An English professor, one year after the sudden death of his boyfriend, is unable to cope with his typical days in 1960s Los Angeles.An English professor, one year after the sudden death of his boyfriend, is unable to cope with his typical days in 1960s Los Angeles.An English professor, one year after the sudden death of his boyfriend, is unable to cope with his typical days in 1960s Los Angeles.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 39 wins & 59 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOn February 21, 2010, when he won a BAFTA for Best Actor, Colin Firth's list of people to thank included the man who repaired his refrigerator. Firth explained that he'd decided to turn down the part, and had an email to director Tom Firth in his outbox, waiting to be sent. Then a man arrived to repair his refrigerator, and Firth had time to reconsider.
- GoofsGeorge spends several minutes deciding how best to kill himself, yet the clock on the bedside table doesn't change.
- Quotes
George: [last lines; voiceover] A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp. And the world seems so fresh as though it had all just come into existence. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.
- Crazy creditsThe production company, Fade to Black, is displayed in the opening, shown in white lettering outlined against a white background. It fades to white.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: 2012/The Messenger/Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
- SoundtracksLe Serpent qui Danse
Lyrics by Charles Baudelaire
Music by Serge Gainsbourg
Performed by Serge Gainsbourg
Courtesy of Mercury France
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
Adapted from a book by Christopher Isherwood, the film follows an unhappy single day in the life of a bereaved single gay man, George Falconer (Firth) whose partner has died in a road accident.
Falconer is an expatriate Englishman in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. A college professor teaching English to students who are about to enter the beatnik or biker generation.
The future does not matter too much to him, he wants to kill himself. We see his relationship with his partner in flashbacks including how left out he was when his partner is buried by his own family.
We also see him have a platonic but close relationship with Moore who plays another expatriate.
One of his student's (Hoult) tried to befriend him and eventually the two connect as they swim in the ocean but just as life might open up to him, fate deals another blow.
The film is slow moving and requires attention from the viewer to become involved with it.
Despite great photography, the script is weak but people look and dress wonderful. In fact its been described rather cruelly as 'Grief by Dior.'
- Prismark10
- Mar 12, 2014
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Yolg'iz odam
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $7,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $9,176,000
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $217,332
- Dec 13, 2009
- Gross worldwide
- $24,964,890
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1