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THE LUZHIN DEFENCE is set on the Italian Lakes in the late 1920s with flashbacks to Luzhin’s childhood in St. Petersburg. The film was shot for eight weeks on location in Italy with the interiors and flashbacks being shot in Budapest.

The hotel location in Italy is the Villa Erba in Cernobbio on the banks of Lake Como. An ornate nineteenth century villa, set in acres of beautifully maintained park overlooking the lake, the villa was the childhood home of Italian filmmaker Luciano Visconti. The location by the lake had to be beautiful and extremely opulent in order to satisfy guests such as Natalia’s mother Vera, and Geraldine James was bewitched by
the location, "It’s completely stunning and films miraculously. That’s quite interesting, because some places you can't quite capture on film, and I’ve seen some of the rushes and the background is almost distracting – this beautiful, shimmering water."

The outside of the town hall and the local Italian streets were filmed in Bergamo where the production took over the citta vecchia for three days, hiring in many locals as extras.
Budapest also provided stunning locations for the film. The Town Hall interior was an old museum and several semi-abandoned buildings lent themselves to being dressed to depict both turn of the century St. Petersburg and twenties Italy.

Caroline Wood comments: "We were incredibly blessed with the weather in both locations. We had two weeks of beautiful autumnal sunshine when we did the Italian exteriors and then moved to Budapest and had unusually early snow. One of the big exterior days in Budapest was the cemetery scene. We had wanted to lay snow, but it was such a huge location that we could never have managed to do so. The
production value that we have as a result of the sun and the snow is amazing considering it was an eight week shoot."

Gorris is full of praise for Tony Burrough, the production designer, who "lifted the film to a larger scale than it originally set out to be. It benefited tremendously from the absolutely magnificent locations which Tony ensured gave it a scope which has an enormous amount of production value."
Indeed Gorris continued her collaborative approach with the film’s crew and felt that the production profited from this style of filmmaking. Regarding the work of Bernard Lutic, the Director of Photography she comments: "It was the first time that I had worked with Bernard and I would be more than happy to work with him again. His work is stunning. He’s the most actor friendly cameraman I know. He gives the actors breathing space and follows their leads. This has immeasurably helped their performances."

Gorris had collaborated with Jany Temime, the costume designer and Michaël Reichwein, the editor on
several of her previous films. Says Gorris: "Jany is a warm, cross-cultural professional whose costumes show her experience and depth. She had to recreate turn of the century Russian dress as well as twenties fashion. She showed Natalia’s forward looking character by dressing her differently. Whilst her mother wears more traditional costumes, Natalia asserts her independence by wearing trousers and less conventional clothing."
Regarding Reichwein she comments: "This is the third film on which we have collaborated. We get on tremendously well and work well together. I trust him implicitly which means that we take more risks together which I hope pays off in the final film."

Starring John Turturro and Emily Watson, THE LUZHIN DEFENCE is directed by Marleen Gorris and written by Peter Berry from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Caroline Wood and Stephen Evans produce the film through Renaissance Films, with Louis Becker and Philippe Guez. Leo Pescarolo and Eric Robison are co-producers.
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 & 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. I think that the fact that I have had experiences other than acting has helped me."
Turturro continues on reading a number of chess books: "Certainly directing and editing a film ensures that you deal with a number of processes at the same time, putting all the pieces together to make this big breathing body. Chess grandmasters know so many games and they can see so many moves ahead that when you play as a novice you realise how limited you are, unable to think in such a free, conceptual way."

Emily Watson partly took the role of Natalia due to Turturro’s attachment to the project. Says Turturro: "I worked with Emily on ‘Cradle Will Rock’ and we realised that we like working the same way with each
other and off each other. It’s really fun to work like that and I enjoy working with people that I like to be around".

Watson adds: "John is one of the most interesting American actors around. It’s been very exciting watching him work, it’s like being around a whirlwind. He’s slightly terrifying at times because he’s so energised and full of ideas."
Gorris continues, "Emily was my first choice for the role of Natalia. Her intuitive intelligence created a very strong presence in the film. Emily’s moving performance gives an emotional depth to the plot which a lesser actress would not have embodied."

