VENICE, Italy— Gwyneth Paltrow stars alongside Anthony Hopkins in her latest film “Proof,” an exploration of the soft ground between genius and madness, which premieres at the Venice film festival.
Another major attraction is “Cinderella Man” a boxing movie starring Russell Crowe.
Paltrow said by telephone Monday that she was “absolutely heartbroken” not to be in Venice after an “extremely unpleasant” night during which a technical problem forced her plane to return to New York.
“It was going to be the highlight of my summer so I’m very, very sorry,” she said of her planned appearance at the Venice film festival, where her performance in “Proof”, directed by John Madden, has won rave reviews from critics.
Paltrow plays Catherine, a young woman who gives up college to care for her father, Anthony Hopkins, a brilliant mathematics professor who suffers from a degenerative brain disease.
When he dies, Catherine is worried she may inherit his disease and is confronted with the challenge of emerging from a psychological cocoon developed over the three years in which she looked after him.
The catalyst is a student of her father’s, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who slowly draws her out of her protective shell. Hopkins, minus the beard he sports in the film, told journalists he had taken more than a year off work when he was tempted back by the chance to work with Madden and Paltrow.
“I accepted because I play an interesting man, a mathematics professor who has a complete mental breakdown. It’s a powerful script.”
The film features a strong performance from Paltrow, who played the same role in the original Tony Award-winning stage play by David Auburn, and from Hopkins as a man hovering on the edge of delirium.
But for Hopkins, the movie is a showcase for Paltrow’s “spectacular” talent.
“I don’t know her that well, but at risk of embarrassing her, she’s spectacular.
“She’s the most brilliant actress I’ve worked with. I’ve worked with two, Jodie Foster, and Gwyneth. And in saying that, I’m not just giving you the usual actor’s answer. It’s true.” He also paid tribute to Madden. “With John, there’s no fuss. He knows exactly what he wants to do. And it’s the same with Gwyneth.”
Paltrow, who addressed the press conference via Madden’s mobile phone which he held to a microphone, said she had drawn heavily on her personal experience to play Catherine, as the film was shot shortly after the sudden death of her father Bruce.
“When my father died obviously I learned a great deal about loss and got an insight into the finality of death and grief, which really helped me understand this woman and how to get inside her head.”
Poverty, boxing and survival feature in Ron Howard’s “Cinderella Man,” starring Russell Crowe as boxing champion Jim Braddock and set against the gloomy backdrop of the Great Depression.
The film and Crowe’s stunning performance — for which he lost 50 pounds (around 22 kilos) from his previous outing as Captain Jack Audrey in “Master and Commander” to get into shape for the ring — won over the critics here, where it gets its European premiere Monday.
Crowe appeared a little tense at the press conference to promote the film, prior to which journalists were requested by the festival moderator not to ask him any “embarrassing questions about the legal situation,” taken to mean the recent lawsuit against him for throwing a telephone at a hotel employee.
One British reporter ventured a question about whether, after a film about a boxer, he gets so into the character that he carries it beyond the boundaries of the movie. “I work between ‘action’ and ‘cut’. My life doesn’t carry on after ‘cut’ in terms of my relationship with the characters,” said Crowe, who began shooting a new movie with Ridley Scott in France last week.