- Atlantic City (film)
Infobox_Film
name = Atlantic City
caption= original movie poster
writer =John Guare
starring =Burt Lancaster ,Susan Sarandon ,Michel Piccoli
director =Louis Malle
producer =Denis Héroux ,John Kemeny
distributor =Paramount Pictures
released = flagicon|Italy2 September ,1980 (premiere at VFF)
flagicon|France3 September ,1980
flagicon|Canada19 December ,1980
flagicon|USA3 April ,1981
flagicon|Australia1 October ,1981
country =Canada /France
runtime = 104 minutes
language = English
budget = ~ US$7,200,000
imdb_id = 0080388"Atlantic City" is a film directed by
Louis Malle . Filmed in late 1979, it was released inFrance andGermany in 1980 and in theUnited States in 1981. The script was written byJohn Guare . It starsBurt Lancaster ,Susan Sarandon ,Kate Reid ,Robert Joy ,Hollis McClaren ,Michel Piccoli , andAl Waxman .Plot
The film tells the story of a young Canadian woman (Susan Sarandon) whose dream for a better life in the gambling business is interrupted by the return of the drug-dealing husband she had left behind, and an older man (Burt Lancaster) long a resident of Atlantic City, and how their lives interact and change both for the better.
Production
"Atlantic City" was filmed in the
United States , but was aco-production between companies based inCanada andFrance . Aside from Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon and local extras, most of the cast originated from Canada or France.The production companies alloted Louis Malle the money to make a film with the stipulation that it be made within a certain period of time. Malle had a difficult time finding the right script to direct and with time running out his then girlfriend Susan Sarandon suggested using a story written by her friend
John Guare , a playwright most notable for his plays "House of Blue Leaves " and "Six Degrees of Separation ". Guare suggested that the story take place in Atlantic City, which was still for the most part suffering from the urban deterioration that prompted the legalization of gambling as a solution to save the city. The three met over dinner in early 1979 to work out quirks in the script and began shooting within a few months.The film began principal photography on
October 31 ,1979 and wrapped by the fifth day of the new year. Malle filmed at an opportune time in that he was able to capture old Atlantic City: gambling was still in its early stages there, with only two casino hotels open (Resorts and Caesars;Bally's Park Place would open on December 30, toward the end of the principal photography). Most of the city's old resorts and entertainment piers were still standing, albeit in a severe state of disrepair. Within a couple of years of the filming, most of the these old hotels would fall victim to the wrecking ball as they were replaced with new casinos.Louis Malle hired composer
Michel Legrand to write a score for the film, which he did. In the end, however, Malle decided against using a score for the film, and opted for all the music in the film to be ambient: the only music used is that which exists in the world of the characters (i.e. radios, musical instruments, etc).Filming locations
The opening shot of the old
Traymore Hotel being demolished is shown to convey the notion that the city's old hotels were being demolished to make way for the new casinos. However, the Traymore was in fact demolished in 1972, years before the gambling referendum passed in New Jersey. The referendum passed in 1976 and the first hotel to open up was Resorts, formly the Chafonte-Haddon Hall, in 1978.When Dave and Chrissie are seen hitchhiking into Atlantic City from
Philadelphia , they pass a large model elephant on their way into town. The elephant, named Lucy, was a tourist attraction built in 1881 to lure potential land buyers toSouth Atlantic City (now called Margate), a small town south of Atlantic City. Left to deteriorate over the years, and on the brink of demolition in 1971, the residents of Margate raised the money to have it restored. Today, Lucy still stands in Margate and is on theNational Register of Historic Places .The club where Dave and Lou meet was the famed
Club Harlem which opened in 1935 on Kentucky Avenue, and was the premier nightclub for black tourists visiting Atlantic City. The club would open and close frequently from 1968 on, and eventually closed for good by the end of the eighties. It was torn down in 1992.Awards
The film won the
Golden Lion at theVenice Film Festival in 1980 in a tie withJohn Cassavetes ' "Gloria"."Atlantic City" was nominated for
Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Burt Lancaster), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Susan Sarandon), Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. In 2003, "Atlantic City" was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".References
External links
*imdb title|id=0080388|title=Atlantic City
* http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051204/REVIEWS08/512040301/1023###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title = Golden Lion winner
years = 1980 (tied with "Gloria")
before= No awards 1969–1979
"" (1968)
after = "Marianne and Julianne "
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