Watson was keen to take on the role of Natalia. "It’s a departure for me in that I’m the one watching somebody having a nervous breakdown. Natalia feeds and supports Luzhin who is spinning off into the wild. It’s also a very sane, centred, amused and healthy character which is unusual for me to play."
She adds: "Natalia is particularly of her time, of a dispossessed generation. She’s independent and modern and has a forward-looking feel about her. She starts off liking the idea of spending time with a genius, but he’s very beguiling and so full of life that I think she very genuinely falls in love with him."
Watson also likes the unusual tone of the film: "You can get seduced into feeling that you’re in this world of the costume drama. It is a period piece, but actually you’re dwelling in Nabokov’s imagination and that’s quite a strange place to be. It’s a very peculiar, odd, dark and funny world that we’ve been able to create in a marvellously collaborative fashion. Everything is up for grabs and every idea is welcome. Nothing is set and I love that."

Gorris was also very pleased with the casting in all of the supporting roles. "All the cast worked well together. Their intensive collaboration and superb acting skills combined with fantastic senses of humour,
made working with them an unalloyed pleasure."

Geraldine James plays Vera, Natalia’s mother and was pleased to take on such an interesting role. "I think one of the strengths of the script is that all the people around the main characters are human beings and it’s very important that they are. I’m not just the awful mother-in-law, I have a human side which is revealed, a certain vulnerability which takes the character away from stereotype."
Adds Christopher Thompson who plays Jean de Stassard: "I think my character represents an option for Natalia. We’re part of the same world and would be a good match. I think it’s important that Stassard is not only the most obvious choice for her but also an interesting one. Her ultimate commitment to Luzhin is all the more significant because Stassard is not a fool."
 
Renaissance Films was founded in 1988 by Stephen Evans, David Parfitt and Kenneth Branagh. Between 1989 and 1993 Stephan Evans and David Parfitt produced three films starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh: ‘Henry V’ which was multi-award winning including an Academy Award and the award for Best First Film and Best First-time Director at the New York Film Critics Circle, ‘Peter’s Friends’ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.

In 1994 Kenneth Branagh resigned from Renaissance Films to pursue his other interests. Stephen Evans and David Parfitt went on to produce the highly successful ‘The Madness of King George’ directed by Nicholas Hytner, starring Nigel Hawthorne and Helen Mirren. The film was nominated for four Oscars and won one and Helen Mirren won Best Actress at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for 13 BAFTAs and won three. They also produced Iain Softley’s acclaimed ‘The Wings of the Dove’, starring Helena Bonham-Carter and Linus Roache which was also nominated for four Oscars and five BAFTAs as well as Trevor Nunn’s ‘Twelfth Night’ starring Ben Kingsley and Nigel Hawthorne.

The above films have eleven Academy Award nominations between them, and have won two.
Renaissance Films has evolved from its production base to now include international sales backed by US$40 million of equity investment from Hermes Investment Management, one of the City of London’s leading pension fund managers. This investment gives Renaissance deep pockets, long-term backing and greater green-lighting speed and flexibility. ‘Human Traffic’, a film about five friends who spend one lost weekend in a heady mix of music, love and club culture, directed by Justin Kerrigan was the first title secured for international sales. ‘The Luzhin Defence’ is the first in-house production that was greenlit under the new Renaissance Films. Most recently ‘Disco Pigs’, directed by Kirsten Sheridan and starring Elaine Cassidy and Cillian Murphy has been greenlit. ‘Disco Pigs’ is a twisted rites of passage that is funny, sexual and violent.

Recently Renaissance Films has signed a three-year co-financing and co-producing deal with Paul Allen’s (co-founder of Microsoft) Clear Blue Sky Productions. Renaissance will handle international sales on at least five films to be produced under the agreement, with ‘The Luzhin Defence’ as the first project under that deal.
Silva Screen Records will be releasing the soundtrack of THE LUZHIN DEFENCE on or around April 20, 2001. For more information or to purchase the soundtrack, click one of the links below.


Click here to go directly to the Silva Screen Records US website.

