Eastern Promises
Eastern Promises | |
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Directed by | David Cronenberg |
Screenplay by | Steven Knight |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Peter Suschitzky |
Edited by | Ronald Sanders |
Music by | Howard Shore |
Production companies |
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Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 101 minutes[3] |
Countries | United Kingdom Canada[4] |
Languages | English Russian Ukrainian |
Budget | $50 million[5] |
Box office | $56.1 million[1] |
Eastern Promises is a 2007 British-Canadian
Plot
Anna Khitrova, a Russian-British midwife at a London hospital, finds a Russian-language diary on the body of Tatiana, a teenage girl who dies in childbirth, and a calling card for the Trans-Siberian Restaurant owned by Semyon, an old vor in the Russian mafia. Anna sets out to track down Tatiana's family so that she can find a home for the baby and meets Semyon, who offers to help. Though Anna's mother, Helen, is open to the idea, Anna's Russian uncle, Stepan, a former KGB functionary, urges caution, saying that Tatiana was a prostitute. Anna also gives Semyon a photocopy of the diary.
Semyon's driver, Nikolai Luzhin, serves as the family "
When Stepan finishes translating the diary, Anna learns that Semyon raped Tatiana after Kirill failed to do so, explaining that he would show Kirill how to "break" her. The diary also states that Semyon gave her pills to induce an abortion, and Anna realizes that the baby was fathered by Semyon. Meanwhile, Semyon realizes that Anna knows the truth and visits her in hospital. They reach an agreement that he will give the location of the girl's family to Anna if she returns the diary to him. Later, Anna, Helen, and Stepan meet Nikolai in a fast-food restaurant, where he takes the diary but denies knowing anything about the deal. Semyon then orders Nikolai to kill Stepan, who soon goes missing.
As Nikolai rises in rank, Semyon sponsors him as a full member, due in part to his protection of Kirill. Meanwhile, the dead Chechen's brothers arrive in London seeking vengeance and kill Azim's mentally handicapped nephew, whom Azim had forced to kill the Chechen. Azim confesses his role in the hit to Semyon; he forgives him in exchange for participating in a plan to fool the Chechens. Under this, Azim will lure Nikolai into a meeting at a public baths, where he will be ambushed by the Chechens, who are to be deceived into believing that he is Kirill. Though the Chechens seriously wound him, Nikolai manages to kill them both before being taken to Anna's hospital.
Yuri, a high-ranking
Anna spots Kirill entering a lift and finds that Tatiana's baby is gone, replaced with a bouquet of roses. She and Nikolai then rush to the spot on the Thames where Nikolai had previously disposed of the Chechen's body and find Kirill sitting by the river, working up the courage to throw in his baby sister. Nikolai and Anna persuade him to give the baby back and Nikolai embraces Kirill, telling him that Semyon is finished, and that they will now be bosses together. Soon after, Nikolai succeeds Semyon as head of the organization, and Anna gains custody of Tatiana's baby, whom she names Christine.
Cast
- Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai Luzhin
- Naomi Watts as Anna "Anya" Ivanovna Khitrova
- Armin Mueller-Stahl as Semyon
- Vincent Cassel as Kirill Semyonovich
- Sinéad Cusack as Helen
- Mina E. Mina as Azim
- Jerzy Skolimowski as Stepan Khitrov
- Donald Sumpter as Yuri
- Raza Jaffrey as Dr. Aziz
- Josef Altin as Ekrem
- Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse as Tatiana
- Tatiana Maslany as Tatiana’s voice
- Tereza Srbova as Kirilenko
- Mike Sarne as Valery
- Elisa Lasowski as Alma
- Boris Isarov as Vadim
- mYuri Klimov as Boyan
- Mia Soteriou as Azim’s wife
- Aleksandar Mikic as Soyka
- Tamer Hassan & David Papava as Chechen assassins
- Olegar Fedoro as the tattooist
Production
Filming
Shooting began in November 2006, and various scenes were filmed in St John Street,
The entrance to the "Ankara Social Club" of the film is actually the front door of a residential flat. The Broadway Market hair dresser known as "Broadway Gents Hairstylist" was changed to "Azim's Hair Salon", where in the film one of the Russians is murdered. The owner Mr. Ismail Yesiloglu decided to keep most of the shop front after filming. In the original script, the name was "Ozim's Hair Salon", but it was later changed to "Azim's" as there is no such name as Ozim in Turkish. The "Trafalgar Hospital" is actually the Middlesex Hospital, a hospital in the Fitzrovia area of London, which closed to patients in December 2005. The building in central London, which was knocked down in 2008, had the inscription 'Trafalgar Hospital', matching the style and apparent age of the old Middlesex Hospital, inserted into the legend above the main door. The fight scene in the Turkish Baths was filmed on a custom set[9] based on the Ironmonger Row Baths in Islington.
