USA,
2000, 95 min
Shown in 2001
CREDITS
- dir
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John Cameron Mitchell
- prod
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Christine Vachon, Katie Roumel, Pamela Koffler
- scr
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John Cameron Mitchell
- cam
-
Frank G. DeMarco
- editor
-
Andrew Marcus
- mus
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Stephen Trask
- cast
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John Cameron Mitchell, Andrea Martin, Michael Pitt, Miriam Shor
- source
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Fine Line Features, 888 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10106. FAX: 212-956-1942
-
COMMENTS
John Cameron Mitchell in person.
OTHER
This adaptation of the hit Off-Broadway rock musical was a smash at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, gathering both the Audience and Best Director Awards. Born a boy in East Berlin, young Hedwig marries a GI to escape to America, though only after a botched sex change operation leaves her with a protruding “angry inch.” Her journey from Kansas trailer park bride to glammed-up rocker is chronicled through a collage of music, flashbacks and even some animation (by Emily Hubley), with special attention paid to a teenage goth-rocker who steals her heart, then her songs. While Hedwig performs at a chain of decrepit seafood restaurants, he plays sold-out arenas. She mirrors his tour city by city, seeking the recognition—and the retribution—she deserves. Director/writer Mitchell brings an aura of bravado and fire to the undeterred, bitterly witty Hedwig, ably supported by Stephen Trask’s Grammy-nominated soundtrack, newly recorded by the group Girls Against Boys. A Rocky Horror Picture Show for a new generation, Hedwig is a punk rock, neo-glam musical odyssey that fortunately remembers—amid the pathos and the retro cool—to rock.
FACTOID #73
James Wong Howe was the first cinematographer to receive a tribute at the Festival, October 19, 1974. The legendary lenser photographed such classics as The Thin Man, Pursued, Sweet Smell of Success and Hud.