Click here to go directly to the Silva Screen Records UK website.
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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
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
Make-Up and Hair Design Roseann Samuel
Original Music by Alexandre Desplat
Casting Director Celestia Fox
Based on the Novel by
 Vladimir Nabokov
John Turturro plays Alexander Luzhin, an eccentric chess Grand Master. An acclaimed actor and film maker, Turturro is a long-time collaborator with the Coen Brothers, having worked on their forthcoming ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ and appeared in ‘The Big Lebowski’, ‘Barton Fink’, for which he won the Best Actor Award in Cannes in 1991, and ‘Miller’s Crossing’. His most recent credits include Sally Potter’s ‘The Man Who Cried’, co-starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci and Cate Blanchett, Tim Robbins’ ‘Cradle Will Rock’ with Susan Sarandon and Emily Watson, Arto
Pargaminian’s ‘2000 and None’ and Doug McGrath’s ‘Company Man’ co-starring with Sigourney Weaver and Woody Allen. Turturro has directed and starred in ‘Illuminata’ and ‘Mac’, which he also co-wrote and which won the Camera d’Or at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. He also won the Gotham IFP Award in 1991 and the Piper Heidseick Award at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival for excellence in his body of work.
A regular in the films of Spike Lee, he has performed in ‘Clockers’, ‘He Got Game’, ‘Mo’ Better Blues’, ‘Do the Right Thing’, ‘Jungle Fever’ and ‘Girl 6’. Other film credits include Allison Anders’ ‘Grace of My Heart’, Diane Keaton’s ‘Unstrung Heros’, Robert Redford’s ‘Quiz Show’ for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe, Peter Weir’s ‘Fearless’, Woody Allen’s ‘Hannah and her Sisters’ and Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Color of Money’ and ‘Raging Bull’. Theatre credits include ‘Danny and the Deep Blue Sea’, ‘The Chairs’, ‘Italian American Reconciliation’, 'Troilus and Cressida’, ‘The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui’ and ‘Waiting for Godot’.
 
Emily Watson plays Natalia, an independent Russian aristocrat who falls in love with Luzhin. Watson’s film debut was in Lars von Trier’s ‘Breaking the Waves’ for which she was Academy Award nominated and won the New York Critics Circle Best Actress Award, the British Newcomer of the Year Award at the London Film Critics Circle and the Felix Award for Best Actress. She was also Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated for her role in Anand Tucker’s ‘Hilary & Jackie’ co-starring Rachel Griffiths.

Other film credits include Philip Saville’s ‘Metroland’ with Christian Bale, Jim Sheridan’s ‘The Boxer’
starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Tim Robbins’ ‘Cradle Will Rock’ with Susan Sarandon and John Turturro, Alan Parker’s ‘Angela’s Ashes’ with Robert Carlyle and Alan Rudolph’s ‘Trixie’ with Nick Nolte. Her television credits include BBC productions of ‘The Mill on the Floss’ and ‘A Summer Day’s Dream’.
Watson has performed a number of roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company including Peter Hall’s ‘All’s Well that Ends Well’, Max Stafford-Clark’s ‘A Jovial Crew’ and Michael Attenborough’s ‘The Changeling’. Other credits include Lynsey Posner’s ‘The Lady from the Sea’, Max Stafford-Clark’s ‘The Three Sisters’ which toured in India and a number of fringe productions.

Watson trained at the Drama Studio in London.
 
Geraldine James plays Vera, Natalia’s mother who is concerned about her daughter’s welfare. James’ most recent film credits include Martin Duffy’s ‘The Testimony of Taliesin Jones’ starring Jonathan Pryce, Reverge Anselmo’s ‘The Lover’s Prayer’ starring Kirsten Dunst and Jon Amiel’s ‘The Man Who Knew Too Little’ starring Bill Murray.

Her numerous other film credits include Richard Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’ starring Ben Kingsley, Mel Smith’s 'The Tall Guy’ starring Jeff Goldblum, Pen Densham’s ‘Moll Flanders’, Mary McGuckian’s ‘Words upon the Window Pane’, David Elfick’s ‘No Worries’, Peter Hall’s ‘She’s Been Away’ starring Peggy Ashcroft for which
she won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival, Stuart Orme’s ‘The Wolves of Willoughby Chase’ and Claude Watham’s ‘Sweet William’ starring Jenny Agutter. James’ theatre credits include Peter Hall’s productions of ‘Cymbeline’, ‘Lysistrata’ and ‘The Merchant of Venice’ which transferred to Broadway and won James a Best Actress Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award nomination. Other credits include Lynsey Posner’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ and Joseph Blatchley’s ‘Hedda Gabler’.
James has been nominated for a number of BAFTA awards for her work in television including ‘The Jewel in the Crown’, ‘Band of Gold’ and ‘Dummy’. She has also appeared in, amongst others, ‘Kavanagh QC’, ‘Inspector Morse’, ‘The Healer’, ‘The History Man’, ‘Stanley and the Women’ and ‘Blott on the Landscape’.
 
