arkin
had been chosen for the yet-untitled segment.
[13]
For the dual role of the "Woman in the Dream" (whose scenes required full nudity) and Nick's wife Cecelia, dozens of actresses auditioned for casting director
Debra Zane
. Ultimately, 29-year-old actress (and former model)
Ele Keats
booked the part.
In spring 2003,
Wong Kar-wai
completed the casting for his segment: young Taiwanese actor
Chang Chen
, who had already worked with the director in
Happy Together
,
[14]
landed the lead role of Zhang.
Gong Li
, who was about to start filming Wong's
2046
, joined the cast as Miss Hua.
Filming
[
edit
]
The first episode to be filmed was Antonioni's
Il filo pericoloso delle cose
. Production began in late October 2001 in
Capalbio
(
Tuscany
), on a scheduled 6-week shoot.
[15]
With a few exceptions (like cinematographer
Marco Pontecorvo
), the crew was mainly composed by young newcomers. Rome-based architect Stefano Luci debuted as a production designer with
Eros
thanks to his friendship with Antonioni and helped him finding the right locations for the shooting.
[16]
Other locations included the
Natural Park of Maremma
and the
Lake Turano
. Mainly shot during the day to capture summer's end's natural light with both digital and 35mm cameras,
[15]
filming officially wrapped in early December.
[16]
The final budget for the segment was 2,5 billion liras.
[17]
Despite being located in 1950s
New York City
, Soderbergh's
Equilibrium
was completely shot in a
Los Angeles
studio. Produced by Soderbergh's long-time collaborator
Gregory Jacobs
, the segment entered production in late February 2003 and principal photography lasted one week. Production designer Philip Messina and
Academy Award
-winner costume designer
Milena Canonero
teamed up to recreate the 1950s look required by the script. Knowing that the other two filmmakers would be more direct in their approach to the subject, Soderbergh chose a lighter, more elliptical path. "I liked the idea that what is supposed to be 'an erotic film' stars
Alan Arkin
and
Robert Downey Jr.
"
[6]
Actress
Ele Keats
, as the only erotic element of the story, spent several hours totally naked on set but, as she later declared, Soderbergh "had meticulously planned everything ahead of time so for me it was like being relaxed at home".
[18]
Wong Kar Wai began production on
The Hand
in early 2003, during the outbreak of
SARS
in
southern China
. The original plan of shooting in
Shanghai
had to be revoked so production had to be moved to
Hong Kong
.
[6]
Many crew members quit because of the risks, forcing Wong to work with a reduced staff. Because of the risks, the cast & crew had to wash hands regularly on set and had to work wearing masks, avoiding any possible physical contact with each other. To speed up production, the last two days of shooting were done in a 48-hour period of continuous work.
[6]
"It was a nightmare but this situation inspired me to make a film about the sense of touch," declared the director during the press conference in
Venice
.
[19]
Luisa Ranieri
said her masturbation scene in
The Dangerous Thread of Things
was traumatic. "It was one of the first scenes, Antonioni made me understand that I had to strip naked and get on the bed and touch myself," she explained. "I had no intention of doing it, but then he convinced me ...On the set I was rubbing my eyes, I'm not doing a hardcore movie I said to myself. It was a shock. After that I got sick and I threw up."
[20]
Reception
[
edit
]
Critical response
[
edit
]
In North America, critical response for
Eros
was very mixed.
Rotten Tomatoes
reported that 34% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 68 reviews, with an average rating of 4.80 out of 10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Though Wong's short lives up to the promise of the title, Antonioni's is a serious disappointment."
[21]
On
Metacritic
, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100 based on 22 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
[22]
American critics were almost unanimous in their praise of
Wong Kar-wai
's segment, and almost unanimous in their disapproval of the
Michelangelo Antonioni
piece.
Steven Soderbergh
's contribution drew mixed notices.
Roger Ebert
gave Wong's segment four out of four stars, Soderbergh's three stars, and Antonioni's a mere one star.
[23]
On the syndicated television show
Ebert & Roeper
, he gave the film a "thumbs up" rating. In his
Chicago Sun-Times
review, he wrote:
Are the three films in
Eros
intended to be (a) erotic, (b) about eroticism or (c) both? The directors respond in three different ways.
