Out Of Africa
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Sydney Pollack
Meryl Streep
Robert Redford
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Michael Kitchen
Malick Bowens
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
A Danish woman marries a baron whom she doesn't love and moves with him to his Kenyan coffee plantation. After enduring his womanizing behavior, she eventually kicks him out and then meets a British adventurer with whom she falls in love. Upon her return to Denmark, she becomes a famous novelist and writes about her romantic adventure.
Cast
Meryl Streep
Robert Redford
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Michael Kitchen
Malick Bowens
Abdullah Sunado
Allaudin Qureshi
Keith Pearson
Peter Strong
Amanda Parkin
Sbish Trzebinski
Alan Loveday
Donal Mccann
Job Seda
Stephen Grimes
Stephen Kinyanjui
Tristam Jellinek
Rachel Kempson
Kenneth Mason
Benny Young
Andras Schiff
Muriel Gross
Annabel Maule
Leslie Phillips
Ann Palmer
Niven Boyd
Graham Crowden
Joseph Thiaka
Michael Gough
Mike Bugara
Mohammed Umar
Suzanna Hamilton
Shane Rimmer
Crew
Margaret Adams
Gary Alexander
Peter Allwork
John Barry
Jack Brymer
Roy Button
Milena Canonero
Anna Cataldi
Nelson Chege
Terence Clegg
Freddie Cooper
Stephen Cornish
Kenny Crouch
Claudio Cutry
Isak Dinesen
Syd Dutton
Andres Fernandez
Robin Forman
Dave Garrett
Colin Grimes
Stephen Grimes
Rodrigo Gutierrez
Rodrigo Gutierrez
Peter Handford
David Harris
Jenny Hawkins
J. Roy Helland
Pembroke J. Herring
Norma Hill-patton
Mary Hillman
David Hilton
Allan James
Chris Jenkins
Kim Jorgensen
Sheldon Kahn
Patrick Kinney
Clif Kohlweck
Gerry Levy
Gary Liddiard
Kurt Luedtke
Josie Macavin
William Manger
Neville Marriner
Tom Mccarthy
Pat Mcewan
George Menoe
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Meja Mwangi
Tom Mwangi
Phill Norman
Grania O'shannon
Sydney Pollack
Cliff Robinson
Monty Ruben
Elizabeth Ryrie
Mary Selway
George W Senoga-zake
Stephen Shingles
Alan Smyth
Stephen St John
Frederic Steinkamp
William Steinkamp
Larry Stensvold
John Sutton
Bill Taylor
Thomas Thanangadan
Judith Thurman
Judith Thurman
David Tomblin
Errol Trzebinski
Dan Wallin
David Watkin
David Watkin
Hubert Wells
Herbert Westbrook
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Wins
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Art Direction
Best Cinematography
Best Director
Best Picture
Best Score
Best Sound
Award Nominations
Best Actress
Best Costume Design
Best Editing
Best Supporting Actor
Articles
Out of Africa
The idea of adapting the Dinesen's memoirs to the screen had been thrown around for decades before the project was finally picked up by Universal Studios. Orson Welles and David Lean had both considered making the film, and Nicholas Roeg thought about making the film with Julie Christie starring as Karen. Sydney Pollack was the one to produce the film in the 1980s, along with directing it. Out of Africa was shot on location in Africa; the city of Nairobi was recreated by local workers as it had appeared in the early 1900s. The production was not without its share of problems. The country was in the middle of a drought during filming, and the crew had to consider moving to a different location; the rains came just as they were attempting to decide where to relocate. Many crew members contracted malaria, and filming animals in the bush posed its own special problems. It is illegal to touch or maneuver wild animals, so the crew had to camp out for hours while they waited for the animals to come into just the right spot for each shot. Despite the difficulties encountered, many would say it was well worth it, because the film was nominated for a total of eleven Academy Awards, winning seven of them.
The Oscars Out of Africa was nominated for but did not win are: Best Actress (Streep), Best Supporting Actor (Brandauer), Best Film Editing, and Best Costume Design. The categories in which the film took home the statues are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Sound, and Best Original Score. Streep's nomination for Best Actress marked her sixth nomination, and though she did not win (the Oscar went to Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful), her role in this film is still considered to be one of her best.
Producer/Director: Sydney Pollack
Screenplay: Isak Dinesen (memoirs), Kurt Luedtke
Production Design: Stephen Grimes
Cinematography: David Watkin
Costume Design: Milena Canonero
Film Editing: Pembroke Herring, Sheldon Kahn, Fredric Steinkamp, William Steinkamp
Original Music: John Barry
Principal Cast: Meryl Streep (Karen), Robert Redford (Denys), Klaus Maria Brandauer (Bror), Michael Kitchen (Berkeley), Joseph Thiaka (Kamante), Michael Gough (Delamere), Stephen Kinyanjui (Kinanjui), Suzanna Hamilton (Felicity).
C-161m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.
by Sarah Heiman
Out of Africa
Rachel Kempson, 1910-2003
Born on May 28, 1910, in Dartmouth, England, Kempson longed for a career in acting. She trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London and made her professional stage debut in 1932 at the legendary Stratford-on-Avon Theater in the lead of Romeo and Juliet. She went on to perform with such distinguished theatrical companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the English Stage Company and the Old Vic. In 1935 she was asked to star in the Liverpool Repertory production of Flowers of the Forest. Her leading man was Michael Redgrave, one of the top actors of his generation. Within a few weeks they fell in love and were married on July 18, 1935.
Kempson took a break for the next few years, to give birth to her three children: Vanessa, Corin and Lynn, but by the mid '40s, she came back to pursue her career in both stage and screen. She began to appear in some films with her husband: Basil Dearden's The Captive Heart (1946); and Lewis Gilbert's tough war drama The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954). She hit her stride as a character actress in the '60s with a string of good films: Tony Richardson's (at the time her son-in-law) hilarious, award-winning Tom Jones (1963); Silvio Narizzano's classic comedy Georgy Girl (1966) starring her daughter, Lynn; and John Dexter's underrated anti-war film The Virgin Soldiers (1969), again with Lynn. In the '80s Kempson had two strong roles: Lady Manners in the epic British television series The Jewel in the Crown (1984); and as Lady Belfield in Sydney Pollack's hit Out of Africa (1985), starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep.
Kempson had been in semi-retirement after the death of her husband, Sir Michael in 1985. She made her last film appearance in Henry Jaglom's romantic Deja vu (1998) poignantly playing the mother to her real life daughter Vanessa. Kempson is survived by her three children and 10 grandchildren.
by Michael T. Toole
Rachel Kempson, 1910-2003
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Voted Best Supporting Actor (Brandauer) and Best Cinematography by the 1985 New York Film Critics Circle.
Voted Best Supporting Actor (Brandauer) and One of the Year's Ten Best Films by the 1985 National Board of Review.
Released in United States Winter December 13, 1985
Released in United States on Video April 7, 1988
Based on the true life experiences of Karin Blixen who eventually became more commonly known as Isak Dinesen.
Technovision
Released in USA on laserdisc December 1988.
Released in United States Winter December 13, 1985
Released in United States on Video April 7, 1988
Voted Best Actress (Streep) and Best Cinematography by the 1985 Los Angeles Film Critics.