|
 A
violinist (Julie Andrews) is stricken with multiple sclerosis,
and her comfortable, rewarding life is shattered. Tom Kempinski
wrote this as a two-character play (virtuoso and psychiatrist).
For the film, husband Alan Bates, his secretary Cathryn Harrison,
manager Margaret Courtenay, lover Liam Neeson and rebellious
protege Rupert Everett join Andrews and psychiatrist Max von
Sydow. "Duet for One" earned a R rating honorably:
it's a brilliantly-acted, serious film for grownups, brutally
honest in its depiction of the physical and psychological damage
of MS on all its victims.
From the "Duet for One" press
kit:
THE character of Stephanie Anderson is a sharp
departure from Julie Andrews' traditionally lighter roles. Indeed,
she even termed the part as being "The most desperate and
emotionally pained woman I've ever played."
  The role
was also one of the most physically demanding in Miss Andrews'
career. ... To prepare for the part, Miss Andrews spent considerable
time at a clinic in Bromley, Kent, which cares for victims of
multiple sclerosis. "I felt like some awful voyeur intruding
on people's private distress simply to make a film," she
says. "But I was wrong. They were totally welcoming and
made me feel like a privileged new spokesman, helping in some
way to bring into the open a problem about which there is still
much to be learned.
"It would be impudent of me to pretend
I was actually playing the violin..." says Miss Andrews.
"But I was going to do my damndest to make it look like
I was ... that's the least respect I could pay to all those musicians
who have spent their entire lives studying the instrument."
Alan Bates, as Stephanie's husband composer/conductor
David Cornwallis, also had a punishing schedule. Fromthe studios
each day he drove to the National Theatre where he was appearing
on stage in the title role of "Yonadab," Peter Shaffer's
play set in Old Testament Jerusalem.
"David," he says, "is not
the most admirable of men. Not a bad man exactly, but weak perhaps.
Certainly he's a little self-centered, and totally unable to
cope with his wife's condition. There's no doubt he loves Stephanie
in his way, and if she were some romantic victim like Camille
he might just be able to take it on. But as it is, all he sees
is the ugliness, the ungainliness and his own responsibility
in the affair -- he feels as chained to her wheelchair as she
is. He's also troubled by the fact he has frittered away a large
part of his creative life and is increasingly drawn to their
young secretary, Penny, with whom he senses a last chance to
change the pattern of his life. He leaves, taking Penny with
him, but not without many regrets."
From the NY Daily News "City Lights,"
Sunday, 8 February 1987:
Boo! Hiss!
In "Duet for One," Alan
Bates is a true villain,
a man who walks out on his desperately ill wife.
by Joan Goodman
ALAN Bates, the darkly handsome English actor who
stars opposite Julie Andrews in "Duet for One" is feeling
rather chipper. "I've just come back from a month's holiday
in Tunisia," he says by phone from London. "I took
the family with me and it was delightful. I've done two plays
and two films over the past year and before I started on another
one I wanted a rest. Next I'm going to do "A Pack of Lies"
for CBS television."
Bates likes to move between mediums and he
feels TV movies have been particularly good for him in America.
Already honored for his performances on Broadway (he won the
1973 Tony Award for "Butley") and in films (he received
an Oscar bid for "The Fixer"), he feels it was his
portrayal of British spy Guy Burgess in "An Englishman Abroad,"
directed by John Schlesinger, that brought him to the attention
of a wider American audience.
"It's funny,
that," says Bates. "You can have success in the oddest
places. That took 19 days to film, it was a small budget and
a recondite subject and suddenly it was a worldwide success.
You can go into a million-dollar blockbuster and it's the biggest
flop of the year. You can never predict."
One of the things that appealed to Bates
about "Duet for One" was working with Julie Andrews.
"I've never worked with her before. I just met her when
we both went to New York as very young actors. She was in "My
Fair Lady" and was the toast of the town. I was playing
the second lead in "Look Back in Anger." We knew each
other a little bit then and got on very well but our paths haven't
crossed much since."
| "... A natural successor to
Olivier ..." |
Andrews went to Hollywood,
while Bates chose to return to England and do theater and small
British films for the most part. "I think my ambition is
as strong as anybody's," says Bates, "but it takes
a different form. I vary the way of carrying it out more. I think
I've certainly been governed by circumstance and by choosing
to live in England. But when my sons were small (twins Benedick
and Tristan are now 16) I didn't want to go far or for long and
all these things affect the career. I did not want to go to live
in America because I felt my choices would be limited, although
the rewards would be greater on an immediate level."
In England, Bates concentrated on theater.
Today he is considered a natural successor to Olivier, Gielgud
and Richardson. "But I felt I'd left films for too long
and I wanted to get back to them," Bates admits. "'Duet'
offered me the chance. However, it's really Julie's film. She's
on the screen nearly all the time. It's a complex emotional part.
If it works it will be remarkable for her. It's quite a stretch,
not the sort of thing she's done ever. It's not so much for me.
I've done these sorts before."
In "Duet for
One," Bates plays the husband of a celebrated violinist
(Julie Andrews) who is struck down at the height of her powers
by multiple sclerosis. He fails her at the moment of her greatest
need. "David isn't bad but he's weak," says Bates of
his character. "He first hides from the truth, then runs
from it. He can't cope with what is happening to his wife. He
is a symphony conductor and he uses his work as an excuse to
get away. He takes with him his attractive young secretary,"
Bates pauses. "I'm told walking out is not uncommon when
multiple sclerosis strikes a marriage. Few men are heroes, and
certainly not David."
| "I've never gone for that
leading man image." |
Bates has played unsympathetic
characters before. One has only to remember him as Bette Midler's
insensitive manager in "The Rose" or the brutal Diaghilev
in "Nijinsky." "It doesn't worry me to play an
unsympathetic character," says Bates. "I've never gone
for that leading man image."
From "Duet for One," Bates went
into "A Prayer for the Dying," a film about an ex-IRA
man and a priest, which also stars Mickey Rourke and Bob Hoskins,
and is directed by Mike Hodges. "It's a film about conscience,"
says Bates. "I had been offered the part once before. I
turned it down because I found it exploitive and violent. Then
Mike Hodges came on and he streamlined the script a bit and directed
it with a lot of style and wit."
Now 52, Bates began in his teens to prepare
himself for a life in the theater. He had encouragement from
his parents ("We were an artistic family, you might say").
He went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts after doing his
National Service in the Royal Air Force. When he got out, he
became involved in the theatrical revolution that was overtaking
the British stage. After a short stint with a regional theater
company, he went down to London where he became a founding member
of the English Stage company, a group of young writers and actors
who made the Royal Court Theatre famous for grittily realistic
"kitchen-sink" drama.
| "I always wanted to work with
Alan Bates." |
Bates remains on the
cutting edge of the profession. It is interesting to note that
Bob Hoskins, who has just won the New York, Los Angeles and British
Film Critics awards, says, "I did 'A Prayer for the Dying'
because I always wanted to work with Alan Bates." And Mickey
Rourke, the star of the film, adds, "Alan works in a broader
way than any actor I've worked with before but he always retains
a sense of truth and the reality of the moment. He also has a
twinkle in his eye and an enthusiasm for the profession. He still
loves what he does and gets excited about his work." |||
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