I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (film)

"I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" is a 1977 film based on the Joanne Greenberg novel of the same name.

In the wake of the success of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Roger Corman was able to get funding for a movie version of "Rose Garden." Bibi Andersson played Dr. Fried, while Kathleen Quinlan played Deborah. For reasons yet to be determined (perhaps the backers objected?), all references to Judaism were removed, as well as the whole story of the vicious cruelty Deborah suffered from anti-Semitic peers; so that her childhood bout with urethral cancer becomes the sole reason for Deborah's "retreat from reality". Deborah's name is changed from Blau (matching the author's pseudonym "Green") to Blake. Another major theme of the book, Deborah's artistic talent, was reduced to a scene in which she scribbles childishly on a drawing pad. The Kingdom Of Yr is portrayed on-screen, as are some of its gods, but we never see its original ethereal beauty, only the wasteland that it became much later. The background music for the Yr sequences is a recording of a Balinese Kecak, the ceremonial chant of the sacred monkeys from the Ramayana.

The film's supporting cast, which included Diane Varsi, Sylvia Sidney and Signe Hasso, may be its best feature. Total running time is 96 minutes.

The studio is listed as "Imorh" Productions, "imorh" (variously meaning "sleep", "death" or "insanity") being a Yri word from the novel.

ee Also

*I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (novel)
*I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (film)
*I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (play)

External links

*imdb title|id=0076172|title=I Never Promised You A Rose Garden