Johnny Depp playing Axel Blackmar in Arizona Dream, a film directed by Emir Kusturica is an absurdist comedy about American culture, with Jerry Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Lili Taylor http://inadepptrance.wordpress.com/feed/












 

ARIZONA DREAM

1993

Axel Blackmar

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Script

 

Director: Emir Kusturica

Writers:
  • David Atkins and Emir Kusturica (story)
  • David Atkins  (screenplay)





With : Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Lili Taylor, Vincent Gallo, Paulina Porizkova, Michael J. Pollard, Candyce Mason, Alexia Rane, Polly Noonan, Ann Schulman


Tagline: "A rebellious young man. With his own vision of the future. And his own fantasy of love."

Rating: R

Awards and nominations:

1993 BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
- Silver Berlin Bear, Special Jury Prize, Emir Kusturica (won)
- Golden Berlin Bear, Emir Kustirica (nominated)

1993 BROTHERS MANAKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
- Golden Camera 300, Vilko Filac (won)

1994 WARSAWA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
- Audience Award, Emir Kusturica (won)

Source: IMDb




 





 

 

 








  




DVD Soundtrack



SYNOPSIS

Absurdist comedy in which Johnny Depp plays Axel Blackmer, who lives in New York State and is obsessed with fish. He tags fish and monitors their habits for a living, but his greatest curiosity is when and how they dream. Axel's uncle, Leo Sweetie (Jerry Lewis) would prefer Axel take over the family business, a Cadillac dealership in Tucson, Arizona; against his better judgment, Axel drives from New York to Arizona to check out the lot and attend Leo's wedding to Millie (Paulina Porizkova), a woman who is hoping that marriage will keep her from crying all the time. While watching the Cadillacs, Axel meets Elaine Stalker (Faye Dunaway), the sexy widow of a wealthy mine owner, and the two strike up a romance, while Elaine's daughter Grace (Lili Taylor) wanders through her mother's home playing "Besame Mucho" on the accordion to her pet turtles.

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QUOTES FROM JOHNNY DEPP


"With Kusturica, I discovered freedom."
Johnny Depp,  Studio Magazine, februari 2000 

"I remember Emir [Kusturica] came to my house and we were sitting around, eating, talking, and I said, 'Look, I found a pig. I bought a pig. In Tucson.' And he was looking at the pig. And then he left, and he called me 20 minutes later, he says, 'Bring this pig to work tomorrow. Bring the pig to the shooting.' Yeah, he said bring the pig to work. Brought the pig to work, and he had Jerry chasing the pig."
Johnny Depp, Arizona Dream DVD Interview 2002

(On fulfilling Faye Dunaway's wish of bouncing on a trampoline)
"We set the trampoline up in the middle of the desert," he recalls, "and we got Faye on it, and in about half a second she turned from this beautiful woman into this sweet, giddy 12-year-old girl on a trampoline.  It was one of the most incredible moments I'd ever seen in my life."
Johnny Depp, People, March 1994

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Shooting had to pause for 3 months, while director Emir Kusturica suffered from depression.

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"Faye Dunaway really cares about the work, and she's so focused on the work. And I think sometimes that depth of caring, that profound caring can be misinterpreted, you know? Like it's ego, or it's this or that - but really she just cares about her character, her work... She was right there. She worked hard."
Johnny Depp, Arizona Dream DVD 2002

"Emir Kusturica is capable of such amazing things. Amazing imagery; amazing substance."
Johnny Depp, Arizona Dream DVD 2002

"I remember making the film. It was the film I made after Edward Scissorhands, and everybody in Hollywood and the movie industry is always concerned about how much money a movie's going to make in the box office, and how many theatres it's in, and how popular it becomes. And it's refreshing to know now what I knew then, which really is that: Who cares about the numbers? You know? When you're able to, first, experience something like this, and live through something like this, and be involved with something as magical as this. I mean, you forget about how much a movie made in the box office."
Johnny Depp, Arizona Dream DVD 2002

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The first cut of the film was about 4 hours long. Emir Kusturica gave Johnny Depp a copy of the version.

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"Emir is not your typical director. He's something else entirely, he's more ethereal. With him, it's collaboration in the best sense. I'd dive off the Eiffel Tower for that guy."
Johnny Depp, Elle Magazine, UK 1994




QUOTES FROM OTHERS

Dunaway  speaks with sincere respect for Johnny Depp. “He’s good, every time he works he gets better".
Moviemaker, November 1994

“His childhood informs who he is, but his choice of roles is where he wants to live as an artist. Whatever has happened to Johnny Depp, this is what he in his own uniqueness made of it."
Faye Dunaway, Premiere Februari 1995

"He’s a greeaat kisser!”
Faye Dunaway, Premiere Februari 1995

“If you want to see Johnny Depp's greatest moments in film, look at the scenes where he has no dialogue. He's the most brilliant listener in a movie. There's a scene in Arizona Dream where we're at a movie theatre and they're showing Raging Bull. All he's doing is watching me hustle these three girls. I'm telling her 'We can make love, but do not touch my face or my hair.' And I start rambling on . . . And I say ‘Do you think fucking Johnny Depp—like, does anybody touch his face?’ I just said it, do y'now what I mean? I just said it, I just was goofing, 'cos I thought we were just shooting a rehearsal. Johnny is FLAWLESS in the scene. He's just brilliant in the scene. He doesn't flinch. I say his name in the scene and he doesn't flinch. He blows me off the screen, doing nothing in the scene. And it's my most animated scene in the film.”
Vincent Gallo, Arizona Dream co-star, 1998

"There is something cool about Johnny Depp, cooler than he realizes. He thinks he's cool because of the hair and the clothes and the junked-up cars, but it's what he really is that's cool. He's a very complicated kid and he pays the price - he feels the feelings, and it's not easy for him."
Vincent Gallo, Elle Magazine, UK 1994


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