1985 | Directed by Sydney Pollack |
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Karen Blixen, a Danish woman, marries a friend for the title of Baroness and they move to
Africa and start a coffee plantation. Things unfold when her husband begins cheating on her
and is away on business often, so she's at home alone, working on the farm and bonding with
two men she met in her first day in Africa. She eventually falls in love with the one, Denys
Finch-Hatton and goes on safari and whatnot with him. Later, she begins to want more from him
than the simple friendship/relationship they have and pushes marriage, but Denys still wants
his freedom. |
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| ADDITIONAL CAST & CHARACTERS |
Meryl Streep
Robert Redford
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Michael Kitchen
Malick Bowens |
... Karen Blixen
... Denys Finch Hatton
... Bror Blixen
... Berkely Cole
... Farah |
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Meryl Streep, Entertainment Weekly, March 2000
"Right after 'Plenty', I dyed my hair dark, and we flew from England to Africa. For six months
we lived there. It was fantastic. My son spent the second half of first grade there. You know
there are different styles in motion pictures. There was a time when nobody ever wanted to have
narration over anything. I remember Sydney saying, 'Oh, my God, we can't seem to find any other
way! I hate voice-overs, they're horrible, pedestrian, the worst kind of filmmaking!' Well, now
most of the cutting-edge movies all have voice-over narration. But in the 70's and early 80's,
it wasn't considered 'pure'. I'd say, Gee, Orson Welles did well with it, you know?"
Meryl Streep, More Magazine, December 2002
"My father said, 'You're going to take these children to Africa? What an irresponsible thing
to do.' I told him it was going to be a great adventure. Three weeks later, a sore appeared on
my five-year-old son and nobody knew what it was. It turned out to be some horrible worm. Years
later we found out the doctors thought he might have had Aids."
Sydney Pollack, The Hollywood Reporter, June 2004
"She's a great actress because of her intuitiveness, her powers of observation and her sense
of being in touch with herself quickly - all that, along with talent. She has a vast
imagination; she has incredible intuitive powers; she understands instantly things about human
behavior that people who aren't observant don't understand and people who are narcissistic
don't understand. You have to be paying attention to the outside world, and most people are
not. Most people are wondering how they're doing; they're looking in your eyes, thinking, "I
wonder what she thinks of me?" You're not going to learn about human behavior like that. She's
in the world, interested in the world. She lives a full life, (and) she's experienced what she
needs to experience: motherhood, love, frustration."
Robert Redford, The Hollywood Reporter, June 2004
"Of all the people I know, Meryl is by far the one who can do anything she wants to do. We had
a couple of scenes (during filming of 1985's "Out of Africa") where lions had to be charging
us, and she had enormous courage. The character had to be almost foolish in her courage - she
was so anxious to belong in the world she stepped into -- so Meryl had to do it. She had to be
adventurous and courageous around wild animals - sometimes without knowing quite what she was
doing - and my character had to guide her through. When we were working, sometimes it was
with lions charging, and we had to stand there and load and reload. That takes a certain
amount of fortitude and courage, and she had it."
Meryl Streep developed her accent by listening to actual recordings of 'Isak Dinesen' reading her works.
Karen reads from A. E. Housman's poem, "To an Athlete Dying Young," at Finch Hatton's funeral. Her toast in the bar borrows from Housman's, "With Rue My Heart is Laden".
There's a scene in the movie where Meryl Streep's character, Karen Blixen, is traveling across dangerous terrain in Kenya to bring supply wagons to her husband's regiment. During the night, a lion attacks one of the oxen and Karen tries to fight it off with a whip. Streep was assured that the lion actor would be tethered by one of his back legs so he couldn't get too close. But when they actually shot the scene, the lion had no restraint. The camera captured genuine fear on Streep's face when the lion got closer than she anticipated.
The film's production designers used a great deal of Dinesen's own furniture, which she had never bothered to send back to Denmark after departing Kenya.
Even though the movie was shot on location in Africa, the production had to import trained lions from California, as local laws prohibited the use of wild animals in film.
Additional Information at the Internet Movie Database
Full cast & credits, trivia and business information
| AWARDS / NOMINATIONS FOR MERYL STREEP |
1985 (Winner) David DiDonatello Award - Best Actress
1985 (Winner) Kansas City Film Critics Award - Best Actress
1986 (Nomination) Academy Award - Best Actress
1986 (Nomination) Golden Globe Award - Best Actress
1985 (Nomination) Los Angeles Film Critics Award - Best Actress
1987 (Nomination) British Academy Award - Best Actress
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Features: "Song of Africa" docu
Video: Widescreen, Color
Languages: English (Dolby)
BUY DVD AT AMAZON.COM |
DVD Release: February 29, 2000
Region Code: 1
Distributor: Universal
ASIN: 0783240171
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Extras: Trailers
Video: Fullscreen, Color
Languages: English (Dolby)
BUY DVD AT AMAZON UK |
DVD Release: November 01, 2005
Region Code: 2
Distributor: Universal
ASIN: B00005N53W
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Extras: none
Video: Widescreen, Color
Languages: Deutsch, English (Dolby)
BUY DVD AT AMAZON.DE |
DVD Release: February 17, 2005
Region Code: 2
Distributor: Universal
ASIN: B0006SJWXW
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