Stuart Wilson plays Valentinov, Luzhin’s nemesis.

Wilson’s film credits include Martin Campbell’s ‘Mask of Zorro’ with Antonio Banderas, Michael Bay’s ‘The Rock’ starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery, Roman Polanski’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ co-starring Sigourney Weaver, Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Age of Innocence’ starring Daniel Day Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer, Gary Marshall’s ‘Exit to Eden’ and Richard Donner’s ‘Lethal Weapon 3’.

Television credits include ‘Prime Suspect 4 & 6’, ‘The Jewel in the Crown’, ‘Anna Karenina’, ‘I Claudius’,
‘We’ll Meet Again’ and the television films ‘Romance on the Orient Express’, ‘Rose Hill’, ‘Death of a Polish Priest’ and ‘Ivanhoe’. Wilson’s theatre credits include ‘The Three Sisters’ at the Queens Theatre, the Almeida production of ‘Deliberate Death of a Polish Priest’, The Royal Court production of ‘The Overgrown Path’ and ‘More Light’, ‘China’, ‘Californian Dog Fight’ and ‘Devour the Snow’ for director Simon Stokes at the Bush Theatre.
Christopher Thompson plays Jean de Stassard, Natalia’s eminently suitable admirer. Thompson has American, English and French nationality, studied at Brown University in the United States and lives in France.

His most recent work is in his mother Danièle Thompson’s ‘La Bûche’ which he co-wrote and acted in with co-stars Emmanuelle Béart and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Other film credits include Agnieszka Holland’s ‘Total Eclipse’ with Leonardo di Caprio and David Thewlis, James Ivory’s ‘Jefferson in Paris’ with Greta Scacchi, Nick Nolte and Gwyneth Paltrow, Elie Chouraqui’s ‘Les Marmottes’ for which he was nominated for a César
nominated for a César Award, Francis Girod’s ‘Delit Mineur’, Bob Swaim’s ‘L’Atlantide’, Giuseppe Tornatore’s 'Ils Vont Tous Bien’ with Marcello Mastroianni’, and Richard Heffron’s ‘La Revolution Française’. On television he has worked with director Josée Dayan in ‘Les Boeuf-Carottes’, ‘Le Comte de Monte Cristo’, ‘Les Heritiers’ and ‘Les Liens du Coeur’. Other credits include ‘Sam’, ‘Le Juge et une Femme’, ‘Les Steenfort’ and ‘Maria, Fille de Flandre’.
Peter Blythe plays Ilya, Natalia’s father. Blythe’s film credits include Christopher Hampton’s ‘Carrington’ starring Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce, Phil Davis’ ‘i.d.’, Sydney McCartney’s ‘The Bridge’ with Saskia Reeves, Clive Donner’s ‘Alfred the Great’ and Jack Smight’s ‘Kaleidoscope’ starring Warren Beatty and Susannah York.

An established theatre actor, Blythe is a longtime collaborator with director Peter Hall having appeared in his Old Vic productions of ‘Amadeus’, ‘King Lear’, ‘The Provok’d Wife’, ‘The Seagull’, ‘Waste’ and ‘Mind Millie For Me’ which ran at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Other extensive theatre credits include Declan Donnelan’s
Donnelan’s ‘Hayfever’ at the Savoy Theatre, Howard Davies’ ‘Flight’, David Hare’s ‘Pravda’ and Richard Eyre’s ‘Futurists’ all at the Royal National Theatre.

Blythe’s television credits include ‘Dalziel and Pascoe’, 'Mrs. Hartley and the Growth Centre’, ‘The High Life’, 'Devil’s Advocate’, ‘Love on a Branch Line’, ‘Between the Lines’, ‘Pie in the Sky’, ‘Maigret’, ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’ and the ‘Barchester Chronicles’.
Gorris is best known for her Academy Award winning film ‘Antonia’s Line’, a warm social comedy, which light-heartedly traced fifty years of a family’s life in a small village in the Dutch countryside. As well as the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, it won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival and the Best Actress and Best Director Awards at the Utrecht Film Festival. Other recent film credits include ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ which starred Vanessa Redgrave and Rupert Graves.

