HBO has released the trailer for Hemingway & Gellhorn, which will broadcast beginning on May 28. It’s the story of Ernest Hemingway and his third wife Martha Gellhorn. Gellhorn was a leggy blonde whose work as a war correspondent leading up to and during World War II eclipsed Hemingway’s. She was also the only one of Hemingway’s wives to kick his butt to the curb. Gellhorn is played by the leggy Nicole Kidman. Clive Owen is Hemingway.
(A year ago, I had a drink at the Key West bar where Gellhorn had paid the bartender $20 to introduce her to Hemingway; I understand that the movie may move the bar to Bimini).
Hemingway & Gellhorn is directed by Philip Kaufman, one of the great American directors. His masterpiece is The Right Stuff, the story of the Mercury astronauts. But his remake of the sci fi horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers is also excellent. And I just rewatched his art film about love and sex set in the Prague Spring of 1968 and its aftermath, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and it still stands up. That’s three top-rate movies in three different genres, an accomplishment few filmmakers can claim.
Kaufman lives in the Bay Area and shot Hemingway & Gellhorn’s Key West, Havana, Carnegie Hall, Finland, Germany and Spain scenes in San Francisco, San Rafael, Livermore and Oakland. Incidentally, earlier this year, Kaufman was in the house at Noir City this year for Bad Girl Night.
I’ve added Hemingway & Gellhorn to Movies I’m Looking Forward To.