THE LUZHIN DEFENCE a film by Marleen Gorris starring John Turturro Emily Watson A SONY PICTURES CLASSICS Release 106 Minutes. Rated PG-13 East Coast West Coast Distributor Falco Ink. Block-Korenbrot Sony Pictures Classics Shannon Treusch Melody Korenbrot Carmelo Pirrone Erin Bruce Michael Roach Marissa Manne 850 Seventh Ave 8271 Melrose Avenue 550 Madison Avenue Suite 1005 Suite 200 8th Floor New York, NY 10019 Los Angeles, CA 90046 New York, NY 10022 Tel: 212-445-7100 Tel: 323-655-0593 Tel: 212-833-8833 Fax: 212-445-0623 Fax: 323-655-7302 Fax: 212-833-8844 Visit the Sony Pictures Classics Internet site at: http:/www.sonyclassics.com CAST Luzhin John Turturro Natalia Emily Watson Vera Geraldine James Valentinov Stuart Wilson Stassard Christopher Thompson Turati Fabio Sartor Ilya Peter Blythe Anna Orla Brady Luzhin’s Father Mark Tandy Luzhin’s Mother Kelly Hunter Young Luzhin Alexander Hunting 1st Official Alfredo Pea 2nd Official Fabio Pasquini Santucci Luigi Petrucci Hotel Manager Carlo Greco Tailor Massimo Sarchielli Fascists Luca Foggiano Antonio Carli David Ambrosi CREW Director Marleen Gorris Producers Caroline Wood Stephen Evans Louis Becker Philippe Guez Screenplay by Peter Berry Co-Producers Leo Pescarolo Eric Robison Executive Producer Jody Patton Director of Photography Bernard Lutic Editor Michaël Reichwein Production Designer Tony Burrough Costume Designer Jany Temime Original Music by Alexandre Desplat Casting Director Celestia Fox Based on the Novel by Vladimir Nabokov SHORT SYNOPSIS Set in the late 1920s, THE LUZHIN DEFENCE tells the story of a shambling, unworldly chess Grand Master who arrives in the Italian Lakes to play the match of his life and unexpectedly finds the love of his life. Discovering his prodigious talent in boyhood overshadowed by his parents’ failing marriage, Luzhin’s lyrical passion for chess has become his refuge and rendered the real world a phantom. Already matched up by her family to the very suitable Comte de Stassard, when Natalia meets Luzhin she is drawn to the erratic genius and offers him a glimpse outside of his chess obsession. But it is a world he is not equipped to deal with, and his two worlds collide to tragic effect. LONG SYNOPSIS 1929: Alexander Luzhin, shambling, unworldly and eccentric chess Grand Master arrives in a North Italian lakeside resort to play the match of his career. A childhood prodigy, chess has been his refuge and his passion in a life bereft of love and affection. His boyhood haunts him still: the breakup of his parents’ loveless marriage; the death of his mother; the rejection by his Aunt Anna, the only adult who ever showed him affection and who introduced him to the game; the moment when his genius is finally recognised – and exploited. Into the adult Luzhin’s obsessional life comes Natalia, a beautiful Russian woman, whose aristocratic émigré parents are determined to marry her off well. Her mother, Vera, has her eye on the perfect candidate: Comte Jean de Stassard, a charming and extremely presentable chess amateur who has come to the resort to follow the tournament. Natalia is well aware that Stassard finds her attractive and he presents a very suitable match for her. But any notion of desire turns to friendship, for after an unorthodox initial encounter, it is Luzhin she is drawn to. Where Stassard offers her boating trips and light conversation, Luzhin offers the unconventional option of erratic declarations and moments of genius. Flying in the face of parental disapproval, she embarks on a whirlwind romance. Just as Natalia is opening up a whole new world for Luzhin, a figure from his past arrives in town to upset his newfound happiness. Valentinov is the schoolteacher who recognised his boyhood talent and then exploited it. For a decade or so he acted as Luzhin’s self-appointed mentor and manager, focussing Luzhin’s every waking moment on the game, and earning a pretty good living in the process. But when Luzhin momentarily loses his touch, Valentinov abandons him in Budapest, taking off to represent a newer, more promising talent. When Valentinov discovers Luzhin has made it to the world championship, he reappears to prey on Luzhin’s weakness for his own gain. It seems that Luzhin and Natalia are conspired against by family and friends - old and new - as Luzhin’s world of chess threatens to consume him and destroy any chance of their happiness. PRODUCTION STORY THE LUZHIN DEFENCE, based on Vladimir Nabokov’s novel of the same name, examines the effects of love and obsession. Director Marleen Gorris, best known for her Academy Award winning film ‘Antonia’s Line’, was attracted to these themes and on working with the material: “What interested me is how a man is incapable of living with two passions. I both wrote and directed my first four films and in