''Shy People'' is a 1987 American

dram Dram, DRAM, or drams may refer to: Technology and engineering * Dram (unit), a unit of mass and volume, and an informal name for a small amount of liquor, especially whisky or whiskey * Dynamic random-access memory, a type of electronic semicondu ...

a film directed by

Andrei Konchalovsky Andrei Sergeyevich Konchalovsky (; né Mikhalkov; born 20 August 1937) is a Russian film and theatre director, screenwriter, and producer. His filmmaking career spans over 60 years in Cinema of the Soviet Union, Soviet, Cinema of the United St ...

, from a script by Konchalovsky, Marjorie David and

Gérard Brach Gérard Brach (23 July 1927 – 9 September 2006) was a French screenwriter best known for his collaborations with the film directors Roman Polanski and Jean-Jacques Annaud. He directed two movies: ''La Maison'' and ''The Boat on the Grass, Le B ...

. It stars

Barbara Hershey Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey (born February 5, 1948), is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including Wester ...

Jill Clayburgh Jill Clayburgh (April 30, 1944 – November 5, 2010) was an American actress known for her work in theater, television, and cinema. She received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actr ...

, and Martha Plimpton, and features music by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

group

Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the grou ...

. The film is about the culture clash that takes place between Diana, a

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

writer, her wayward teenage daughter Grace, and their long-distant relatives in the bayous of

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. It premiered at the 40th Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 1987, with Hershey winning the award for Best Actress. It received a limited release in the United States on March 11, 1988. It was one of the last film roles for actor Merritt Butrick, who died from

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

in 1989. It was filmed by the bayous of South

Plot summary

Diana Sullivan is a successful

writer and photojournalist, seemingly oblivious to the serious cocaine addiction that her wild child daughter, Grace, has developed. Diana is given a commission by ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

'' magazine to write an article about a distant branch of her family that lives in the

bayou In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They ...

s of

. She takes a reluctant Grace along with her. In Louisiana, they encounter Diana's cousin, Ruth. Married at 12 to an abusive man whose current whereabouts are an increasingly troubling cipher, the domineering Ruth rules over her three adult sons. The sons—Pauly, Tommy, and Mark—are less than perfectly cogent, with equal parts protectiveness and ferocity, while a fourth, disowned son adds to the volatility of the situation. As the fascinated Diana and wary Ruth circle one another, Grace, bored and in the grips of her addiction, toys with her naive cousins with devastating consequences.

Cast

Production

Andrei Konchalovsky said he wanted to examine the clash of a "civilized" culture with a more "rural" culture. He conceived of the story while filming the 1979 Russian epic '' Siberiade.'' The screenplay was written by Konchalovsky with

and Marjorie David, who had all previously collaborated together on the script for '' Maria's Lovers.'' Principal photography took place from September 22 to December 20 of 1986. Much of the film was shot in Cajun Country in Lafayette, Louisiana. Bayou scenes were filmed in Henderson Basin and the Atchafalaya Swamp. Ruth's house was a set constructed beside a swamp in Catahoula. Scenes at Mike’s nightclub were filmed in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Soundtrack

''Shy People'' is the thirty-third major release and eleventh soundtrack album by

. It is the soundtrack to the 1988 movie of the same name.

Track listing

Personnel

Edgar Froese Edgar Willmar Froese (; 6 June 1944 – 20 January 2015) was a German musical artist and electronic music pioneer, best known for founding the electronic music group Tangerine Dream in 1967. Froese was the only continuous member of the gro ...

* Chris Franke *

Paul Haslinger Paul Haslinger (born 11 December 1962) is an Austrian musician and composer. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Life and career Early life Haslinger was born and raised in Linz, Austria. He attended high school at Kollegium Aloisi ...

* Jacquie Virgil — vocals on "Shy People" and "Dancing On A White Moon" * Diamond Ross — vocals on "The Harbor" The movie's actual sound track uses different versions of "Shy People" and "The Harbor" with different sets of lyrics, sung by Michael Bishop.

