Love Is Strange || A Sony Pictures Classics Release

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& Digital HD

Official Soundtrack
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Madison Gate Records

John Lithgow
Alfred Molina
and Marisa Tomei

A Sony Pictures Classics Release

Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival

NOW PLAYING SELECT CITIES

Synopsis

After nearly four decades together, Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) finally tie the knot in an idyllic wedding ceremony in lower Manhattan. But when George loses his job soon after, the couple must sell their apartment and – victims of the relentless New York City real estate market – temporarily live apart until they can find an affordable new home. While George moves in with two cops (Cheyenne Jackson and Manny Perez) who live down stairs, Ben lands in Brooklyn with his nephew (Darren Burrows), his wife (Marisa Tomei), and their temperamental teenage son (Charlie Tahan), with whom Ben shares a bunk bed. While struggling with the pain of separation, Ben and George are further challenged by the intergenerational tensions and capricious family dynamics of their new living arrangements.

Directed by Ira Sachs (KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, FORTY SHADES OF BLUE), LOVE IS STRANGE blends the romance of New York City's streets and skyline with a delicate Chopin piano score to poignantly capture both the lightness and sorrows of this modern-day love story.

Cast

John Lithgow

John Lithgow ("Ben") recently shot The Homesman, directed by Tommy Lee Jones, alongside Jones, Hilary Swank, James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson, and Meryl Streep. He has appeared on Broadway twenty times, winning two Tony Awards (out of five nominations); has appeared in more than thirty films, earning Oscar nominations in back-to-back years for his performances in The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment; has been nominated for eleven Emmy Awards (winning four) for his work in television, most notably in NBC's 3rd Rock From the Sun and Showtime's Dexter. For children, Mr. Lithgow has written eight best-selling picture books, including The Remarkable Farkle McBride, Micawber, and Marsupial Sue.

Alfred Molina

Alfred Molina ("George") is a London-born actor who has created a highly diverse and distinguished gallery of performances for film, television and the stage. He has received Tony Award Nominations for Fiddler On The Roof, Yasmina Reza's Art, and Red, for his towering performance as the artist Mark Rothko. Mr. Molina is also being honored in Sundance by the Creative Coalition with their Spotlight Award for his work in independent films.

Marisa Tomei

Marisa Tomei ("Kate") is an Academy Award winner (MY COUSIN VINNY), and a three-time Academy Award nominee (IN THE BEDROOM, THE WRESTLER). Born in Brooklyn, Tomei is also an accomplished Broadway stage actress, whose credits include THE REALISTIC JONESES, SALOME, and TOP GIRLS. Upcoming films include LOITERING WITH INTENT produced by LOVE IS STRANGE producers Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy, as well as the upcoming Hugh Grant/Mark Lawrence romantic comedy.

Cheyenne Jackson

Cheyenne Jackson ("Ted") was most recently seen alongside Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in Stephen Soderbergh's Behind The Candelabra for HBO, and he will soon wrap production on the independent film adaptation of Richard Alfieri's Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks opposite Gena Rowlands. His other film credits include United 93, Price Check, and Lola Versus and indies Mutual Friends, Beautiful Now and Lucky Stiff. On the TV side he's appeared in 30 Rock, Glee and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Manny Perez

Manny Perez ("Roberto") began his career in New York when he co-wrote, produced and starred in the critically acclaimed film Washington Heights, winning various festival awards. He starred in Sidney Lumet's 100 Centre Street and numerous other television shows, including Third Watch, Rescue Me and can now be seen recurring on Showtime's Homeland. Manny has starred in numerous independent features, including La Soga, which he also co-wrote and produced and the recent Ponchao, which won the Audience Award at last October's LA Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF). This February he can be seen in Crosstown, opposite Vivica Fox.

Darren Burrows

Darren Burrows ("Elliot") is perhaps best known from the hit television series Northern Exposure, where he played Ed Chigliak for six seasons. Darren's versatility spans the big screen as well, where he has worked with some of the most prominent directors in the business, including leading roles in Steven Spielberg's Amistad, Brian DePalma's Casualties of War, John Waters' Cry-Baby, and Stephen Frears' The Hi-Lo Country. More recently, Darren starred in Ira Sachs' Forty Shades of Blue and guest starred on the long-running series CSI.

