PRODUCTION / FUNDING Italy / Belgium
In Miss Marx, Susanna Nicchiarelli tells the story of Karl’s daughter
- The costume biopic produced by Vivo Film with Tarantula celebrates one of the first women to have fought for women’s rights. In competition at the 2020 Venice Film Festival
Brilliant, cultured, liberated and passionate, Eleanor is the youngest daughter of celebrated philosopher and economist Karl Marx and the subject of costume biopic Miss Marx [+see also:
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film profile], directed by Susanna Nicchiarelli. “Among the first women to bring together the themes of feminism and socialism,” reads the film’s synopsis, “she participates in workers' struggles, fights for women's rights and the abolition of child labor. When, in 1883, she meets Edward Aveling, her life is forever changed by a passionate but ultimately tragic love story.”
The 45-year-old director explains: “With the apparent inconsistency between its public and its private dimensions, the story of Eleanor Marx opens up a door into the complexity of the human soul, the fragility of illusions and the toxicity of certain sentimental relationships. Telling Eleanor’s story means talking about themes so modern that they are still revolutionary today, over a century later. At a time when the issue of emancipation is more central than ever, Eleanor's story outlines all of the topic’s difficulties and contradictions: contradictions which, I believe, are more relevant than ever in our attempts to 'grasp' some features of the era we live in.”
Playing the daughter of the author of Capital is British actress Romola Garai, known for her role in the BBC series The Hour and in Sarah Gavron’s film Suffragette [+see also:
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film profile], flanked by Patrick Kennedy as Edward Aveling. Completing the cast are John Gordon Sinclair, Felicity Montagu, Karina Fernandez, Emma Cunniffe, George Arrendell and German director Philip Gröning (in the role of the father Karl Marx). The cinematography is handled by Crystel Fournier, while Stefano Cravero takes care of the editing. The set design is by Alessandro Vannucci with Igor Gabriel, and the costumes designed by Massimo Cantini Parrin.
The film, an Italo-Belgian production, has been selected in Competition at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. “I’ve seen wonderful films on the Lido that have forever changed me”, says Nicchiarelli. “And naturally, I haven’t forgotten the joy and satisfaction I felt for the reception of my first film, Cosmonaut [+see also:
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film profile]. To be able to now return to Venice, for the first time in Competition, is again a new emotion”.
Miss Marx is produced by Vivo Film with Rai Cinema and Tarantula, in co-production with VOO and Be tv, with the support of Eurimages, MIBACT –Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo, Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Regione Lazio, Regione Piemonte, with the participation of Wallimage and the support of the Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Fédéral Belge – Casa Kafka Pictures empowered by Belfius. The film will be released in Italy by 01 Distribution, while Celluloid Dreams is handling international sales.
(Translated from Italian)
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