The
 Vincent

PEREZ
Archives

bridept1t.jpg (10017 bytes)
 

UK/Germany/Austria 2001
99 Minutes

 

 

 

Synopsis: Paramount Classics presents director Bruce Beresford's romantic portrait of an extraordinary woman who inspired, bedeviled and captivated the artistic genuises of her age. Surrounded by the visual riches and musical power of Vienna at the turn of the century, Alma Mahler, (Wynter) becomes lover and muse, first to the great composer/conductor Gustav Mahler, then to the brilliant architect Walter Gropius, then to rebel artist Oskar Kokoschka (Perez), and eventually to the passionate novelist, Franz Werfel. Each man sees in her a source of  inspiration, but her searching heart only finds peace when her own music is performed.

*****

San Francisco Chronicle:
"The only performer who breathes any life into the proceedings is Vincent Perez (Indochine), whose portrait of Kokoschka is extravagantly sexy and demented."

Buffalo News:
"Vincent Perez and Gregor Seberg are haunting look-alikes for Kokoschka and Werfel, and play those roles superbly."

Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
"Vincent Perez is terrific as the jealous, volatile artist whose 'Bride of the Wind' masterpiece canvas depicts Alma and himself in a central sexual oasis, surrounded by tempests and torrents."

Citysearch:
"Wynter, Pryce and Perez turn in well-nuanced performances."

SPLICEDWire:
"With moody and temperamental artist Kokoschka (Vincent Perez), there is heat, but Beresford doesn't seem to recognize their love's most emotional moments - as when he miraculously returns from World War I after being declared dead."

Akron Beacon Journal:
"Kokoschka is played with compelling intensity by Vincent Perez."

Cincinnati CityBeat:
"As Kokoschka, Vincent Perez creates the most lasting impression. His spirited dinner dance with a mannequin of Alma is the wind that propels the film for a few moments."

Audience Magazine:
"Almost stealing the show is Vincent Perez as Kokoschka."

Boston Phoenix:
"Vincent Perez’s Kokoschka is rumpled and intense."

San Diego Metropolitan:
"Vincent Perez is also fine as the tempestuous Kokoschka, whose out-of-control jealousy finally lost Alma."

Daily News Los Angeles:
"Played by the striking French actor Vincent Perez, Kokoschka is far and away the film's liveliest, wittiest presence, especially when he takes to escorting a life-size Alma doll around town after the flesh-and-blood version has rejected him."

Reeltime:
"Pryce and Perez are as good as the script allows."

Thecelebritycafe.com:
"As opposed to glorifying the artistic genius of each man, Beresford and the writer, Marilyn Levy, amplify the shadow cast over Alma's own brilliance by the fame of each of her lovers. This unique perspective is only heightened by the performances of Sarah Wynter, Jonathon Pryce, and Vincent Perez. Each actor affects a striking and complex interpretation of the characters. They truly seem to embody the larger-than-life people they play.

Toronto Globe and Mail:
"Jonathan Pryce's Mahler is a nice blend of the arrogance and insecurity that seems to typify the artistic temperament. And Vincent Perez makes for a wonderfully crazed Kokoschka, enhanced by his getting to deliver the movie's best line: 'Time is the money of love.'"

Eye.net:
"Only Jonathan Pryce as Mahler and Vincent Perez as Kokoschka manage to register a presence."

Indianapolis Star:
" The movie is joyless and dull, colorless and flat, except for the performance of Vincent Perez as expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka. The movie comes alive with the introduction of Oskar. Though he called Alma his wild creature, he must have been looking in a mirror. He is passion. She is
water on his fire."

Now Toronto:
"Credit Vincent Perez, as Alma's obsessive third lover, with at least trying to set his cardboard character on fire."

Miami Herald:
"Wynter's male counterparts are fortunately better. Vincent Perez trembles with intensity as Kokoschka, the expressionist whose wild jealousy and adoration inspire him to create the masterpiece after which the film is named."

Washington Times:
"Vincent Perez's crazed Kokoschka gives the movie most of its wackier highlights." 