Gorris made her directorial debut with ‘A Question of Silence’ which she also wrote. The film was awarded the Best Feature Award at the Utrecht Film Festival in Holland, the audience prize at the Women’s Film Festival at Sceaux, France and a prize at the Festival of Taormina, Sicily. Her second film, ‘Broken Mirrors’ which she also wrote was awarded the Audience Prize at the Utrecht Film Festival and Best Feature Film at the International Film Festival, San Francisco. It was also given a special jury mention at the Women’s Film Festival in Creteil, France. Gorris’ third script and feature film ‘The Last Island’ was released in Holland in 1990, followed by a series of five half hour films called ‘Tales from a Street’ for Dutch television in 1992.

Gorris studied English at the University of Groningen and Drama at the University of Amsterdam. In 1976 she obtained an M.A. in Drama at the University of Birmingham, England.
Wood has been Head of and then Director of Development at Renaissance Films since 1994 and has been responsible, with Stephen Evans, for commissioning and developing all of the projects on the current Renaissance slate. At Renaissance she was also Associate Producer on ‘The Wings of The Dove’ and Production Associate on ‘Twelfth Night’.

Prior to joining Renaissance, Wood was Development Executive at Jean-Jacques Beineix’s film company, Cargo Films (‘Diva’, ‘Betty Blue’) in Paris with responsibility for co-ordinating the company’s international operations.

Wood’s first job in film was Script Editor then Creative Executive at Paramount British Pictures in London.
Evans co-founded Renaissance Films, bringing in Kenneth Branagh as creative director. He executive produced ‘Henry V’ and ‘Peter’s Friends’ and produced ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘The Wings of the Dove’. He also produced ‘The Madness of King George’ independently of Renaissance which was nominated for thirteen BAFTAs and won three including Best British Film and Best Actor.

The above films have eleven Academy Award nominations between them, and have won two.

Evans was a member of the Stock Exchange from 1973 to 1996 specialising in institutional and corporate broking. He is also a Director of Film and Television Completions Limited, a Council Member of the Royal Court Theatre and a Trustee of the National Film School.
Berry is currently working on ‘A Suspension of Mercy’ for Warner Bros. Films, ‘Cry of the Owl’ for BBC Features and ‘Mary Bryant’ for Granada TV.

In 1998, Berry won the RTS Award for Best Writer and was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Single Drama for Steven Whitaker’s ‘A Life for a Life’ starring Olympia Dukakis.

Other writing credits include ‘Goodbye My Love’ for Granada, ‘People who Knock on the Door’ for the BBC, ‘Ratking’, ‘Torch’ and ‘The Hunt for Marco Polo’ for Zenith and ‘Heaven on Earth’ for Warner Bros.. Prior to writing, Berry produced ‘Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt’ which was shown at the London and Sydney Film Festivals and directed ‘The Nightwatchman’ a live drama broadcast with Keith Allen and ‘Bread’, a National Film School Production which won him a Silver Boomerang Award and the John Grierson Award – Honorary Mention.
Lutic’s recent film credits include ‘I Dreamed of Africa’ starring Kim Basinger and Vincent Perez and ‘My Life So Far’ starring Irene Jacob and Malcolm McDowell both for director Hugh Hudson, Raoul Peck’s ‘Lumumba – Retour au Congo’ and Frederic Fougea’s ‘Hanuman’.

Other film credits include Christophe Malavoy’s ‘La Ville dont le Prince est un enfant’, Jeannot Szwarc’s ‘Hercule & Sherlock’, Yves Angelo’s César nominated ‘Le Colonel Chabert’, Richard Lester’s ‘The Return of the Musketeers’, Eric Rohmer’s ‘L’Ami de mon Amie’, ‘Le Beau Mariage’ and ‘La Femme de l’Aviateur’, Hugh Hudson’s ‘Revolution’ and Claude Lelouch’s ‘Viva la Vie’.
Reichwein has previously collaborated with Marleen Gorris on the Academy Award winning ‘Antonia’s Line’ and ‘Mrs. Dalloway’.

