Little Women [1994]

“A Classic Come to Life with Humor, Passion, Beauty and Intelligence.”
- Joy Browne, WOR RADIO

Winona Ryder (in an Oscar-nominated role for Best Actress) and Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon (1995 Best Actress, DEAD MAN WALKING) star in this “affectionate, superbly acted” (LOS ANGELES TIMES) family favorite.

With her husband off at war, Marlee (Sarandon) is left alone to raise their four daughters, her LITTLE WOMEN. There is the spirited Jo (Ryder); conservative Meg (Trini Alvarado, PAULIE); fragile Beth (Claire Danes, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET) and romantic Amy (played at different ages by Kirsten Dunst, MARIE ANTOINETTE and Samantha Mathis, BROKEN ARROW). As the years pass, the sisters share some of the most cherished and painful memories of self-discovery, as Marmee and Aunt March (Mary Wickes, SISTER ACT) guide them through issues of independence, romance and virtue.



TRIVIA:

• While filming, Claire Danes was carrying a candle up the stairs and her hair caught on fire.

• Costumes are handed down from older sister to younger, to underline both the family’s poverty and the connections between sisters. Jo’s plain red dress worn to the New Year’s Eve ball where she meets Laurie is worn the following Christmas by Beth when she comes downstairs after being ill; Jo and Beth are close to one another, as Meg and Amy are close to one another. Meg’s blue striped dress that she doesn’t end up wearing to Sally Moffat’s debut ball is worn several years later by Amy in the scene where she announces she’s going to Europe with Aunt March.

• At the end of the film credits, the film is dedicated to two persons, one of whom is Polly Klaas, the 12-year-old girl who was kidnapped from her Petaluma, California home in 1993 and later found murdered. Winona Ryder, much of whom’s youth was spent in Petaluma, joined in the highly publicized search effort and made a number of emotional and financial appeals for the child’s safe return.

• This film marks Claire Dane’s feature film debut.

• Winona Ryder introduced Christian Bale to his future wife, Sibi Blazic, on the set of this film. At the time Blazic worked as Ryder’s personal assistant.

• Jo and Friedrich talk about the concept of transcendentalism, of which Jo says her parents are staunch believers. Bronson Alcott is both the father of transcendentalism and Louisa May Alcott, the author of LITTLE WOMEN, which was first published in 1869.

• The opera that Prof. Bhaer takes Jo to is THE PEARL FISHERS, composed by Georges Bizet.

• The set designers patterned the interiors after the layout of Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott’s family home in Concord, Massachusetts. This is the house she lived in while writing the book and she imagined its events taking place there.

• Winona Ryder and Kirsten Dunst would later reunite on the short WELCOME in 2007, which marked Dunst’s directorial debut.

• For her role as Jo, Winona Ryder was fully wigged as her natural hair was “crop short” at the time of production. Susan Sarandon and Claire Danes were also fitted with either wigs and / or hair pieces. Famous wig designer, Peter Owen, styled all the wigs for the film.

• In the scene in which Beth visits the Hummels, Claire Danes was on the verge of crying as she was holding the wailing baby. In the film, you can see her lower lip quivering. When the director, Gillian Armstrong yelled “cut,” Danes’ mother remarked, “Well, that was great for the picture.”

• Christian Bale (Laurie) and Samantha Mathis (older Amy) subsequently starred together in the film AMERICAN PSYCHO.

• Olivia Hussey expressed interest in playing Marmee, but was ultimately turned down due to her thick English accent and because producers felt that she looked too much like Trini Alvarado (Meg).

• In the scene where Amy is reading to Aunt March from the Bible, the passage is Leviticus chapter 21, verse 24 through chapter 22, verse 1.

• In contrast to both the two previous big screen adaptations of LITTLE WOMEN (1933 and 1949) and the NBC television version (1978), Beth dies on screen in this and the 2018 MASTERPIECE THEATRE adaptation.

• In 2011, Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon and Claire Danes were all nominated at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries (Ryder in “When Love Isn’t Enough: The Lois Wilson Story”, Sarandon in “You Don’t Know Jack” and Danes in “Temple Grandin”). Ironically, the other two nominees in the same category (Julia Ormond and Catherine O’Hara) were Danes’ co-stars in “Temple Grandin,” for which they were both nominated as well. The award ultimately went to Danes. She began her acceptance speech with a very warm statement: “This is a very special category, these are my friends whom I’m nominated with… Winona, Susan, my fellow little ladies… little women… and Catherine and Julia.”

• After numerous failed attempts over several decades, LITTLE WOMEN was finally adapted into a Broadway stage musical. LITTLE WOMEN: THE MUSICAL opened on Broadway at the Virginia Theatre on January 23, 2005. Directed by Susan Schulman, choreographed by Michael Lichtefeld, with a book by Allan Knee, music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, the cast was led by Sutton Foster as Jo and Maureen McGovern as Marmee with Jenny Powers as Meg, Megan McGinnis as Beth, Amy McAlexander as Amy, Danny Gurwin as Laurie, John Hickock as Professor Bhaer, Janet Carroll as Aunt March, Robert Stattell as Mr Laurence and Jim Weitzer as Mr Brooke. The production received one 2005 Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical (Foster) and three Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Foster), Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (McGovern) and Outstanding Orchestrations. Despite positive reviews, the production had a very short run on Broadway and closed on May 22, 2005 after only 137 performances. However, a successful 30-city tour was launched shortly after the show closed on Broadway. Led by Maureen McGovern reprising the role of Marmee, the tour began on September 2, 2005 in San Diego, CA and concluded in Portland, Oregon on August 20, 2006.


SHOOTING SCHEDULE: 25 April 1994 - 13 July 1994

RELEASE DATES:
21 December 1994 (limited)
25 December 1994

1994

PG

043396495449

Jul

Movie

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118

United States

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2018-02-07 18:26:22