Although it received rave reviews when it first screened at the Toronto Film Festival in 2001, Mick Jagger’s latest venture into cinema, The Man From Elysian Fields, failed to make a larger impression, probably a result of its post-Sept 11 appearance. It is about to be given a new second shot in the arm, however, with a screening at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival on January 14. The George Hickenlooper-directed movie also stars Andy Garcia as Byron, a struggling author desperate to earn some extra cash for his family, who is recruited by a male escort agency owner, played by Mick. In his new role, Byron finds himself entwined with the beautiful and lonely wife (Olivia Williams) of one of his novelist heroes, played by James Coburn. Former ER actress Julianna Margulies stars as the writer’s wife, while Anjelica Huston fills the role of a former client with whom Mick’s aging roué dreams of settling down. The Prizzi’s Honor actress admits that the opportunity to play opposite the internationally renowned lothario was one of the attractions of the part. “I took it because I get the chance to refuse Mick Jagger’s offer of his hand in marriage,” she jokes. The Man From Elysian Fields is not the 58-year-old Rolling Stone’s first cinema project. He embarked upon his love affair with cinema in 1970 playing a drugged out rock star in the Donald Cammell/Nicolas Roeg feature Performance. Later in the same year, he appeared in Ned Kelly. A series of less-than-memorable roles followed - although he turned in a great performance as a homosexual in a Dachau concentration camp in Bent. Prior to Elysian Fields his most recent cinema project was a cameo role as an RAF officer in Enigma.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
