Time Limit
Earlier today I was told a perverse relationship story that allegedly happened near the start of filming of Steven Soderbergh's Kafka, which was shot in Prague in 1990. The original source was Soderbergh, I've been assured, but since I'm hearing this second-hand please take it with a grain.
La Femme Nikita star Anne Parillaud had been cast as Gabriela, the female lead/significant girlfriend of Franz Kafka (Jeremy Irons ). Filming had just begun and she and Irons went out to dinner together, as actors just starting to work together often do. And Parillaud went back to Irons' hotel that night, and presumably didn't sleep much.
The next morning on the set Soderbergh led her over to a corner and says he's sorry but she's not going to work out because a significant party has complained about her French accent -- Gabriela is supposed to be a Prague girl, born and bred -- and that she's going to have to be replaced. (Theresa Russell was soon after hired.) "But who...who has complained?," the shocked Parillaud asked Soderbergh. Jeremy Irons, he answered.
In other words, her dismissal had not only been called for by Irons but, she later found out, locked in a day or two before. Meaning that Irons knew that if he wanted to "say goodbye" to Parillaud he had to make his move before she was told the bad news, and he probably knew Soderbergh would be telling her the next day or certainly very soon. So it was basically a "move it or lose it" situation before Parillaud learned the facts.
Even if this isn't true, it's a great story. The more likely truth, I'm guessing, is that Irons and Parillaud had already gotten started before the decision was made and that Irons didn't have the courage to tell her what he was feeling and saying as things went along. Either way I've heard some cold-hearted seduction stories before, but this is a classic.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on September 24, 2009 at 1:21 PM
comment #1
Bilge
says ...
With all due respect to everyone's love-em-and-leave-em macho fantasies, I don't think this is a "seduction" story. I think this is a "dirtbag" story.
Posted by Bilge
at September 24, 2009 2:17 PM
comment #2
Jeffrey Wells
says ...
Whatever and however you want to characterize the alleged actions of Irons, it's a seduction story. Seduction by a dirtbag, fine, and with a ticking clock.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells
at September 24, 2009 2:22 PM
comment #3
ShiveeTimbers
says ...
Wells, are you trying to co-opt TMZ foe the second time this week, again? Do you gossip like this with the rest of the girls in your sewing circle?
Posted by ShiveeTimbers
at September 24, 2009 2:50 PM
comment #4
citizenmilton
says ...
Jeffrey-
Any idea as to the reasons why Kafka never got DVD release and why the soundtrack is so difficult to obtain? This was always one of my favorite flicks of the '90s. I hope it makes it to Blu-Ray.
Posted by citizenmilton
at September 24, 2009 2:56 PM
comment #5
Jeffrey Wells
says ...
Wells to Shiveetimbers: If you don't apperciate what a great, cold-blooded story this is then I can''t help you. And it isn't TMZ. It's a short story in the New Yorker.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells
at September 24, 2009 3:09 PM
comment #6
LexG
says ...
Nicely played, Irons. I'm pro-Irons on this. If James Bond did this in a movie, you'd all chuckle and wish it was you and think, "What a delightful rakish rascal." But in public guys have to be so damn PC.
Considering how women live to put men down (with full societal approval), you don't need to put on this act that you're some douchey male sensitive guy with a scrappy beard and dumb hat playing bass in the campus vag-band.
Side note, Parillaud had truly terrible hair back in those days.
Posted by LexG
at September 24, 2009 3:19 PM
comment #7
JR530
says ...
I wonder if Irons seduced her again while they worked on Man in the Iron Mask.
Posted by JR530
at September 24, 2009 3:43 PM
comment #8
lazarus
says ...
Kafka is available on Region 2 DVD, as is Soderbergh's fantastic King of the Hill. I scored a used copy of the latter for less than $15, and I have a laserdisc of the former that will tide me over until it gets a proper release here. Not a great film, but a very interesting one with a top-notch cast.
Also, you really have to question the taste of a woman who would sleep with Irons when Dead Ringers had only come out a couple years earlier. I imagine there's many women who would be afraid he had kept some of those gynecological tools for his own amusement.
Posted by lazarus
at September 24, 2009 4:47 PM
comment #9
lazarus
says ...
Let me amend that: Reversal of Fortune had just come out that year. Yet another reason for a woman to be creeped out.
Posted by lazarus
at September 24, 2009 4:50 PM
comment #10
The Hoyk
says ...