Wong Kar-wai
chooses (c),
Steven Soderbergh
chooses (b) and
Michelangelo Antonioni
, alas, arrives at None of the Above...The Antonioni film is an embarrassment. Regina Nemni acts all of her scenes wearing a perfectly transparent blouse for no other reason, I am afraid, than so we can see her breasts.
Luisa Ranieri
acts mostly in the nude. The result is soft-core porn of the most banal variety, and when the second woman begins to gambol on the beach one yearns for
Russ Meyer
to come to the rescue. When you see a woman gamboling in the nude in a Meyer film, you stay gamboled with...I return to
Wong Kar-wai
's "The Hand." It stays with me. The characters expand in my memory and imagination. I feel empathy for both of them: Miss Hua, sadly accepting the fading of her beauty, the disappearance of her clients, the loss of her health, and Mr. Zhang, who will always be in her thrall. "I became a tailor because of you," he says. It is the greatest compliment it is within his power to give, and she knows it. Knows it, and is touched by it as none of the countless words of her countless clients have ever, could ever, touch her.
[24]
Box office
[
edit
]
Eros
was distributed for theatrical release in North America by
Warner Independent Pictures
on April 8, 2005. Promotion was poor; for example, on
At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper
, critic
Richard Roeper
remarked that he was surprised that Warner Independent did not send any clips to be broadcast on the show and that this was the only movie reviewed on the show he remembered for which the studio had taken such a step (incidentally, the critics gave the film a "Two Thumbs Up" rating). Opening on twelve screens, box office was weak, earning just US $53,666 ($4,472 per screen) in its opening weekend on its way to a low US $188,392 final gross.
Boxofficemojo.com reports that the total worldwide gross for
Eros
is $1,535,829.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Eros (2005)"
. BoxOfficeMojo.com
. Retrieved
22 July
2011
.
- ^
"Eros"
.
Internet Movie Database
. Retrieved
22 May
2012
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Eros review by Roger Ebert"
. rogerebert.com
. Retrieved
6 August
2015
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Film Info"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
. Retrieved
6 August
2015
.
- ^
"Sex, Sex, Sex, Seen Through Experienced Cinematic Eyes"
.
New York Times
. 8 April 2005
. Retrieved
6 August
2015
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Eros" Original Venice Film Festival Presskit by www.filmpressplus.com
- ^
"Amedeo Pagani rinuncia ad Antonioni"
.
News Cinecitta
. April 17, 2002
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
"Almodovar: "Che onore lavorare con Antonioni"
"
.
News Cinecitta
. March 22, 2002
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
"Anche Wong Kar-wai punta alla Palma"
.
Corriere della Sera
. March 21, 2004
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
"Steven Soderbergh to replace Pedro Almodovar & join Wong Kar-Wai and Michelangelo Antonioni on EROS!!!"
.
Ain't It Cool News
. September 27, 2002
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
"Cinema: Steven Soderbergh entra nel progetto "Eros"
"
.
Ain't It Cool News
. September 27, 2002
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
Stefanutto Rosa, Stefano (September 9, 2004).
"Eros"
.
Cinecitta News
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
Fleming, Michael (February 27, 2003).
"Downey in 'Eros' for Soderbergh"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
"Chen Chang"
.
IMDb
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
"Antonioni: al via la produzione di 'Eros'
"
.
Repubblica
. October 18, 2001. Archived from
the original
on December 10, 2018
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
"L'"Eros" di Antonioni nella terra dei ciak Lo scenografo del grande maestro svela i segreti del set capalbiese"
.
Il Tirreno
. February 6, 2002. Archived from
the original
on December 10, 2018
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
"
"Eros": tagli per Antonioni"
.
Cinecitta News
. November 29, 2004
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
"
"Eros"
"
.
Cinecitta News
. September 10, 2004
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
"Tre maestri del cinema raccontano l'erotismo"
.
Corriere della Sera
. September 9, 2004
. Retrieved
December 4,
2018
.
- ^
"Luisa Ranieri definita la nuova Sophia Loren si racconta: "Sono una timida…"
"
.
www.novella2000.it
. Retrieved
2022-01-30
.
- ^
"Eros (2004)"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
.
Fandango
. Retrieved
February 9,
2021
.
- ^
"Eros Reviews"
.
Metacritic
.
CBS Interactive
. Retrieved
February 9,
2021
.
- ^
[1]
Archived
2006-03-08 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"Eros"
.
Chicago Sun-Times
. Archived from
the original
on 2006-03-08.
External links
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