The Man from Elysian Fields

2001 1h 46m EN

😐

5.9

MID

★5.9TMDB · 67

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A failed novelist's inability to pay the bills strains relations with his wife and leads him to work at an escort service, where he becomes entwined with a wealthy woman whose husband is a successful writer.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

Amazon Prime VideoSubscription

Amazon Prime Video with AdsSubscription

Shout! Factory Amazon ChannelSubscription

Cast

Andy Garcia
Byron
Julianna Margulies
Dena
Anjelica Huston
Jennifer Adler
Olivia Williams
Andrea
Mick Jagger
Luther
James Coburn
Alcot
Susan Barnes
Attractive Woman
Michael Des Barres
Nigel

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: George Hickenlooper
Writers: Phillip Jayson Lasker
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 31% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

25 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by George Hickenlooper, shot by Kramer Morgenthau. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Anthony Marinelli. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michael Brown shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies and Anjelica Huston carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0265307 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 67 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

George Hickenlooper directs. Kramer Morgenthau behind the camera. Anthony Marinelli scores. Michael Brown cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 31% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
225 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Directed by George Hickenlooper, shot by Kramer Morgenthau. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Anthony Marinelli. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Michael Brown shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies and Anjelica Huston carry the top of the cast.
7IMDB entry: tt0265307 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 67 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Kramer Morgenthau
Original score: Anthony Marinelli
Editing: Michael Brown
Production design: Franckie Diago
Costume design: Matthew Jacobsen
Makeup / hair: Dulcie Smith
Stunt coordinator: Tommie Turvey
Runtime: 106 min · 1h 46m
Status: Released
Budget: $6,500,000
Box office: $2,006,391
Return: 31% of budget
Original language: EN
IMDB: The Man from Elysian Fields (2001)

Also by

George Hickenlooper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

tmdb280390232022-08-28
★ 4/10
At a relatively modest 106 minutes The Man from Elysian Fields is still a little too long – and yet I can see why director George Hickenlooper would hesitate to edit out the scenes where Mick Jagger shares screen time with Anjelica Huston. These scenes add nothing and lead nowhere, but darn it, they have Mick Jagger and Anjelica Huston in them. The problem is that the Jagger character is little more than a narrator, and should exist only to introduce Andy García into the world of male escorting; whatever he does in his spare time, and with whom he does it, has no bearing whatsoever on the plot and is therefore of zero interest to the audience. Anyway, luckily for Andy, though rather unbelievably in general, his experience as a glorified gigolo involves one single solitary customer who, as expected, is rich and lonely, but also very beautiful and about his same age, and to cap it all, married to his hero, played by James Coburn, who not only is quite at peace with his wife procuring herself a sexual surrogate, but also willing to let García help him rewrite his next novel. Uh huh. Improbabilities aside, the whole triangle business is the best part of the movie (with Coburn effortlessly evoking a rugged, Hemingway-esque manliness), and its potential for both dramatic and comedic material renders García’s previously established domestic life disposable were it not that the script needs it to provide the sappy happy ending (and that Hickenlooper couldn’t bear to part even with Julianna Margulies goes a long way in explaining his attachment to Jagger and Huston). The time devoted to either sub-plot would have been better spent monitoring Garcia's progress as a writer. No doubt his bittersweet experiences with Coburn and the latter's wife would provide him with much better material (not to mention a solid tree to lean against, in terms of professional learning) than his previous novel, a sub-Ira Levin thriller called Hitler's Child; however, the characters are authors only nominally, and the extent of their literary collaboration is reduced to substituting one "microcosm" for another (migrant workers instead of Roman slaves).

Production companies