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Barney's Version

Barney's Version

Richard J. Lewis

  • Country: Canada, Italy
  • Year: 2009
  • Language: English
  • Producer: Robert Lantos
  • Executive Producer: Mark Musselman
  • Screenplay: Michael Konyves
  • Runtime: 132
  • Programmes:

From producer Robert Lantos, Barney’s Version is a film based on Mordecai Richler's prize-winning comic novel. Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti) is a seemingly ordinary man who lives an extraordinary life. Barney’s candid confessional spans four decades and two continents, and includes three wives (Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver and Rachelle Lefevre), one outrageous father (Dustin Hoffman) and a charmingly dissolute best friend (Scott Speedman).

Adaptation,  Canada,  Drama,  Romance,  Crime & Thriller

screening times

    • Sunday September 12
    • 6:30:00 PM
    • ROY THOMSON HALL
    • Tuesday September 14
    • 2:30:00 PM
    • Tiff Bell LightBox 1
    • Sunday September 19
    • 12:15:00 PM
    • Tiff Bell LightBox 3

Note: indicates Premium Screening.

official description

Barry Panofsky is one of the great comic characters of modern literature. Mordecai Richler gave him life as an impulsive, romantic, politically incorrect and fearlessly blunt creature subject to his impulses. And now, Paul Giamatti adds flesh and blood, and a vast emotional range in this immensely enjoyable adaptation directed by Richard J. Lewis.

Shifting seamlessly between the highs and lows of his life in Montreal as an adult philanderer, and his coming of age in seventies Italy, Barney’s Version follows its hero as he seeks solace through marriage and professional success. His first wife, Clara (Rachelle Lefevre), is an unstable free spirit Barney meets through his best friend, the promising but self-destructive novelist, Boogie (Scott Speedman). When his relationship with Clara ends in tragedy, Barney returns to Montreal, establishes himself as a successful television producer running Totally Unnecessary Productions, and marries into society through the good graces and welcoming charms of The Second Mrs. P (Minnie Driver).

But Barney never knows when to leave well enough alone. At his wedding to Mrs P., he meets and falls madly for the true love of his life, Miriam (Rosamund Pike), who is destined to become his third wife. His dad (Dustin Hoffman) gives him a gun as a wedding present and, well, no need to spoil the plot, but when Barney is implicated in Boogie’s mysterious disappearance, the spectre of the past raises its ugly head.

Richler’s acclaimed novel has found its ideal champion in Canadian producer Robert Lantos, who devoted the last twelve years to shaping this film. And in Paul Giamatti –whose Barney is equal parts sour and tender, vicious and vulnerable – the film has its ideal star. Beautifully supported by a stellar cast and Lewis’s crisp direction, this is a Barney Panofsky Richler would have been proud of: a man with a huge appetite for life, searching for love and running from death.

director bio

Richard J. Lewis was born in Toronto and attended Northwestern University in Chicago. While studying film at the University of Southern California, he won a student Academy Award for his short film Mardi Gras. His debut feature, Whale Music, was the Festival’s opening night Gala in 1994. He has worked extensively in episodic television on such shows as Due South and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and has several screenwriting credits. Barney’s Version (10) is his second feature film.

full credits

Principal Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, Rachelle Lefevre, Scott Speedman
Producer: Robert Lantos
Executive Producer: Mark Musselman
Cinematographer: Guy Dufaux
Editor: Susan Shipton
Sound: Claude La Haye
Music: Pasquale Catalano
Production Designer: Claude Paré

Canadian Distributor: E1 Entertainment    
Production Company: Serendipity Point Films
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