A Showtime Presentation
Sundance Film Festival (Premieres)—"The Passion of Ayn Rand" is the second film in recent years about the controversial novelist, following "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life." But, alas, neither feature is satisfying, despite the fact that this one reveals more details about her personal life than about her writing achievements and ideas.
In Christopher Menaul's version, the estimable Helen Mirren plays the novelist as a self-aggrandizing, slightly pretentious but still vulnerable and passionate femme. According to reports, Rand continues to receive numerous fan letters a day, long after she ceased being active, and the.
To the best of my knowledge, no feature has explored what made Ayn Rand so influential. If "A Sense of Life" was flawed in depicting the writer-thinker in a too positive light, the new one can be faulted for presenting a lurid account (including some strange sex scene) of the woman behind such novels as "The Fountainhead," made into a famous film by King Vidor with Gary Copper and Patricia Neal, which Rand disliked.
Cast
Helen Mirren (Ayn Rand)
Eric Stoltz (Nathaniel Branden)
Julie Delpy (Barbara Branden)
Peter Fonda (Frank O'Connor)
Sybil Temchen (Caroline)
Don McKellar (Richard)
David Ferry (Alfred)
Credits
A Showtime Presentation of a Producers Entertainment Group production
Producers: Peter Cran and Linda Curran Wexelblatt
Exec Producer: Irwin Meyer, Marilyn Lewis
Co-exec prod- Steven Hewitt, Barry Krost, Doug Chapin
Director: Christopher Menaul
Screenplay- Howard Korder, Mary Gallagher, from the book by- Barbara Branden
Camera Ron Orieux
Editor: David Martin
Music: Jeff Beal
Prod designer- Lindsey Hermer-Bell
Art director: Edward Bonnutto
Costume designer- Resa McConaghy
Running time: 104 Minutes