Pieces of April - A day with April Burns

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Movie
German title Pieces of April - A day with April Burns
Original title Pieces of April
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2003
length 76 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Peter Hedges
script Peter Hedges
production Gary Winick
music Billy Goldenberg
camera Tami Reiker
cut Mark Livolsi
occupation

Pieces of April - A Day with April Burns (English original title: Pieces of April ) is a 2003 film by Peter Hedges .

Katie Holmes plays April Burns , a punk girl who lives in a shabby neighborhood of New York with her boyfriend Bobby. At Thanksgiving , she gets a visit from her honest family.

action

April moved out of her bourgeois home some time ago and broke with the values ​​of the family. Her mother Joy suffers from breast cancer and has only a few weeks to live. Her husband, Jim, wants mother and daughter to be reconciled. The whole family should celebrate Thanksgiving together in April in New York. On the journey together, old memories and disappointments come up again.

In New York, April tries, against all odds, to prepare a perfect dinner. She meets more or less helpful, but always slightly bizarre neighbors. And while April transports her turkey from apartment to apartment, from oven to oven, her new boyfriend still has to find a suit.

When they arrive in New York, the family from April's neighborhood is so shocked that they decide to leave again. April is devastated. On the toilet of a restaurant, Joy experiences an argument between a strange woman and her daughter, which causes her to rethink. She decides to go back to April. In the end, the whole family celebrates April Thanksgiving with the neighbors who appeared in the course of the film.

Anecdotes

  • Katie Holmes waived a fee and played the lead role without any payment.
  • The filming cost less than $ 300,000. Before shooting started, two film distributors and a major investor said goodbye. The production was originally scheduled to have a budget of between $ 4 million and $ 7 million. Due to the financial hardship, the production process was changed: The film was shot with digital cameras. This lowered the production costs. After the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003, the worldwide rights to Pieces of April were acquired by the independent film distributor United Artists - a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - for a sum of between 3 and 4 million US dollars. United Artists President Bingham Ray personally campaigned for the purchase. What is irritating, however, is the fact that United Artists was one of the financiers who dropped out before shooting began and thus would have gotten the worldwide rights cheaper.

Awards (selection)

Patricia Clarkson was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2004 Academy Awards. She was named Best Supporting Actress by the Chicago Film Critics Association . In addition, she received nominations a. a. for the Independent Spirit Award and the Golden Globe Award .

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