Cate Blanchett as: Petal Bear

Directed by: Lasse Hallström
Selected Cast: Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, Pete Postlethwaite, Scott Glenn & Rhys Ifans
Written by: Robert Nelson Jacobs (Based on Annie Proulx’ novel of the same name)
Release Year: 2001
Genre: Drama | Romance
MPAA Rating: R

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An inksetter in New York, Quoyle returns to his family’s longtime home, a small fishing town in Newfoundland, with his young daughter, after a traumatizing experience with her mother, Petal, who sold her to an illegal adoption agency. Though Quoyle has had little success thus far in life, his shipping news column in the newspaper “The Gammy Bird” finds an audience, and his experiences in the town change his life. Then he meets the widow Wavey…

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Quotes from Cate Blanchett

• “Like my playing of Petal Bear in The Shipping News. That was the character that intrigued me in the book, and often someone who is that unrelentingly obnoxious can’t be a protagonist because they’re unbearable, and so you only get to explore that character-type in that size.” (Empire, March 2002)

Trivia & Facts

• The author of the novel, E. Annie Proulx, would only grant the movie rights to the book upon the condition that it be filmed on-location in Newfoundland, view here.
• The film is part of the In Competition selection at 52nd Berlin International Film Festival.
• Cate Blanchett and Julianne Moore are both in An Ideal Husband (1999) and I’m Not There (2007).
• Cate Blanchett won Best Supporting Actress at National Board of Review Awards, shared with her performances in The Man Who Cried (2000) and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).

 Berlinale photocall and premiere, 11 February 2002