Altered States [1980] dir Ken Russell

Altered States (1980)



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080360/




William Hurt ... Professor Eddie Jessup

Blair Brown ... Emily Jessup

Bob Balaban ... Arthur Rosenberg

Charles Haid ... Mason Parrish, Professor of Endocrinology at Harvard Medical School

Thaao Penghlis ... Prof. Eduardo Eccheverria at University of Mexico

Miguel Godreau ... Primal Man

Dori Brenner ... Sylvia Rosenberg

Peter Brandon ... Alan Hobart

Charles White-Eagle ... The Brujo, Hindris Indian

Drew Barrymore ... Margaret Jessup

Megan Jeffers ... Grace Jessup

Jack Murdock ... Hector Orteco

Francis X. McCarthy ... Obispo (as Frank McCarthy)

Deborah Baltzell ... Schizophrenic Patient

Evan Richards ... Young Rosenberg



Altered States is a 1980 science fiction film adaptation of a novel by the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. It was the only novel that Chayefsky ever wrote, as well as his final film. Both the novel and the film are based on John C. Lilly's sensory deprivation research conducted in isolation tanks under the influence of psychoactive drugs like LSD.



The film was directed by Ken Russell and starred the yummy William Hurt in his screen debut. It also starred Blair Brown (as Emily Jessup), Charles Haid and Bob Balaban. It additionally featured the film debut of Drew Barrymore. The film score was composed by classical composer John Corigliano (with Christopher Keene conducting) and was nominated for an Academy Award. The film also received an Oscar nomination for Sound, losing to The Empire Strikes Back.



Russell claims the film was first offered to Spielberg, Kubrick, Sidney Pollack, Robert Wise, Welles, Scorsese, Fred Zimmerman, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, de Palma, Bertolucci, Boorman, Tarkovsky, Irwin Kirshner, Coppola, Polanski, Dick Lester, Michael Winner, Sidney Lummet, Dick Donner, George Lucas, Roeg, Schlesinger, Truffaut, Zeffirelli, Bryan Forbes then Ken Russell.



The film's original director was Arthur Penn, who resigned after a dispute with Chayefsky. Special effects expert John Dykstra also resigned. Chayefsky later withdrew his name from the project; film critic Janet Maslin, in her review of the film, thought it "easy to guess why":



It's easy to guess why he and Mr. Russell didn't see eye to eye. The direction, without being mocking or campy, treats outlandish material so matter-of-factly that it often has a facetious ring. The screenplay, on the other hand, cries out to be taken seriously, as it addresses, with no particular sagacity, the death of God and the origins of man.

Film critic Richard Corliss attributed Chayefsky's disavowal of the film to distress over "the intensity of the performances and the headlong pace at which the actors read his dialogue."



This one has everything: sex, violence, comedy, thrills, tenderness. It's an anthology and apotheosis of American pop movies: Frankenstein, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Nutty Professor, 2001, Alien, Love Story. It opens at fever pitch and then starts soaring—into genetic fantasy, into a precognitive dream of delirium and delight. Madness is its subject and substance, style and spirit. The film changes tone, even form, with its hero's every new mood and mutation. It expands and contracts with his mind until both almost crack. It keeps threatening to go bonkers, then makes good on its threat, and still remains as lucid as an aerialist on a high wire. It moves with the loping energy of a crafty psychopath, or of film makers gripped with the potential of blowing the moviegoer's mind out through his eyes and ears. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Altered States.



Academy Awards, USA



1981 Nominated Oscar Best Music, Original Score John Corigliano

1981 Nominated Oscar Best Sound Arthur Piantadosi Les Fresholtz Michael Minkler Willie D. Burton





Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA



1981 Won Saturn Award Best Make-Up Dick Smith Tied with Dick Smith for Scanners (1981).



1981 Nominated Saturn Award Best Director Ken Russell

1981 Nominated Saturn Award Best Science Fiction Film

1981 Nominated Saturn Award Best Writing Paddy Chayefsky (as Sidney Aaron)



Golden Globes, USA



1981 Nominated Golden Globe New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture - Male William Hurt