Release

The film premiered at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival to acclaim, with Barbara Hershey winning the award for Best Actress. The film was given a one-week screening in Los Angeles on December 4, 1987 in order to qualify for that year's Oscars awards, but failed to garner any nominations. A wider distribution plan was botched in part due to miscommunication between branches of The Cannon Group, who were undergoing financial troubles. Cannon head

Menahem Golan Menahem Golan (; May 31, 1929 – August 8, 2014, originally Menachem Globus) was an Israelis, Israeli film producer, screenwriter, and director. He co-owned The Cannon Group with his cousin Yoram Globus. Cannon specialized in producing low-to-mid ...

had been personally negotiating with

Cineplex Odeon Cineplex Odeon is a theatre brand owned by Cineplex Entertainment in Canada, after acquiring the Cineplex Odeon Corporation in 1998. As of 2023, there are 61 Cineplex Odeon locations in Canada. The former corporation was one of North America's ...

head

Garth Drabinsky Garth Drabinsky (born 1949)Charlebois, Gaetan, and Anne NothofDrabinsky, Garth Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. Athabasca University. Anne Nothof, ed. "Ontario-based entrepreneur, born in Toronto in 1949." is a Canadian film and theatrical producer ...

to distribute ''Shy People'' due to his successful track record with

art film An art film, arthouse film, or specialty film is an independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made prima ...

s. However, Cannon Releasing, the distribution arm of Cannon, was unaware of Golan's talks with Drabinsky and went ahead with a deal that booked the film into 300 theaters. When Drabinsky got word of the deal, he pulled out of distribution talks and the film did not get a proper theatrical release with Cineplex Odeon. ''Shy People'' opened on 246 screens in North America on March 11, 1988. Konchalovsky criticized Cannon over the situation, saying, "None of my annonfilms has been released properly. Cannon can't get the right theaters. They have made a lot of strategic mistakes." ''Shy People'' was the last film Konchalovsky would direct for the company.

Reception

Critical response

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film four out of four stars. He wrote ''Shy People'' "is one of the great visionary films of recent years, a film that shakes off the petty distractions of safe Hollywood entertainments and develops a large vision. It is about revenge and hatred, about mothers and sons, about loneliness. It suggests that family ties are the most important bonds in the world. And by the end of the film, Clayburgh will discover that Hershey is closer to her husband, who has been missing for 15 years, than most city dwellers are to anybody." Ebert lamented the film's distribution and wrote that if it had been better handled by Cannon, ''Shy People'' could have been a contender for an

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film a ...

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' was more critical. He said that the film "contains more than its fair share of howlers", that its themes of culture clashes and value differences "are too obvious to be especially interesting to Americans", and that "Mr. Konchalovsky's direction is as self-conscious as the screenplay". The score by Tangerine Dream and cinematography by

Chris Menges Chris Menges BSC, ASC (born 15 September 1940) is a British cinematographer and film director. He is a member of both the American and British Societies of Cinematographers. Life and career Menges was born in Kington, Herefordshire, the ...

also received praise. On

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Shy People'' has an approval rating of 64% based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 6.18/10.

Awards and nominations

* 1987 Cannes Film Festival ** Best Actress - Barbara Hershey ** Golden Palm (nominee) * 1988 Independent Spirit Awards ** Best Supporting Actress - Martha Plimpton (nominee)

References

External links

* * {{Andrei Konchalovsky 1987 films 1987 drama films 1987 independent films Golan-Globus films Films directed by Andrei Konchalovsky Films about families Films set in swamps Films about mother–daughter relationships Films about mother–son relationships Films about writers Films set in Louisiana Films shot in Louisiana Southern Gothic films Films scored by Tangerine Dream Films produced by Menahem Golan Films produced by Yoram Globus 1980s English-language films 1980s American films English-language independent films