His other film credits include Marc Evans’ ‘House of America’ starring Steven Mackintosh and Frans Weisz’s ‘Woman of the North’ and ‘Jaar van de Opvolging’. He has also worked on Leon de Winter’s ‘Hoffman’s Hunger’.

In addition, Reichwein has worked on numerous Dutch features, television programmes, short films, documentaries and music videos.
Burrough’s designs for Richard Loncraine’s ‘Richard III’ starring Ian McKellan won him the 1997 BAFTA production design award, the Evening Standard Technical Achievement Award and an Academy Award nomination.

His other film credits include Steve Barron’s ‘Arabian Nights’ starring Dougray Scott and Rufus Sewell, Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s ‘Ordinary Decent Criminal’ starring Kevin Spacey and Linda Fiorentino, Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Great Expectations’ starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke, Richard Loncraine’s ‘Wide Eyed and Legless’ starring Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters and ‘Beeban Kidron’s ‘Great Moments in Aviation’ starring Vanessa Redgrave and John Hurt. His film production design debut was with Michael Whyte’s ‘The Railway Station Man’ starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland.

His television credits include Alan Bennett’s ‘Talking Heads’ for which he was nominated for a BAFTA and most recently Philip Saville’s ‘The Buccaneers’, Christopher Morahan’s ‘Summer Day’s Dream’, Noella Smith’s ‘The Hummingbird Tree’ and Gillies Mackinnon’s ‘Grass Arena’ and ‘Needle’. His first television productions were for producer Shaun Sutton and include ‘Titus Andronicus’, ‘Devil’s Disciple’, ‘The Contractor’, ‘The Browning Version’, ‘Season’s Greetings’ and ‘When we are Married’.
Temime has previously worked with Marleen Gorris on the multi-award winning ‘Antonia’s Line’ which won her the Golden Calf for Costume Design at the Utrecht Film Festival.

Her most recent film credits include Paul McGuigan’s ‘Gangster No. 1’ starring David Thewlis and Malcolm McDowell, Ed Thomas’ ‘Rancid Aluminium’ with Rhys Ifans and Joseph Fiennes, Marc Evans’ 'House of America’ which won her the BAFTA Wales for Best Costume Design and Mike Van Diem’s 'Karakter’ which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1998.

Other credits include George Sluizer’s ‘Crime Time’ starring Stephen Baldwin, Ate de Jong’s ‘All Men are Mortal’ starring Irene Jacob and Theu Boerman’s ‘The Partisans’ for which Temime won the Golden Calf for Best Costume Design at the Utrecht Film Festival.
Samuel’s film credits include Nigel Cole’s ‘Saving Grace’ starring Brenda Blethyn and Craig Ferguson, Ben Hopkins’ ‘Simon Magus’ starring Noah Taylor and Stuart Townsend, Chris Menges’ ‘The Lost Son’ starring Daniel Auteuil, Jeremy Thomas’ ‘All the Little Animals’ starring John Hurt and Philip Saville’s ‘Metroland’ starring Emily Watson.

Her television credits include ‘The Turn of the Screw’, ‘RKO 281’, ‘Psychos’, ‘Agatha Christie’s Poirot’ for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Make-Up and Hair Design, ‘The Fragile Heart’, ‘Bugs’ and 'London’s Burning’.
Desplat’s extensive film credits include Philippe de Broca’s ‘Lulu’, Marion Vernoux’s ‘Rien a Faire’ and ‘Love etc.’, Patrice Leconte’s ‘Une Chance sur Deux’, Malcolm Mowbray’s ‘Revengers Comedies’, Jacques Audiard’s ‘A Self-Made Hero’ and ‘Regarde les Hommes Tomber’ and Leslie Megahey’s ‘The Hour of the Pig’.

Desplat is also a prolific composer for Imax films, short movies, cartoons, theatre, opera, ballet, television and commercials.
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, focusing 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.
 
THE LUZHIN DEFENSE: PAWNS OF OUTSIDE PLAYERS ON A CHESSBOARD OF LOVE By A.O. SCOTT

NEW YORK – “The Luzhin Defense” takes place in what looks, at first glance, like familiar movie territory. The chugging locomotive, the cloche hats and elegant summer suits, the picturesque limestone villa all denote Europe between the world wars. But the literary source of Marleen Gorris’ elegant, tenderhearted film is not Waugh or Maugham but Nabokov; the lush scenery and period costumes are not vehicles of historical reckoning or social observation but rather the scaffolding for a delicate fable about memory, devotion and the vulnerability of genius in a cruelly ordinary world.

