Laughter in the Dark (film)

Laughter in the Dark (French: La Chambre obscure) is a 1969 French-British romantic drama film directed by Tony Richardson and starring Nicol Williamson and Anna Karina.[2] It was based on the novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov.

Laughter in the Dark
Film poster
Directed byTony Richardson
Screenplay byEdward Bond
Based onLaughter in the Dark
by Vladimir Nabokov
Produced byNeil Hartley
Starring
CinematographyDick Bush
Edited byCharles Rees
Music byRaymond Leppard
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists (UK)
Release date
  • September 1969 (1969-09)
(UK)
Running time
104 minutes
Countries
  • France
  • United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$780,000[1]

Plot

For the film, the story's setting was changed from 1930s Berlin to the Swinging London of the 1960s.

A wealthy married 40-year-old art critic called Sir Edward More (Nicol Williamson) falls in love with a sixteen-year-old girl called Margot (Anna Karina).

However, she later cheats on him with another man (Jean-Claude Drouot) which eventually leads to him losing his eyesight while they argue in his car when he finds out about it and crash by avoiding oncoming cyclists. She continues with the affair but as Edward is now blind, she can have it right in front of him.

Eventually, he finds out about the still ongoing affair and confronts her in the cellar with a gun. But he fatally shoots himself with it by stumbling on the stairs in pursuit of her; and she then runs off while his dead body lies on the floor.

Cast

Production

Casting

Nicol Williamson was brought in as a very late replacement for Richard Burton, who had already shot several scenes. The director, Tony Richardson, found Burton's lack of punctuality intolerable.[3][4]

Filming

The film was shot on location in England and Majorca.

Release

The film drew respectable reviews, but for reasons that are unclear, it was subsequently removed from distribution. The film has only been shown twice on British television, (in 1974 and 1981 on BBC2), and has not been released on any home video format.

Cancelled remake

Laszlo Papas was slated to direct a 1986 remake of the film which would have starred Mick Jagger as Axel Rex and Rebecca De Mornay as the young seductress; De Mornay was replaced by Maryam d'Abo after disagreements with the director, but ultimately the project went nowhere and the film was never made.[5]

References
  1. Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987 p. 246
  2. Weiler, A. H. (2012). "NY Times.com: Laughter in the Dark". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  3. Walker p.298-299
  4. Richardson, pp. 213-5. Richardson had directed Williamson in A Midsummer Night's Dream on stage and was planning to cast him as Hamlet. A famously turbulent and unpredictable actor himself, Richardson obviously saw him as a better bet than Burton. To recruit him in a hurry, Richardson sent a search party to comb the bars and bistros of the Cote d'Azur.
  5. Colapinto, John (2 January 2015). "Nabokov and the Movies". The New Yorker. Retrieved 5 January 2015.

Bibliography
  • Richardson, Tony (1993). Long Distance Runner - A memoir. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-16852-3.
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