Charlie Tahan

Charlie Tahan ("Joey") made his feature film debut at age eight, sharing the screen with Will Smith in the blockbuster I Am Legend. Now 15 years old, Tahan has worked on numerous projects, ranging from short films and independent features to major studio releases. Notable roles include that of an autistic child in the thriller Burning Bright, playing Diane Lane's son in Nights In Rodanthe; and co-starring alongside Natalie Portman in the drama The Other Woman.

His starring performance as Zac Efron's younger brother in Charlie St. Cloud earned Tahan strong reviews and a Saturn Award nomination. He also is the voice of "Victor" in Tim Burton's Academy Award-nominated film Frankenweenie. Tahan portrayed Jennifer Aniston's son in Life of Crime, which premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, and was also seen in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine.

Crew

Ira Sachs

Ira Sachs had recently begun a new chapter in his own life when he started thinking about making his fifth feature film, LOVE IS STRANGE. He and his husband, painter Boris Torres, had been among the many couples married in New York City after the state legislature legalized same sex marriage in 2011. They had also recently become new fathers, their twin children born a week after their marriage. For Sachs, the world looked very different than when he had written the semi-autobiographical – and multiple Spirit Award nominated – KEEP THE LIGHTS ON just a few years before. "I wanted to make a film about love from the very particular perspective of my own age and experience – as someone who's not either very old or very young, but who could for the first time imagine a long love that becomes more beautiful with time." Sachs explains. "I was interested in exploring the different perspective each of us has at different periods of our lives: as an adolescent, in middle age and in the later chapters. I wanted to imagine what my own relationship, my young marriage, might look like in the years down the road."

To write the screenplay, Sachs re-teamed with Mauricio Zacharias, his collaborator on KEEP THE LIGHTS ON. They began discussing ideas soon after that film's premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. "Mauricio and I spent a lot of time talking about really beautiful things, like children, family and relationships. We had a kind of golden winter," Sachs recalls. Themes began to emerge: "the seasons of life; how we pass information from generation to generation and educate each other as family."

They centered their story on two New Yorkers, Ben and George, who are finally able to marry after 39 years together. But their new legal status sets in motion a reversal of fortune with ripple effects on the lives and relationships of not only Ben and George, but those who are closest to them.

Mauricio Zacharias

Mauricio Zacharias (Co-Writer) was born in Rio de Janeiro, and earned an MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California, where he received the Warner Brothers' Scholarship. He has collaborated with directors Walter Salles, Karim Ainouz, Andrucha Waddington and Paulo Machline. Keep The Lights On was his first collaboration with Sachs.

Lars Knudsen & Jay Van Hoy

Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy (Producers) established Parts & Labor, a production company dedicated to director-driven, collaborative filmmaking in 2004. Parts & Labor has since produced 20 films, including Mike Mills' Beginners, for which Christopher Plummer won the 2012 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Also starring Ewan McGregor and Melanie Laurent, Beginners was released worldwide in 2011 by Focus Features and Universal. Most recently, Parts & Labor premiered three films in Competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival: David Lowery's film Ain't Them Bodies Saints, starring Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara and Ben Foster; photojournalist Shaul Schwarz's documentary Narco Cultura; and Andrew Dosunmu's second feature Mother Of George. They previously produced both Sachs's Keep The Lights On. Upcoming projects include Adam Rapp's Red Winter Light (adapted from his award-winning play), to be produced with Scott Rudin, and starring Olivia Wilde and James Badge Dale; Ben Foster's directorial debut Angelhead, starring Robin Wright, and Robert Edwards' When I Live My Life Over Again, starring Olivia Wilde and Ben Kingsley.