The genius in question is Alexander Ivanovich Luzhin (John Turturro), a chain-smoking chess prodigy who shows up at an Italian lakeside resort to compete for the world championship. With his filthy dark suits and unkempt hair, Luzhin is a comical, anomalous figure but also a source of fascination and something of a celebrity. Shambling and inarticulate, he dwells in the intricate chambers of his own mind, making only incidental contact with the rituals and preoccupations of daily life.
Also at the resort is Natalia Karkhov (Emily Watson), a young Russian woman whose aristocratic mother (Geraldine James) is as obsessed with social forms as Luzhin is with chess moves. She tries to set her daughter up with an eligible French count (Christopher Thompson), but Natalia is captivated by Luzhin’s strangeness, his intensity and his utter lack of guile. Two days after their first meeting (“How long have you been playing chess?” she asks; “9,263 days, 4 hours and 5 minutes,” he replies), Luzhin proposes marriage, much to the consternation of her mother, who summons the young woman’s father from Berlin.

The love story is touchingly and convincingly played by Turturro and Watson. Their odd, attractive faces and slightly nervous performing styles seem perfectly complementary, and their romance is a welcome respite from the usual mechanistic movie star courtship. Neither seems to possess an ounce of vanity, and Turturro, who has played an impressive array of goofballs, eccentrics, brainiacs and borderline nutcases in the course of his career, does a beautiful job in a difficult role.
We can’t see what Luzhin does – the patterns and permutations he perceives are beyond the camera’s reach – but Turturro, by conveying his character’s painful, ecstatic inwardness, creates a bond of sympathy with the audience just as he does with Natalia. At times his gawky, lurching gait reveals an almost Chaplinesque lightness. Luzhin may be tormented – flashbacks to his troubled Russian childhood suggest why – but he is also, when contemplating the game or the woman he loves, transcendently buoyant.

But circumstances, aided by a villainous former mentor named Valentinov (Stuart Wilson), force the delicate prodigy to choose between his two loves. Young Alexander (played in flashbacks by the chubby-faced, soulful Alexander Hunting, whom one can easily picture growing up into the haggard and anxious Turturro) was taken from his home by Valentinov, who turned his protege’s gift into parlor tricks and gambling opportunities. Valentinov is the snake in Natalia and Luzhin’s garden, provoking Luzhin to madness in order to see him defeated by the dandyish Italian grandmaster Turati (Fabio Sartor), Luzhin’s chief rival for the world championship.
With his silver beard and impeccable manners. Valentinov is a bit like a villain in an old movie serial or a Wilkie Collins novel. “The Luzhin Defense” belongs to Nabokov’s early career, and Gorris has captured both the novel’s heartfelt romanticism and its dashing intellectual vigor.

With the exception of “Lolita” and “Despair,” from which Rainer Werner Fassbinder mined one of his masterpieces, Nabokov’s books have seldom succeeded onscreen, perhaps because the intricate, involuted latticework of his English prose makes the prospect of adaptation especially daunting. “The Luzhin Defense,” originally written in Russian, has a narrative clarity well suited to cinema, and Gorris, whose “Antonia’s Line” won the best foreign film Oscar in 1996, tells the story with restraint and panache, though she does take some liberties with the original.
Her use of Alexandre Desplat’s lush score is sometimes heavy-handed, overemphasizing moments that should be treated with the concentrated quiet of a chess match, but her camera moves with fluidity and ease through brisk opening conventions to a perfectly poised and balanced endgame. 

PRODUCTION NOTES: THE LUZHIN DEFENSE Directed by Marleen Gorris; written by Peter Berry, based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov; director of photography, Bernard Lutic; edited by Michael Reichwein; music by Alexandre Desplat; production designer, Tony Burrough; produced by Caroline Wood, Stephen Evans, Louis Becker and Philippe Guez; released by Pictures Classics.
With: John Turturro (Luzhin), Emily Watson (Natalia), Geraldine James (Vera), Stuart Wilson (Valentinov), Christopher Thompson (Stassard), Fabio Sartor (Turati) and Alexander Hunting (young Luzhin).

Running time: 106 minutes.

