Harrison's Flowers

Harrison's Flowers
United States theatrical poster
Directed byElie Chouraqui
Written byElie Chouraqui
Didier Le Pêcheur
Isabel Ellsen
Based onLe diable a l'avantage
by Isabel Ellsen
Produced byElie Chouraqui
StarringAndie MacDowell
Elias Koteas
Brendan Gleeson
Adrien Brody
David Strathairn
CinematographyNicola Pecorini
Edited byJacques Witta
Music byBruno Coulais (international version)
Cliff Eidelman (USA version)[1][2]
Production
companies
StudioCanal (Le Studio Canal+)[3][4]
France 2 Cinéma
Sept Films Cinema[5]
Distributed byCinevia Films (France)[6]
Universal Pictures[a] (United States)[5][3]
Release dates
  • 23 September 2000 (2000-09-23) (San Sebastián)
  • 24 January 2001 (2001-01-24) (France)
  • 15 March 2002 (2002-03-15) (United States)
Running time
127 minutes[9]
122 minutes (USA version)[10][11][12]
CountriesFrance
United States[13][5][14]
LanguagesEnglish
French
Serbian
Croatian
Budget$8 million[15]
Box office$3 million[16]

Harrison's Flowers (French: Les Fleurs d'Harrison) is a 2000 war-romance drama film directed by Elie Chouraqui. It stars, among others, Andie MacDowell, Elias Koteas, Brendan Gleeson, Adrien Brody, Marie Trintignant, Gerard Butler and David Strathairn. The film is also Quinn Shephard's big screen debut. The film premiered at the 2000 San Sebastián International Film Festival,[17] and released in theatres on 24 January 2001 in France.[18] Universal Pictures gave the film a limited theatrical release in the United States on 15 March 2002,[3][19] then Lionsgate released this film in the United States on DVD in 2007.[12] For this film's United States version, the film's length was reduced by about 5 minutes; it also features a new score by Cliff Eidelman.[20][2][1]

The film only grossed $3 million in worldwide box office against $8 million production budget, and the overall critical reaction to the film was mixed. However, Adrien Brody said that this film helped him to be cast in the leading role of The Pianist (2002), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.[21] Kino Lorber Studio Classics released the film for the first time on Blu-ray on November 26, 2024.[22]

Plot

Harrison Lloyd, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Newsweek photojournalist, travels on his last assignment to the dissolving Yugoslavia in 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. While there, he is presumed to have been killed in a building collapse. His wife Sarah travels to the region to find him, believing him to be in the city of Vukovar. Travelling through the war-torn landscape, she arrives in the city, and bears witness to the massacre which took place there. Back home, Harrison's son Cesar cares for his father's flowers in their greenhouse.

Cast

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 46% approval rating from 86 critics. The website's consensus says: "Though it presents the war in shockingly gritty, realistic terms, Harrison's Flowers uses such scenes as background for a trite love story. "[23] Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, calculated an average score of 49 out of 100, based on 31 reviews.[24]

Notes

  1. ^ The film was originally picked up for distribution[7] and premiered in the United States (in 2001) by Universal's niche film label Universal Focus,[8] but eventually released in theaters by Universal itself in 2002 after the label shut down.

References

  1. ^ a b "Film Score Daily: A REJECTED SCORE DISCOGRAPHY". Archived from the original on 2020-10-10.
  2. ^ a b Dawn, Randee (January 19, 2002). "Midwinter melodies: A rundown of resounding new film music". The Hollywood Reporter. 371 (38).
  3. ^ a b c "United States theatrical trailer". www.harrisons-flowers.com. Archived from the original on 7 February 2004.
  4. ^ ""Harrison's Flowers" movie advertisement". Los Angeles Times. 2002-03-10. p. 11 (Calendar).
  5. ^ a b c "Harrison's Flowers (2002)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  6. ^ "HARRISON'S FLOWERS". CBO Box Office. Archived from the original on March 2, 2006. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Focus plants Flowers". Variety. 22 May 2001. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Boston Film Festival - 2001 Feature Films". bostonfilmfestival.org. Archived from the original on 12 December 2001.
  9. ^ Harrison's Flowers, Australian Classification Board, retrieved 2022-10-28
  10. ^ Ebert, Roger (2022-03-15). "HARRISON'S FLOWERS". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 22 October 2002. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  11. ^ Hunter, Stephen (2022-03-14). "A Shallow Depth of Field". The Washington Post.
  12. ^ a b "Buy HARRISON'S FLOWERS DVD from Lionsgate Shop". www.lionsgateshop.com. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016.
  13. ^ "Harrison's Flowers (2000)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  14. ^ "Film #17142: Harrison's Flowers". Lumiere. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  15. ^ "Woolly bully at B.O." Variety. 17 Mar 2002. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  16. ^ "Harrison's Flowers". Box Office Mojo.
  17. ^ Rooney, David (2 October 2000). "Harrison's Flowers". Variety. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  18. ^ Dunkley, Cathy; Harris, Dana (22 May 2001). "Focus plants 'Flowers'". Variety. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  19. ^ "Harrison's Flowers (2002)". The Numbers.
  20. ^ "Rewind @ www.dvdcompare.net - Harrison's Flowers (2000)".
  21. ^ "Adrien Brody on Winning the Oscar, Catching a Train with Wes Anderson, and Making Music With Popcorn". Variety. 8 Dec 2023. Retrieved 8 Dec 2023.
  22. ^ "Harrison's Flowers (Blu-ray)". Kino Lorber. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  23. ^ "Harrison's Flowers Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  24. ^ "Harrison's Flowers: Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 9 September 2022.