Eastern Promises was David Cronenberg's first film to be shot entirely outside Canada.
Tattoos
Viggo Mortensen studied Russian gangsters and their tattoos. Mortensen spent a lot of time with a Russian Mafia specialist, Gilly McKenzie (organised crime specialist for the UN) and also consulted a documentary on the subject called The Mark of Cain (2000).[10] The tattoos that he wore, according to the New York Daily News, were so realistic that diners in a Russian restaurant in London fell silent out of fear, until Mortensen revealed his identity and admitted the tattoos were for a film.[11] From that day on he washed off his tattoos whenever he went off the set. Mortensen said of the significance of the tattoos:
I talked to them [authentic gangsters and Gilly McKenzie] about what they meant and where they were on the body, what that said about where they'd been, what their specialties were, what their ethnic and geographical affiliations were. Basically their history, their calling card, is their body.[12]
Violence
Consistent with the trademark violence in much of Cronenberg's work, Eastern Promises features a graphically violent fight scene in a steam bath where the combatants wield linoleum knives. When asked in an interview about the difference between "gun violence" and "knife violence," Cronenberg replied, "We have no guns in this movie. There were no guns in the script. The choice of those curved knives we use in the steam bath was mine. They're not some kind of exotic Turkish knives, they're linoleum knives. I felt that these guys could walk around in the streets with these knives, and if they were ever caught, they could say 'we're linoleum cutters'."[13]
Director's commentary
Adam Nayman of Eye Weekly reported that director Cronenberg said "just don't give the plot away" and Nayman wrote "his request is understandable." Nayman said "there is one scene – the in-depth discussion of which prompted the director's anti-spoiler request referenced at the top of this story – that should rank not only in his personal pantheon of spectacularly deployed gore but among the most exhilaratingly visceral patches of cinema, period, full stop."[14] Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert noted Cronenberg's quote and agreed, saying: "He is correct that it would be fatal, because this is not a movie of what or how, but of why. And for a long time you don't see the why coming."[15]
Release
The film
In the United States and Canada, the film opened in limited release in 15 theatres on September 14, 2007, and grossed $547,092 — averaging $36,472 per theater.[18] The film opened in wide release in the United States and Canada on September 21, 2007, (expanding to 1,404 theaters) and ranked #5 at the box office, grossing $5,659,133 — an average of $4,030 per theater.[18] The film has grossed $56,106,607 worldwide as of March 17, 2019 — $17,266,000 in the United States and Canada and $38,840,607 in other territories.[1]
The film took part in competition at the
Reception
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 89% based on 200 reviews, with an average rating 7.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "David Cronenberg triumphs again, showcasing the Viggo Mortensen's onscreen prowess in a daring performance. Bearing the trademarks of psychological drama and gritty violence, Eastern Promises is a very compelling crime story."[20] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[21]
Todd McCarthy of Variety,[22] David Elliott of The San Diego Union-Tribune,[23] and film critic Tony Medley noted the twists in the film.[24] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars and wrote "Eastern Promises is no ordinary crime thriller, just as Cronenberg is no ordinary director", and said that "Cronenberg has moved film by film into the top rank of directors, and here he wisely reunites with Mortensen" who "digs so deeply into the role you may not recognize him at first." Ebert said the film has a fight scene that "sets the same kind of standard that The French Connection set for chases. Years from now, it will be referred to as a benchmark."[15]
Chris Vognar of The Dallas Morning News gave the film a "B+" and said "The film's genius performance belongs to the venerable Armin Mueller-Stahl, who plays the family head with a twinkling eye and an air of avuncular, Old World charm." Vognar wrote "Where some may see melodrama, Mr. Cronenberg locates timeless, elemental struggles between good and evil, right and wrong. But he makes sure to place a mysterious gray area front and center, personified here by Mr. Mortensen's Nikolai", writing "Nikolai Luzhin is ... like Ray Bradbury's Illustrated Man ... only more dangerous" and "scarily enigmatic." Vognar wrote that Eastern Promises shares themes of "ambiguous identity and rage-soaked duality" with A History of Violence and said both films "have a lock-step precision and both take a sly kind of joy in subverting genre expectations." Vognar said Eastern Promises "is a little too mechanical for its own good ... but the mechanics also produce an admirable crispness and sense of purpose, a sense that the man behind the camera knows exactly what he's doing at all times."[26]
Bruce Westbrook of the Houston Chronicle gave the film one star out of four and said it had a "contrived plot" and wrote "what it's really about, more than sensitivity for displaced people or social analyses, is violence — hideous, gruesome, over-the-top violence." Westbrook said "For Cronenberg, such cheap sensationalism is business as usual, and this far into his career, that business has slipped into artistic bankruptcy." Westbrook wrote the film "isn't about Russian gangs so much as Cronenberg's own dark passions not just for violence but excruciating carnage, which he brandishes mercilessly" and that the film was "a stifling descent into grim shock and disturbing awe."[28]
Awards and nominations
Eastern Promises won the Audience Prize for best film on September 15, 2007, at the
Mortensen was also nominated for
Top ten lists
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.[38]
- 1st — Marc Doyle, Metacritic.com
- 2nd — J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
- 4th — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times (tied with Colossal Youth)
- 4th — Peter Travers, Rolling Stone[39]
- 4th — Steven Rea, The Philadelphia Inquirer
- 5th — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
- 7th — Liam Lacey & Rick Groen, The Globe and Mail
- 7th — Scott Foundas, LA Weekly (tied with Before the Devil Knows You're Dead)
- 8th — Desson Thomson, The Washington Post
- 9th — Nathan Lee, The Village Voice
- 9th — Shawn Levy, The Oregonian
- 10th — Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
- 10th — Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle
Cancelled sequel
Speaking in August 2010, Cassel said that a sequel was discussed with Cronenberg whilst they were filming A Dangerous Method. Cassel suggested that the sequel will be filmed in Russia with Cassel and Mortensen reprising their roles.[40] In April 2012, producer Paul Webster told Screen International that a sequel was in the works, which would reunite director Cronenberg, writer Knight, and actor Mortensen. The film was said to be made by Webster's new production company Shoebox Films in collaboration with Focus Features and was to begin production in early 2013.[41] That August, however, Cronenberg stated that Eastern Promises 2 was "dead": "We were supposed to start shooting 'Eastern Promises 2' in October ... [But] It's done. If you don't like it talk to James Schamus at Focus. It was his decision."[42] On December 2, 2020, Knight revealed that the sequel became the upcoming separate Martin Zandvliet film Small Dark Look starring Jason Statham.[43]
References
- ^ IMDb. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
- ^ Mitchell, Wendy (November 20, 2006). "Cronenberg starts London shoot for Eastern Promises". Screen International. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ "Eastern Promises". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ^ "EASTERN PROMISES". BFI.org.uk. Archived from the original on September 25, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
- ^ "Eastern Promises". The-Numbers.com. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
- ^ "Pictures of the Farmiloe Building at LocationWorks.com".[dead link]
- ^ "BA London Eye Tops List of London's Most Popular Film Locations". August 21, 2006.
- ^ "Location of the Month June 2005". FilmLondon.org.uk. Archived from the original on May 25, 2008. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
- ^ Per DVD commentary.
- ^ John Clark (September 9, 2007). "Viggo Mortensen digs into naked emotional turf". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008. Retrieved September 26, 2007.
- ^ Nanna Louise Teckemeier (January 18, 2007). "Viggo is frightening (original Danish title: Viggo er skræmmende)". Ekstra Bladet (in Danish). Retrieved September 26, 2007.
