Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Tuesday Forgotten Movies: CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER



Joan Micklin Silver directed this Ann Beattie story. It looks a lot funnier here than I remember it. It was brought to my attention when I saw it was playing at a NY theater. Here is a piece from 30 years ago about how it came together.

Ann Beattie was a hot writer in the seventies with a unique style that few believed could translate to a film. This was in the day before indies. When you had to convince a Hollywood studio to make the movie. And this downer was a hard sell.

It's the story of a man (John Heard) who falls for a married woman (Mary Beth Hurt) and his pursuit of her. The original movie title was HEAD OVER HEELS, which tells you the kind of movie the studio thought they were financing. Luckily, the ending was changed to keep the tone of the book. Silvers made this one right after BETWEEN THE LINES, another favorite of mine.




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting choice, Patti. I admit I've never seen this one, but I could imagine it might be a hard sell to a studio.

George said...

CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER knocked me out when I first watched it years ago.

Anonymous said...

I liked it too, though not as much as BETWEEN THE LINES. But then I've read pretty much all of Beattie's short stories over the years.

Hurt's husband was played by Mark Metcalf, best known as the odious Douglas Niedermeyer in ANIMAL HOUSE.

Jeff M.

Charles Gramlich said...

Considering that I can look outside and see chilly scenes of winter I'm not sure why I would need to watch this movie. :)

Ron Scheer said...

Just the other day, I was asking someone, "Whatever happened to Ann Beattie?" I'm still wondering.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I think she is still writing.