Circle of Two

Circle of Two (1981)

Theirs was a love against all odds.

In Toronto, 15-year-old aspirant writer Sarah Norton meets 60-year-old painter Ashley St. Clair in a cafeteria while hiding from her stalker boyfriend. Ashley hasn't painted for ten years. He agrees to read Sarah's poems. They start seeing each other at his studio and Sarah falls in love with him, but Ashley does not reciprocate her feelings.

Date of release
1981-05-07
TMDB
4.8 / 10 (12)
Runtime
1h 46m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Jules Dassin

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Toronto

Circle of Two is a 1981 Canadian drama film starring Richard Burton and Tatum O'Neal. It was the last film directed by acclaimed film noir director Jules Dassin.

Production

570 shares in the film were sold at $10,000 to 426 people to finance its $5.7 million budget. Merrill Lynch earned $456,000 off of the commissions for the investment sales. It was estimated that the film needed to make $8–15 million to break-even.

Richard Burton was paid $750,000 to appear in the film. Thomas Hedley adapted Marie-Térèse Baird's book A Lesson In Love. The film was shot from 27 August to 3 November 1979. The film was mostly shot in Toronto, but three days were spent in New York and two days in Antigua. The film was 105 minutes long with a score by Paul Hoffert, but was later recut to 98 minutes with a new score by Bernard Hoffer.

Burton wanted his dog to be given a first class seat while flying on Air Canada to shooting in New York. Melina Mercouri, the wife of director Jules Dassin, also wanted to take her dog. A different airline was used.

Tatum O'Neal - fifteen at the time of filming - appears topless in one scene. She stated that her nude scene "was a mistake" and that she would never do one again. In her autobiography, A Paper Life, O'Neal stated that the "premise of the movie was a little pedophilic and creepy, but the worst part for me was having to do a seminude scene. It's agonizing to watch-- this awkward young girl disrobing for the artist in his studio.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended