Special Events 2018 / Wag the Dog / USA 1997
Barry Levinson has a rich and remarkable filmography covering a variety of genres, with several titles rightfully claiming a place in the history of cinema. After Rain Man, the primary contender is the scintillating satire Wag the Dog, aimed at both sides of the equation: those who quite literally fabricate political causes to order and those who willingly gobble them up.
Barry Levinson is a master of many genres, and he likes to cast movie stars that will allow him to bring out their full talents. This is certainly true of his timeless political satire, which popularized the American phrase “wag the dog” around the world. Dustin Hoffman as a smug Hollywood producer, the brilliant Robert De Niro as a political spin doctor, and a grandiose hoax that the pair stage in order to draw public attention away from the president’s sexual misconduct with an underage Firefly Girl on the eve of an election – these are the ingredients the director ingeniously combines to mock the machinations of power, the media hunt for scandals, and the willingness of the public to allow its opinions to be blatantly manipulated.
Zdena Škapová
97 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Barry Levinson
/ Screenplay Hilary Henkin, David Mamet podle románu / based on the novel by Larry Beinhart
/ Dir. of Photography Robert Richardson
/ Music Mark Knopfler
/ Editor Stu Linder
/ Art Director Mark Worthington
/ Producer Barry Levinson, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal
/ Production Baltimore Pictures, New Line Cinema, Punch Productions, TriBeCa Productions
/ Cast Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson
/ Sales Park Circus Group
Barry Levinson (b. 1942, Baltimore, Maryland, USA). Selected filmography: The Natural (1984), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Rain Man (1988), Avalon (1990), Bugsy (1991), Sleepers (1996), Liberty Heights (1999), Bandits (2001), What Just Happened (2008), The Humbling (2014)
Park Circus Group
15 Woodside Crescent, G37UL, Glasgow
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 141 332 2175
E-mail: [email protected]
Barry Levinson
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