As I Lay Dying (film)

As I Lay Dying is a 2013 American drama film directed and co-written by and starring James Franco, based on William Faulkner's 1930 novel of the same name. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard Section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.[1][2]

As I Lay Dying
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJames Franco
Produced byCaroline Aragon
Lee Caplin
Vince Jolivette
Avi Lerner
Miles Levy
Matthew O'Toole
Robert Van Norden
Written byJames Franco
Matthew Rager
Based onAs I Lay Dying
by William Faulkner
StarringJames Franco
Logan Marshall-Green
Danny McBride
Tim Blake Nelson
Music byTim O'Keefe
CinematographyChristina Voros
Edited byIan Olds
Production
company
RabbitBandini Productions
Picture Entertainment
Distributed byiTunes
Release date
  • May 20, 2013 (2013-05-20) (Cannes)
  • October 11, 2013 (2013-10-11) (US)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Premise

The story is based on the loss of a mother and the struggles the family endure by going the distance to her burial ground in her home town.[3]

Cast

Production

James Franco decided to write a screenplay of the novel with a fellow Yale graduate student Matt Rager. The novel As I Lay Dying was described as a story impossible to be transformed into a film due to the multi-narrative voices within it.[4] Franco saw this as a challenge and chose to depict the many voices through choices of styling, through camera edits. Faulkner told the story in a chorus of voices: 15 narrators in the 59 chapters.[4] To locate an equivalent for the novel’s polyphonal scheme, Franco employed the use of narrative expressed through dialogue and voice overs.[3]

Release

The film was originally scheduled for a theatrical release on September 27, 2013 but Millennium Films scrapped the plans. It was released on October 22, 2013 to iTunes and November 5, 2013 to DVD/VOD platforms.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise and criticism focused on Franco's methods of presenting Faulkner's complex narrative. It holds a 40% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 30 reviews with an average rating of 4.7/10.[5] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 13 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[6]

Kyle Smith of the New York Post was very harsh, declaring, "Franco dilutes the drama with first-year-film-student gimmicks, like split screens and slow motion, it just seems like a dull collection of pointless monologues from actors who can’t even be bothered to match up their accents."[7] A. O. Scott of The New York Times said, "But in rushing in where wise men might fear to tread, Mr. Franco has accomplished something serious and worthwhile. His As I Lay Dying is certainly ambitious, but it is also admirably modest. The script, written by Mr. Franco with Matt Rager, tries to pare Faulkner's multivoiced narrative to a manageable essence."[8]

References
  1. "2013 Official Selection". Cannes Film Festival. April 20, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  2. Lodge, Guy (August 28, 2013). "How has James Franco saturated the festival circuit?". Hitfix. Uproxx. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  3. Scott, A. O. (October 11, 2013). "A Life Ravels Out, and a Brooding Family Sets Forth". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  4. Entin, Joseph (November 13, 2013). "Filming Faulkner's Modernism: James Franco's "As I Lay Dying"". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  5. "As I Lay Dying (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. September 27, 2013. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  6. "As I Lay Dying Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  7. Smith, Kyle (October 11, 2013). "'As I Lay Dying' murdered by Franco". New York Post. NYP Holdings. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  8. Scott, A. O. (October 10, 2013). "James Franco Directs and Stars in 'As I Lay Dying'". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
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