- ^ "Oscar acting nominees speak out". NyDailyNews.com. February 21, 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
- ^ "Eastern Promises". Film Society Lincoln Center. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
- ^ Adam Nayman (August 30, 2007). "INDELIBLE INK". Eye Weekly. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011. Retrieved October 22, 2007.
- ^ a b Roger Ebert (September 14, 2007). "Eastern Promises". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 22, 2007.
"Just don't give the plot away," Cronenberg begged in that interview. He is correct that it would be fatal, because this is not a movie of what or how, but of why. And for a long time you don't see the why coming.
- ^ Amazon.com. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
- ^ a b Tamsen Tillson (September 16, 2007). "'Promises' wins best film in Toronto". Variety. Retrieved September 17, 2007.
- ^ a b "Eastern Promises (2007) – Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved September 26, 2007.
- ^ "San Sebastián International Film Festival 2007". MUBI. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "Eastern Promises". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved September 1, 2009.
- CBS Interactive. Archived from the originalon December 10, 2007. Retrieved December 13, 2007.
- ^ Todd McCarthy (September 8, 2007). "Eastern Promises". Variety. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
- ^ David Elliott (September 13, 2007). "A history of violence". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on October 17, 2007. Retrieved November 15, 2007.
- ^ Tony Medley. "Eastern Promises". TonyMedley.com. Retrieved November 15, 2007.
- Village Voice. Archived from the originalon September 16, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
- ^ Chris Vognar (September 14, 2007). "Eastern Promises". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
- ^ Doris Toumarkine. "EASTERN PROMISES". Film Journal International. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
- ^ Bruce Westbrook (September 14, 2007). "Hideous, gruesome, over-the-top violence". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
- ^ "65th Golden Globe Awards Nominations & Winners". GoldenBlobes.org. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2008.
- ^ "Hollywood Foreign Press Association 2008 Golden Globe Awards for the Year Ended December 31, 2007". GoldenGlobes.org. December 13, 2007. Archived from the original on December 14, 2007. Retrieved December 13, 2007.
- ^ "British Independent Film Awards 2007 nominations". British Independent Film Awards. Archived from the original on December 26, 2007. Retrieved January 24, 2008.
- ^ "80th Academy Awards nominations". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on January 23, 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
- ^ Stephen M. Silverman (January 22, 2008). "Viggo Mortensen Won't Cross Oscar Picket Line". People. Archived from the original on January 23, 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
- ^ Maria Kubacki (January 29, 2008). "Violent mobsters, Alzheimer's and genocide: It's Canadian cinema!". National Post. Retrieved January 30, 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Etan Vlessing (January 29, 2008). ""Promises," "Devil" each nab 12 Genie nominations". Reuters.com. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
- Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. January 28, 2008. p. 4. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 20, 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
- Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Archived from the originalon February 13, 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
- CBS Interactive. Archived from the originalon January 2, 2008. Retrieved January 4, 2008.
- ^ Travers, Peter (December 19, 2007). "Peter Travers' Best and Worst Movies of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
- ^ "Exclusive: Vincent Cassel Back for Eastern Promises 2". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on August 15, 2010. Retrieved August 8, 2010.
- ^ "Paul Webster". Screen International. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
- ^ Lyttleton, Oliver (August 14, 2012). "Exclusive: Focus Features Pull The Plug On David Cronenberg's 'Eastern Promises 2'". The Playlist. Archived from the original on August 17, 2012. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
- ^ Sneider, Jeff (December 2, 2020). "Jason Statham to Star in Russian Mob Movie 'Small Dark Look' at Focus". Collider. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
External links
- Eastern Promises at IMDb
- Eastern Promises at Box Office Mojo
- Eastern Promises at Rotten Tomatoes
- Eastern Promises at Metacritic
- David Cronenberg's Preparation for Directing Eastern Promises, an Amazon.com reference list
- Interviews
- Film Comment interview with David Cronenberg
- Village Voice interview with Cronenberg Archived June 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- GreenCine Daily interviews Cronenberg & Viggo Mortensen
- Viggo Mortensen interview
- Rotten Tomatoes Interview with Cronenberg and Mortensen 2007
- Interview about Eastern Promises for SBIFF at UCSB