Lucas Joaquin

Lucas Joaquin (Producer) produced the feature film Keep The Lights On (dir. Ira Sachs), and the second unit shoot for the feature Beasts Of The Southern Wild (dir. Benh Zeitlin), both of which premiered in the US Dramatic Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Lights went on to screen at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Teddy Award for Best Narrative Feature, and received four nominations for the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards, including for Best Picture. Beasts went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at Sundance, the Camera D'Or for Best First Feature at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. Recent productions include Zachary Wigon's upcoming feature The Heart Machine starring Kate Lyn Sheil and John Gallagher Jr.

Upcoming projects include Bright As Day directed by Ron Eyal and Eleanor Burke for which Joaquin, along with fellow producer Tory Lenosky, received the 2012 Sundance Producers Fellowship.

Christos Voudouris

Christos Voudouris (Cinematographer) has shot feature films, short films, television documentaries, and hundreds of TV ad commercials in more than 40 countries around the world. Most recently, he was director of photography on Before Midnight, the third film in Richard Linklater's critically acclaimed romantic trilogy. Prior to Midnight, he photographed Alps, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, which won numerous international film festival awards including Osella Award at the Venice Film Festival 2011; First Award in Sydney Film Festival 2012; Fipresci Award 2012; official selection at Toronto Film Festival, and other honors.

Amy Williams

Amy Williams (Production Designer) began her career in New York managing and curating galleries, including Phillis Lucas Print Gallery, Stephan Stux and Leo Koenig. Her film credits include Last Weekend, starring Patricia Clarkson and Zachary Booth, White Irish Drinkers, Holy Rollers, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You, and Grand Street. She has served as production designer and set decorator for feature and short films, music videos, commercials, TV and print fashion. Williams' proudest achievement is running the art department for the Festival of Light in Guyana.

Avy Kaufman

Avy Kaufman (Casting Director) has worked with an array of talented directors such as Ang Lee, Steven Spielberg, Jim Sheridan, Ridley Scott, Robert Redford, Michael Mann, Norman Jewison, Jodie Foster, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton and Wong Kar Wai, and on such acclaimed films as Lincoln, Life Of Pi, The Ice Storm, Capote, and The Sixth Sense, among others.

Arjun Bhasin

Arjun Bhasin (Costume Designer) was born in India and studied film at New York University's Tisch school of Arts.

Shuttling effortlessly between Hollywood and Bollywood, crisscrossing sensibilities and ideologies, Arjun brings a unique vision to his films.

Among his film credits are collaborations with director Ang Lee on LIFE OF PI, Mira Nair on MONSOON WEDDING, THE NAMESAKE, and THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST, John Carney on BEGIN AGAIN and Ira Sachs on LOVE IS STRANGE.

Affonso Gonçalves

Affonso Gonçalves (Editor) has edited over thirty films, including three Sundance Film Festival winners: Benh Zeitlin's BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, Debra Granik's WINTER'S BONE and Ira Sachs' FORTY SHADES OF BLUE.

Gonçalves other film credits include Tanya Hamilton's NIGHT CATCHES US, Ramin Bahrani's AT ANY PRICE, and Jim Jarmusch's ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE. He teamed with Todd Haynes on the acclaimed HBO mini-series "Mildred Pierce," and worked on the HBO series "True Detective."

He has collaborated often with writer/director Ira Sachs's, on THE DELTA, FORTY SHADES OF BLUE, MARRIED LIFE, KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, and LOVE IS STRANGE.

Michael Taylor

Michael Taylor's (Editor) narrative credits include Julia Loktev's THE LONELIEST PLANET, Loktev's DAY NIGHT DAY NIGHT, Liza Johnson's HATESHIP LOVESHIP, Bryan Wizemann's ABOUT SUNNY, and Michael Walker's PRICE CHECK as well as Walker's THE MAID'S ROOM.

He also cut Rick Alverson's THE COMEDY, Ron Eyal and Eleanor Burke's STRANGER THINGS, Adam Rapp's LOITERING WITH INTENT, and he recently completed A.D. Calvo's THE MISSING GIRL.

Taylor's documentary credits include Margaret Brown's THE ORDER OF MYTHS, Sundance, Brown's BE HERE TO LOVE ME: A FILM ABOUT TOWNES VAN ZANDY, and Mitch McCabe's YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN.