|
White
Oleander
|
Movie
| Book
| Author
| Director
& cast
|
Movie: White Oleander (2002)
Book: White Oleander (1999)
Premise
movie:
"Ingrid Magnussen (Pfeiffer), a feminist poet,
poisons her ex-boyfriend (Connolly) in a fit of jealousy, and is
sentenced to life in prison, forcing her essentially orphaned
daughter, Astrid (Lohman), to deal with living in Los Angeles foster
homes, which put her through a wringer of hard circumstances dealing
with three very different women. The daughter, however, eventually
gets a chance to get her mother back, but she would have to lie
about what actually happened."
from:
http://movies.yahoo.com
back
to top
Premise
book:
"Oprah Book Club® Selection, May 1999: Astrid
Magnussen, the teenage narrator of Janet Fitch's engrossing first
novel, White Oleander, has a mother who is as sharp as a new knife.
An uncompromising poet, Ingrid despises weakness and self-pity,
telling her daughter that they are descendants of Vikings, savages
who fought fiercely to survive. And when one of Ingrid's boyfriends
abandons her, she illustrates her point, killing the man with the
poison of oleander flowers. This leads to a life sentence in prison,
leaving Astrid to teach herself the art of survival in a string of
Los Angeles foster homes."
from:
http://www.amazon.com
back
to top
Author:
"Janet Fitch was born in Los Angeles, a third-generation
native, and grew up in a family of voracious readers. As an
undergraduate at Reed College, Fitch had decided to become an
historian, attracted to its powerful narratives, the scope of
events, the colossal personalities, and the potency and breadth of
its themes. But when she won a student exchange to Keele University
in England, where her passion for Russian history led her, she awoke
in the middle of the night on her twenty-first birthday with the
revelation she wanted to write fiction. "I wanted to Live, not spend
my life in a library. Of course, my conception of being a writer was
to wear a cape and have Adventures." Since then, she has had more
than a few Adventures. In addition, she has published short stories
in literary journals such as Black Warrior Review, Rain City Review,
and A Room of One's Own, briefly attended film school in the
director's program at the University of Southern California, worked
at various times as a typesetter, a proofreader, a graphic artist, a
freelance journalist, the managing editor of American Film magazine,
and the editor of The Mancos Times Tribune, a weekly newspaper in
the mountains of Southwestern Colorado. Currently, she reviews books
for Speak magazine in San Francisco, and teaches fiction writing
privately in Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband and eight
year old daughter."
from:
http://www.readinggroupguides.com
back
to top
Director:
Peter Kosminsky (1992's Wuthering Heights)
Cast:
Michelle Pfeiffer (Ingrid Magnussen), Alison Lohman (Astrid
Magnussen), Patrick Fugit (Paul Trout), Robin Wright Penn (Starr
Thomas), Noah Wyle (Ron Richards), Renee Zellweger
(Claire Richards), Amy Aquino (Miss Martinez), Billy Connolly (Barry
Kolker).
back
to top
|