“The Luzhin Defense” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has some discreet sex scenes and some moments of intense emotion.

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
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JOHN TURTURRO SHRINE
Need more info on John? Check out this dedicated fan's site.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Guild/8640/

THE EMILY WATSON PHENOMENON
There are people out there who love this actress. Here is one site dedicated to the life and work of Ms. Watson.
http://members.tripod.com/Watson_Emily/

EMBLA...ALL ABOUT VLADIMIR NABOKOV
A very cool site about the author who not only made THE LUZHIN DEFENCE possible, but also such treasures as LOLITA.
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/nabokov/zembla.htm

MARLEEN GORRIS INTERVIEW
Think you know all about Marleen Gorris after reading through this website? Try this interview we found on Film.com to find out what inspires this filmmaker.
http://www.film.com/film-interview/1998/10274/829/
TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL
So, you still need more of Turturro, Watson and the rest of THE LUZHIN DEFENCE? Click onto this website to view an exclusive picture from the 2000 Toronto Film Festival.
http://www.digitalhit.com/fest/tiff/2000/5/d5-00-p.shtml

US CHESS FEDERATION
Probably one of the best websites devoted to CHESS in the United States ... clubs, listings, directories ... if it has to do with chess, it is here!
http://www.uschess.org/org/sources.html

CHESS INFORMANT MAGAZINE NABOKOV
Yes, there is a magazine about chess and we found this very prestigious publication, but be warned that this is for only hard core chess fans!
http://www.sahovski.co.yu/
DEEP BLUE INFORMATION
Ah, chess, the preferred game of computers....learn about the computer that has put most chess champs to shame.
http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/meet/html/d.3.3.html

AMERICAN CHESS SCHOOL
Want to learn more about chess, but do not know where to get started? Don't fret- the American Chess School will help you...click onto their website.
http://www.amchess.org/

THE BASICS OF CHESS
Okay, so you are not ready to contact a school...how about just learning the basics!
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/8354/
Vladimir Nabokov was born in St Petersburg in 1899, the elder son of an aristocratic, cultured, politically liberal family. When the Bolsheviks seized power the family left Russia and moved first to London, then to Berlin, where Nabokov rejoined them in 1922, after having completed his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Between 1923 and 1940 he published novels, short stories, plays, poems and translations in the Russian language and was recognised as one of the outstanding writers of the emigration. In 1940 he and his wife and son moved to America, where he was a lecturer at Wellesley College from 1941 to 1948. He was then Professor of Russian Literature at Cornell University until he retired from teaching in 1959. His first novel written in English, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, was published in 1941 and his best-known novel Lolita brought him world-wide fame. In 1973 he was awarded the American National Medal for Literature. He died in 1977 in Montreux, Switzerland.

His works include, from the Russian novels, The Luzhin Defence and The Gift; from the English novels, Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire and Ada; the autobiographical Speak, Memory; translations of Alice in Wonderland into Russian and Eugene Onegin into English; and lectures on literature.
Nabokov is one of the great writers of the twentieth century. As Martin Amis has written "The variety, force and richness of Nabokov’s perceptions have not even the palest rival in modern day fiction. To read him in full flight is to experience stimulation that is at once intellectual, imaginative and aesthetic, the nearest thing to pure sensual pleasure that prose can offer."
1 of 10
Alexander Luzhin (John Turturro) spies an
old adversary in the crowd.
2 of 10
Natalia (Emily Watson) meets Luzhin for the
first time.
3 of 10
Luzhin constantly scribbles chess moves
and strategies in a notebook when he is
alone at night.
4 of 10
Fabio Sartor plays Turati, the reigning
world chess champion.
5 of 10
Luzhin unknowingly loses Natalia in the
crowd while he is taking her to see the
building he played chess in as a child.
6 of 10
Natalia consoles Luzhin after his illness,
and discusses matters of grave importance.
7 of 10
Natalia observes Luzhin's peculiar behavior
while dining at the resort with her mother.
8 of 10
Valentinov (Stuart Wilson) insists on taking
Luzhin and Natalia to lunch so they can
discuss "old times".
9 of 10
Ilya (peter Blythe), Natalia's father, discusses
Luzhin with his daughter.
10 of 10
Luzhin demonstrates his exceptional abilities
during an exhibition match against multiple
opponents at the world chess championship.