The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (DVD) (*)

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Screened, competed or awarded at:
Cannes Film Festival

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
96 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 1972 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Paul Newman

Written By:
Paul Zindel
Alvin Sargent

Actors:
Joanne Woodward ..... Beatrice
Nell Potts ..... Matilda
Roberta Wallach ..... Ruth
Judith Lowry ..... Nanny
David Spielberg ..... Mr. Goodman
Richard Venture ..... Floyd
Carolyn Coates ..... Mrs. McKay
Will Hare ..... Junk Man
Estelle Omens ..... Caroline
Jess Osuna ..... Sonny
Ellen Dano ..... Janice Vickery
Lynne Rogers ..... Miss Hanley
Roger Serbagi ..... Charlie
John Lehne ..... Apartment Manager
Michael Kearney ..... Chris Burns

Synopsis:

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Paul Zindel, this is a joint effort of husband and wife team Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Produced and directed by Newman, Woodward portrays the eccentric young widow who is raising her two disparate daughters in an atmosphere of bitterness, hatred and over-protection that threatens their very growth and development. Embittered and misandristic, she raises her daughters in an atmosphere of hate that leaves them as depressed and neurotic as she is. The title of the movie comes from her anger at her daughter's science teacher for encouraging her to expose marigolds to gamma rays as a science project. Her experiment shows how radiation sometimes kills growing marigolds, but sometimes it causes them to grow even more beautiful. This experiment becomes a metaphor for her own life, as she struggles to bloom in a household deadened by her mother's alcoholism and her sister's lethargy.

Widowed Beatrice Hunsdorfer is miserable in her life, and in turn she has contempt for everyone around her. She blames everyone except herself for her problems, but most specifically her now deceased husband George who left her before he died. People who know her believe she's crazy. She dreams of a better life - mostly by wanting to open a tea room where she would sell what she believes would be her world famous cheesecake - while realistically not being able to achieve that dream as she lounges around her run down and unkempt house smoking, drinking, reading the personal ads in the newspaper, and somewhat taking care of her elderly boarder, which is how she makes ends meet. Her eldest daughter, Ruth Hunsdorfer, knows the reputation her mother has around town. Although she displays some teen-aged bravada, Ruth seems destined to be just like her mother. Beatrice's younger daughter, Matilda 'Tillie' Hunsdorfer, is the quiet, shy but intelligent offspring. Tillie is supported by her teacher, Mr. Goodman, in achieving academic excellence. The dysfunctional family dynamic is placed to the test in the lead up to the school's science fair awards ceremony, where Tillie's project on the effect of gamma rays on man-in-the-moon marigold seeds is one of five shortlisted for the grand prize, the resulting seedlings which seem to mirror the Hunsdorfer family itself.

From the Pullizer Prize winning play by Paul Zindel, this is the story of Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters, Ruth and Matilda. A middle-aged widowed eccentric, Beatrice is looking for her life in the classified ads while all about her is the rubble of an unkempt house. All she needs is the right opportunity, she says puffing on a cigarette. Poorly equipped to survive the vagaries of modern life, she has nonetheless always managed to muddle through. Ruth, epileptic and making her way through the rebellious phase of adolescence, seems doomed to make the same mistakes as her mother. Quiet Matilda, on the other hand, seeks refuge in her animals and her schoolwork. "Jesus, don't you hate the world, Matilda?" Beatrice asks her youngest daughter. The title of the film is also the subject of Matilda's science project at school and serves as a metaphor for the way life affects each of us differently -- how some are able to find opportunity in adversity and thrive and how some succumb when the burden becomes too heavy. This is the story of slowly drowning and grasping desperately for a lifeline only to find that there's none there and you must save yourself. "No, Mama," Matilda says, "I don't hate the world." (Nell Potts, who stars as Matilda, is the stage name of Eleanor Newman -- Joanne Woodward's real-life daughter. She also appeared as the young Rachel in *Rachel, Rachel*.)

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 13 March, 2014.

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