Rhinoceros (film)

Rhinoceros is a 1974 American comedy film based on the play Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco. The film was produced by Ely Landau for the American Film Theatre, which presented thirteen film adaptations of plays in the United States from 1973 to 1975.[1]

Rhinoceros
VHS cover art
Directed byTom O'Horgan
Produced byEly Landau
Written byJulian Barry
Eugène Ionesco (play)
StarringGene Wilder
Zero Mostel
Karen Black
Music byGalt MacDermot
CinematographyJim Crabe
Edited byBud Smith
Distributed byAmerican Film Theatre
Release date
January 21, 1974 (US)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

The residents of a large town are inexplicably turning into rhinoceroses. Stanley (Gene Wilder), a mild-mannered office clerk, watches the bizarre transformations from a bemused distance. But soon the strange occurrences invade his personal space, as his neighbor and best friend John (Zero Mostel) and his girlfriend Daisy (Karen Black) become part of the human-into-rhinoceros metamorphosis that is taking place. Eventually, Stanley realizes he will be the only human left.[2]

Cast

Production

In adapting Ionesco’s play, several changes were made to the original text. The setting was switched from France to a then-contemporary United States, complete with a photograph of President Richard Nixon that was comically venerated, and the lead characters Bérenger and Jean were renamed Stanley and John.[3] A new music score by Galt MacDermot was created for the film and a dream sequence was added to the story.[2]

Tom O'Horgan, a theater director best known for his staging of the original Broadway production of the musical Hair, directed Rhinoceros.[4] Zero Mostel, who starred in the 1961 Broadway production of the play, recreated his role as the man who turns into a Rhinoceros. Mostel created a minor brouhaha during the production when he refused to smash any props during the rehearsal of his transformation scene – the actor claimed he had an aversion to destroying property.[5]

Although O'Horgan considered using a live animal to dramatize the transformation, no rhinoceros is ever seen on camera during the film – shadows and POV camera angles are used to suggest the presence of the animals.[3]

Mostel and Wilder had appeared together in The Producers (1968).

Reception

Rhinoceros was poorly received when it had its theatrical release as part of the American Film Theatre series. Jay Cocks, reviewing Rhinoceros for Time magazine, faulted it for its “upbeat, frantic vulgarization” of the Ionesco text, arguing that O’Horgan “removed not only the politics but the resonance as well. What remains is a squeaky sermon on the virtues of nonconformity.”[6]

Vincent Canby, writing in The New York Times, dismissed the film as “an unreliable mouthpiece in an unreliable metaphor so grossly overdirected by Tom O'Horgan that you might get the idea Mr. O'Horgan thought he was making a movie for an audience made up entirely of rhinoceroses instead of people.”[2]

See also

References
  1. Benson, Raymond (April 16, 2009). "Remember...The American Film Theater". Cinema Retro. Archived from the original on 2013-06-01.
  2. Canby, Vincent (January 22, 1974). "Absurdity of Ionesco's 'Rhinoceros' Is Reduced in Transition to Screen". The New York Times. New York City: New York Times Company. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  3. Megahey, Noel (August 18, 2004). "Rhinoceros review". DVD Times. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  4. “Film Notes: Rhinoceros,” New York State Writers Institute
  5. Rainer, Arthur (1998). Zero Dances: A Biography of Zero Mostel. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-87910-096-6.
  6. Cocks, Jay (February 4, 1974). "Cinema: Zoo Story". Time. New York City: Meredith Corporation. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
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