I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is a 1977 film based on the Joanne Greenberg novel of the same name.
Plot
The film was directed by Anthony Page. It follows a girl who is ill with schizophrenia. A doctor is asked to help her out of her state.
Cast
- Kathleen Quinlan as Deborah Blake
- Bibi Andersson as Dr. Fried
- Ben Piazza as Jay Blake
- Lorraine Gary as Ester Blake
- Martine Bartlett as Secret Wife
- Margo Ann Berdeshevsky as Drawing Patient
- Darlene Craviotto as Carla
- Reni Santoni as Hobbs
- Susan Tyrrell as Lee
- Signe Hasso as Helene
- Norman Alden as McPherson
- Sylvia Sidney as Miss Coral
- Dennis Quaid as Shark, Baseball Pitcher
- Karin de la Penha as Nurse
- Robert Viharo as Anterrabae
- Carol Worthington as patient with cerebral palsy (‘spastic patient’)
Production
In the wake of the success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Roger Corman was able to get funding for a movie version of Rose Garden. Bibi Andersson played Dr. Fried, while Kathleen Quinlan played Deborah. All references to Judaism were removed, including the storyline of the vicious cruelty Deborah suffered from anti-Semitic peers, so that her childhood bout with urethral cancer becomes the sole reason for Deborah's "retreat from reality".
In an interview, Greenberg stated that the references to Judaism were removed because the producers were "terrified." The author added that the characterizations of mental illness in the film "stank on ice."
Deborah's name is changed from Blau (which means "blue" in German, and parallels the author's pseudonym "Green") to Blake. Another major theme of the book, Deborah's artistic talent which flourished in spite of her illness, was reduced to a scene in which she scribbles childishly on a drawing pad. The Kingdom Of Yr is portrayed on-screen, as are some of its gods, but never seen in its original ethereal beauty, only the wasteland that it became much later.
The background music for the Yr sequences is a recording of a Balinese Kecak, the ceremonial chant of the sacred monkeys from the Ramayana. The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, headed by Danny Elfman, appear as extras in the Yr sequences.
In a 2006 interview, Greenberg recalled that she was not consulted on any aspect of the film, and was contacted only by Bibi Andersson. She recalled Andersson telling her that the producers had said Greenberg could not be consulted as she was "hopelessly insane".
The studio is listed as "Imorh" Productions, imorh (variously meaning "sleep", "death" or "insanity") being an Yri word from the novel.
The movie was one of the most expensive ever made from New World Pictures.
See also
- I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (novel)
- I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (play)
References
External links
- I Never Promised You A Rose Garden at the Internet Movie Database
- I Never Promised You A Rose Garden film clip on YouTube
