Reversal of Fortune [Blu-ray]

Director: Barbet Schroeder Barbet Schroeder

Overview

This film is a darkly humorous, determinedly ambiguous adaptation of Alan Dershowitz's book about his successful legal appeal of Claus von Bulow's conviction for the attempted murder of his wife, Martha "Sunny" von Bulow. Sunny (Glenn Close) -- who remains in a "persistent vegetative state" resulting from a suspicious injection of insulin -- narrates the film, summarizing the first murder trial, which ended with Claus (Jeremy Irons) convicted and released on bail pending appeal. Claus approaches Harvard Law professor Dershowitz (Ron Silver) to handle the case. Working with a small group of law students recruited from his classes, Dershowitz presents sufficient new evidence to cast doubt as to Claus' guilt and the veracity of the star witness, her maid. Jeremy Irons' extraordinary, Oscar-winning performance dominates the film. He plays the role of Claus with a alternatively pompous, aloof snobbishness and an engagingly enigmatic, kinky, sly humor. Barbet Schroeder was also nominated for an Academy Award for his extraordinary, off-beat, direction of this sophisticated, exceptionally intelligent legal drama. Reversal of Fortune with its sharp, witty, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Nicholas Kazan is unusual in its understanding that legal guilt and moral culpability are not the same thing -- making for an unusually provocative tragicomedy of bad manners and bad behavior among the rich.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/13/2020
UPC:	0883929722600
Original Release:	1990
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:52:00
Sales rank:	20,237

Special Features

Commentary by Director Barbet Schroeder and Screenwriter Nicholas Kazan

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jeremy Irons	Claus von Bülow
Ron Silver	Alan M. Dershowitz
Annabella Sciorra	Sarah
Uta Hagen	Maria
Fisher Stevens	David Marriott
Christine Baranski	Andrea Reynolds
Mano Singh	Raj,Raj
Felicity Huffman	Minnie
Alan Pottinger	Chuck
Julie Hagerty	Alexandra (uncredited)
Sarah Fearon	Ala von Auersberg
Jad Mager	Alexander von Auersberg
Glenn Close	Narrator
Jack Gilpin	Peter MacIntosh
Stephen Mailer	Elon Dershowitz
Christine Dunford	Ellen
Johann Carlo	Nancy
Keith Reddin	Dobbs
Mitchell Whitfield	Curly
Tom Wright	Jack
Gordon Joseph Weiss	Tom Berman,Actor
Michael Lord	Ed
LisaGay Hamilton	Mary
Bill Camp	Bill
JD Cullum	John
Michael Wikes	Steve Famiglietti
Kristi Hundt	Actor
Kara Emerson	Actor
Thomas Dorff	Robert Brillhoffer, von Bülow's Child Attorney
Bruno Eyron	Alfie von Auersberg, Sunny's 1st Husband
Bernt Kuhlmann	Alfie's Friend
Redman Maxfield	Dr. Paultees, von Bülow's Family Physician
Frederick Neumann	Judge
Conrad McLaren	Sheriff
Edwin McDonough	Bailiff
Brian Delate	Jury Foreman
Dess Philpot	Emergency Room Doctor
Steven Blackwell	Maitre D'
Kender Jones	Party Goer #1
Haes Hill	Party Goer #2
Dan Reaper	Newscaster
Dan Read	Actor
Howard Feuer	Actor
Julie Hoggerly	Actor
Leo Leyden	Englishman
Malachy McCourt	Englishman
Mark Isham	Composer

Technical Credits

Nicholas Kazan

Alan M. Dershowitz

Barbet Schroeder	Director
Nicholas Kazan	Screenwriter,Producer
Edward R. Pressman	Producer
Michael Rauch	Executive Producer
Oliver Stone	Producer
Alan M. Dershowitz	Screenwriter,Producer
Kam Chancellor	Sound Effects
Jack Cooley	Sound Effects
John Gilroy	Sound Effects
Dorian Harris	Sound Effects
Tom Nelson	Sound Effects
Howard Feuer	Casting

Editorial Reviews

Painstakingly detailed yet tantalizing in its ambiguity, Reversal of Fortune dramatizes the real-life case of Claus von Bulow. Von Bulow (portrayed by Jeremy Irons in an Academy Award-winning performance) is an aristocratic European emigré who was convicted of the attempted murder of his wife, New York socialite Sunny von Bulow (Glenn Close), who plunged into a coma from which she has never awakened. Director Barbet Schroeder (Single White Female) doesn't concern himself overmuch with the original trial but instead lavishes his attentions on the appeal of von Bulow's conviction, an effort led by idealistic attorney Alan Dershowitz (superbly impersonated by Ron Silver). Irons portrays von Bulow as an inscrutable snob for whom his defenders have little affection. Nonetheless, Dershowitz and his impassioned legal team chip away at the prosecution's flawed case, and the chronicling of their efforts becomes the crux of Reversal's narrative. Flashbacks illuminate some of the events leading up to Sunny's coma-inducing overdose, and Close is riveting in the small but pivotal role of the doomed socialite. But while Schroeder's film accurately portrays the outcome of Dershowitz's appeal, it leaves many questions unanswered -- and the suave, icy von Bulow is just as much an enigma at the fade-out as he was at the fade-in. Part courtroom thriller, part intellectual exercise, Reversal of Fortune is guaranteed to grip viewers from its opening moments and hold them spellbound through the closing credits. Fascinating, too, is Schroeder's and screenwriter Nicholas Kazan's detailed discussion of their film and the real-life case in the audio commentary on the DVD.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Thanks to Jeremy Irons' performance, Reversal of Fortune is less a conventional murder mystery than a trenchant social satire, a scathing study of a morally corrupt upper class. Working from a book by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, writer Nicholas Kazan gives the film a peculiar, witty tone, avoiding obvious social commentary. Barbet Schroeder's direction is solid, but the film owes its success more to the outstanding performances of its leads. Apart from Irons' Oscar-winning work, Ron Silver and Glenn Close are also terrific as Dershowitz and the spaced-out Sunny von Bulow. Schroeder was previously best known as a producer of some of the best films of the French New Wave.

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