those scripts I said all that I needed to say - for the moment, that is. After that, I wanted to face the challenge of working on somebody else’s material, as I did in ‘Mrs. Dalloway’. What attracted me to THE LUZHIN DEFENCE in the first place was to show how two passions could tear a man apart.” Having presented Gorris with the first draft of the script, Caroline Wood, Stephen Evans and Louis Becker, the film’s producers, met with her two years ago and discussed working together. Says Gorris: “It was a fine experience working closely with Peter Berry [the screenwriter]. Our collaborative process was immensely stimulating. Like most of the novels Nabokov wrote in Russian, ‘The Luzhin Defence’ is not as widely known as it should be. Peter’s script adds events and details to the novel and produced an intriguing script that interested me from the first time I read it.” Born in 1899 in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Nabokov left Russia when revolution came and spent much of his life living on the Continent, largely in Berlin, where he came to be seen as one of the foremost Russian émigré writers. His best-known novel, ‘Lolita’, brought him worldwide fame and notoriety establishing him as one of the major and most original prose writers of the twentieth century. In 1940, he moved with his family to America where he held various academic posts. He died in 1977. Says Gorris: “The film interweaves several stories in a non-linear way. Modern audiences are quite sophisticated at viewing films and most can quite easily predict a plot’s development because they have become attuned to how a story is told. Deviating from that expected pattern makes for an unpredictable and hopefully a more interesting film. In THE LUZHIN DEFENCE, the character of Luzhin is thrown into turmoil by his love for Natalia. Nothing in his past – his loveless childhood and his passion for chess – has prepared him for it. Connecting past and present, the known and the unknown, from the onset of the film was a problem that attracted me throughout. Then there was the thriller element embodied by Valentinov, the menacing link between Luzhin, the boy prodigy, and Luzhin the adult grandmaster. This seized my imagination from first reading the script. Translating all these strands into a coherent whole was an invigorating challenge that confronted me from beginning to end.” With the script for the film in place, the filmmakers knew that they would be able to attract a high calibre cast. Caroline Wood, Director of Development at Renaissance Films and the film’s producer comments: “It was a joyful experience, because everybody we showed the script to loved it. With a fantastic cast on board we were able to finalise the financing as a British, French and Italian co-production with Renaissance putting in the bulk of the money against foreign sales in the remaining territories.” THE LUZHIN DEFENCE was filmed during the autumn of 1999, over eight weeks on location in Italy and Hungary. Gorris is delighted with the results of casting the two lead roles: “I have been very fortunate with both Emily and John. Putting the two together was a wonderful combination. There is a great chemistry between them and as good friends they work together very well. The love story has evolved brilliantly as a result of their obvious connection.” The character of Luzhin fascinated John Turturro. “When I read the script I thought it was very good. Luzhin is a very hard character although the flashbacks help to show from where he has developed. As a listless, apathetic boy he couldn’t connect with his parents, but once he got his chess pieces it was like love at first sight and he found a way out.” Gorris adds: “It’s at chess that Luzhin comes into his own and is at his strongest. The main problem with the life he leads is that he cannot combine chess with any other world, although he spends much of the film making an effort to do so.” Turturro’s interpretation and preparation for the role fascinated Gorris. “John has really put his mark on the character of Luzhin to the extent that I cannot imagine him portrayed in any other way. He is a tremendously concentrated actor and brought to life the spiritual world that Luzhin lived in throughout shooting.” Turturro himself feels that the original novel helped him to explore and develop the role. “I recognised some of Nabokov’s voice in Peter Berry’s writing and read the book a number of times. The book is about the inside of his mind, it’s more of a chess game, less dramatic, but there were some useful ideas for me in there, since it’s a very well drawn character, which Peter has brought to the screen very successfully.” Turturro also read a number of chess books: “I’m now at a good beginners stage and it’s a great game but it’s so complex.