February 24th: HENRY & JUNE (Philip Kaufman, 1990)

In the bohemian world of 1930s Paris, Anaïs Nin enters into a affair with fellow writer Henry Miller and his wife.

Writer-director Philip Kaufman was a history student up through graduate school before moving to San Francisco and becoming involved with the local 1960s counterculture, at one point visiting the reclusive Henry Miller at his home in Big Sur. Kaufman and his wife Rose took an extended sabbatical in Europe during the flowering of the various European New Wave movements, and following their return to Chicago (and an important meeting with Anaïs Nin) he made his first independent feature film, Goldstein.

Kaufman's debut was lauded by French filmmakers Jean Renoir and François Truffaut, as well as critics at the Cannes Film Festival where it screened. Hollywood soon followed, and the director spent the next 25+ years working in a variety of genres, usually with more adult themes, culminating in his twin literary adaptations The Right Stuff and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, both of which resulted in major awards attention. His follow-up would return him to two of his early artistic influences, based on the romantic entanglements of Nin and Miller.

Philip and Rose collaborated on a screenplay based on Nin's own recently-published diary of her time with the Millers, and brought their son Peter on as producer. They managed to secure studio funding from Universal Pictures, and shot the film on location in Paris, with acclaimed French cinematographer Philippe Rousselot behind the camera. Future costume designer Jacqueline West (The Revenant, Tree of Life) was a friend of the Kaufmans in San Francisco, and was hired as a design consultant.

The cast is headed by Fred Ward (The Right Stuff) as Miller, Cuban actress Maria Medeiros (Pulp Fiction) as Nin, and Uma Thurman as Miller's wife June. Also appearing are Kevin Spacey, Richard E. Grant (Bram Stoker's Dracula, TV's Downton Abbey), and cameos from Gary Oldman, French director Pierre Etaîx (Yoyo) and surrealist director Luis Buñuel's son Juan.

After being edited by veteran Dede Allen (Bonnie & Clyde, Reds), the film ran into trouble with the MPAA ratings board over its sexual content. Contracted to deliver an "R" rated film to the studio, Kaufman fought the board vehemently, bringing in notable attorney Alan Dershowitz to assist the effort to avoid the dreaded "X" rating. The board elected to create a new "NC-17" rating for films with adult content that should not be classified as pornography.

Despite this victory, the studio still faced difficulty getting the film seen, with many newspapers refusing to print ads for its release. Critical reviews of the film were mixed, and it was only able to do moderate business at the box office. Blockbuster Video would decline to carry the film because of its rating. Rousselot received an Oscar nomination for his photography.

Running time is approx. 2 hrs, 15 min.