Hybridmagazine.com:
"Only Vincent Perez's Kokoschka, 'the Freud of Viennese painters,' seemed to have warm blood flowing through his veins. The rest of her men seemed more like tableaux vivant than film actors."

Hollywood Reporter:
"Perez and Schmolzer come off the best because they get to play nutty painters."

Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
"Vincent Perez is terrific as the jealous, volatile artist whose 'Bride of the Wind' masterpiece canvas depicts Alma and himself in a central sexual oasis, surrounded by tempests and torrents."

Daily-Reviews.com:
"Vincent Perez offers the best work in the film."

Seattle Times:
"Vincent Perez heats up the screen as dashing Oskar Kokoschka."

Screenit.com:
"Playing the various men in her life, Jonathan Pryce  Vincent Perez, Simon Verhoeven and Gregor Seberg all deliver competent performances, with a few of them getting to add a bit more zest to the characters than others."

Hollywood Report Card:
"Rich, relaxing and nearly passionate, the sequence in which Kokoschka (Vincent Perez) paints the film's namesake painting ends far too soon."

Houston Chronicle:
"Jonathan Pryce delivers a multi-layered Mahler, and Vincent Perez's fiery Kokoschka follows a fascinating story arc. After Alma dumps him he's wounded, and presumed dead, during World War I; when he returns to find Alma married to Gropius, he takes to carrying around a life-size doll in her likeness. Unfortunately, the movie is not about these two characters."

Cast:

Jonathan Pryce.....Gustav Mahler
Sarah Wynter.....Alma Mahler
Vincent Perez.....Oskar Kokoschka
Simon Verhoeven.....Walter Gropius Franz Werfel.....Gregor Seberg

Credits: 

Directed by.....Bruce Beresford
Screenplay by.....Marilyn Levy
Based on the book by.....Susanne Keegan
Cinematography by.....Peter James

Music by.....Stephen Endelman
Distributed by.....Paramount Classics

US release date: June 8, 2001

Released as "Alma" in France on April 28, 2004

Screened at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival on July 11, 2001

DVD release: November 13, 2001


Read Coymoon Review
 

Production Notes:

Produced by Paramount Classics, filming began May 15, 2000 in Vienna. The $10 million-plus budgeted project utilized some of Alma's music for the soundtrack. Shooting locations included Vienna, Austria.

bride9t.jpg (5218 bytes)

Allocine published the following: "Vincent Perez is an astonishing actor. The variety of his roles forces respect and admiration. Nothing indeed seems to quench his thirst to play and to invest in all projects that are different from one another. Thus, he has just been allotted one of the principal roles in Bruce Beresford's new movie, Bride of the Wind. The film recalls the life of Alma Schindler, a talented composer and musician, who gives up her dreams to marry Gustav Mahler. Finally, Vincent will manage to open out sexually and artistically. He will interpret the Austrian-born expressionnist painter, Oskar Kokoschka, once again pressing the ground of US cinema."

vletter.gif (1289 bytes)"Kokoschka was one of my heroes when I was young, so I was quite excited to play this part, but I was also fascinated by Alma, who was such a strong and irresistible woman that most of Vienna was seduced by her. She was probably one of the first modern women of the century. And, of course, Kokoschka was absolutely madly in love with her. Crazed with love, really... They had a crazy romance. They had a very strong physical attraction to one another but they were always slightly at odds. He was very extreme in everything, full of passion all the time. But the flip side is that he was possessive and jealous and fierce and Alma just wanted to be free."

 


Publicity Photos

bride4t.jpg (5069 bytes)

bride8t.jpg (8504 bytes)

bride5t.jpg (4166 bytes)

bride6t.jpg (5495 bytes)

bride12t.jpg (6094 bytes)

bride13t.jpg (5917 bytes)

 

bride2t.jpg (6140 bytes) bride3t.jpg (5943 bytes) bride7t.jpg (5215 bytes)


 

 

bridecdt.jpg (9926 bytes)
CD Soundtrack