KAFKA was part of a 17-film package that Miramax licensed out to Paramount for home video and TV, before they were bought by Disney. That deal has expired, and indeed, all those movies have reverted back to Disney, but only two from that package, DELICATESSEN and ENCHANTED APRIL, have been released by Disney since. Well, three, if you count THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE, which I believe reverted back to its producers and Criterion got from them. (For that matter, DELICATESSEN, just after Disney put out the DVD, Miramax's own rights expired and Canal+ reissued it through Lionsgate). In fact, many of the older Miramax films that went out through other labels on VHS have yet to get reissued on DVD. A mole at Disney told me the reason is twofold. 1, many of the music contracts were short-term, and need to be renegotiated, and 2, the market for catalog DVD is so crappy Disney figures there's no way they'll recoup the cost of reclearing music and remastering the elements. So KAFKA, like Almodovar's HIGH HEELS, Peter Chelsom's HEAR MY SONG, and other less exploitable titles, are likely to keep gathering dust in the Mouse vault.
Posted by The Hoyk
at September 24, 2009 5:34 PM
comment #11
BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
says ...
I tell you who's a surprising sex legend, and that's Charles Dance. He was shagging Sophia Myles for some time, despite being ancient and ginger. Lad points for that man.
Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
at September 24, 2009 5:42 PM
comment #12
ZayTonday
says ...
Wow, what a douche.
Posted by ZayTonday
at September 24, 2009 5:57 PM
comment #13
matt cousens
says ...
Wow, no kidding. LexG is reviewing hair......again.
Posted by matt cousens
at September 24, 2009 6:23 PM
comment #14
Ray
says ...
Irons is creepy. And not just because of this story.
Posted by Ray
at September 24, 2009 7:56 PM
comment #15
hiviper
says ...
Rex, Parillaud had bad hair in La Femme Nikita? She could've been bald in those days and I wouldn't have cared.
Posted by hiviper
at September 24, 2009 8:03 PM
comment #16
hiviper
says ...
Lex, that is
Posted by hiviper
at September 24, 2009 8:04 PM
comment #17
DeeZee
says ...
Hoyk: There are quite a few fans waiting for a dvd release of Enchanted April, too.
Posted by DeeZee
at September 24, 2009 10:15 PM
comment #18
DeeZee
says ...
My bad, "were" waiting.
Posted by DeeZee
at September 24, 2009 10:15 PM
comment #19
Krillian
says ...
If you believe in karma you have to be thinking "So this is why you wound up in Dungeons & Dragons, you dirtbag."
Posted by Krillian
at September 25, 2009 6:11 AM
comment #20
JD
says ...
The fact that Irons is and was then married certainly adds something to the story and Wells' perverse decision to post it here.
Posted by JD
at September 25, 2009 6:50 AM
comment #21
alan
says ...
If you believe in karma you have to be thinking "So this is why you wound up in Dungeons & Dragons, you dirtbag."
And The Time Machine. And Eragon. And his bad karma is probably also the reason Kingdom of Heaven tanked.
Oh wait, that was Orlando Bloom.
Posted by alan
at September 25, 2009 6:51 AM
comment #22
anonymous2
says ...
The Hoyk: Thanks for an informative comment.
Posted by anonymous2
at September 25, 2009 8:00 AM
comment #23
Deathtongue_Groupie
says ...
"Even if this isn't true, it's a great story."
Always the consummate journalist...
No, if it's not true it's just another male fantasy for other would-be D-bags to vicariously live through....
Posted by Deathtongue_Groupie
at September 25, 2009 8:58 AM
comment #24
julieW
says ...
that story is not true. she was fired because she was terrible. if she slept with Irons it had nothing to do with her being replaced...maybe this is her way of glossing over the incident in her own mind. what has she been good at since 'Nikita?'
Posted by julieW
at September 25, 2009 1:05 PM
comment #25
Jeffrey Wells
says ...
As I understood the story, she may well have been fired because she was terrible, as in her accent being terrible. And the point of the story, as it was told to me, wasn't that sleeping with Irons had anything to do with anything other than the fact that Irons, according to what I was told, both advocated her dismissal and managed to "seal the deal" before the boom was officially lowered...that's all.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells
at September 25, 2009 1:16 PM
comment #26
plastiqueelephant
says ...
If i was directing the film, I'd have been more upset if Iron's hadn't advocated her dismissal. Nothing matters but the film, and people always shag like rabbits on set. Plus, if he was married she would've known about it. She's very little of a victim here in my book.
Posted by plastiqueelephant
at September 25, 2009 4:49 PM