Mother Night

PRODUCTION NOTES

(Cast and crew list will be available on Tuesday, October 15th)

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
- Kurt Vonnegut

An adaptation of the modern classic by Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night stars Nick Nolte in a mesmerizing tale of identity and deception, guilt and responsibility. Prismatic and stylized, as if seen through a funhouse mirror, Mother Night gives full cinematic rein to the distinctive, darkly comic vision of the revered but rarely adapted author, whom Graham Greene called "one of the best living American writers" and whom The New York Times called "a true artist."

Mother Night is produced and directed by Keith Gordon (A Midnight Clear) from a script by fellow producer Robert B. Weide whose Whyaduck Productions acquired the rights to Kurt Vonnegut's novel and developed the property early on.

Joining Nolte in Mother Night are Sheryl Lee, Alan Arkin, Kirsten Dunst, Arye Gross, Frankie Faison and David Strathairn. Tom Richmond, who shot Gordon's previous features The Chocolate War and A Midnight Clear was director of photography, Francois Seguin, who designed Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle, created the sets, and Jay Rabinowitz, who edited Jim Jarmusch's Night On Earth and Dead Man, was film editor. Mother Night is being distributed in the U.S. by Fine Line Features. New Line International handles international rights.

Combining elements of thriller, romance, mystery and black comedy, Mother Night stars Nolte as Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American writer living in pre-World War II Germany, who is pressed into service by the U.S. government on a top secret assignment. His mission: to assume the role of a Nazi sympathizer. With his true purpose known by only a few, Campbell becomes a prominent spokesman for the Nazis' anti-American and anti-semitic agenda, gaining celebrity in Germany and infamy in the States.

Shifting back and forth in time, from Germany in the 30's and 40's to New York and Israel in the early 60's, Mother Night follows Campbell's nightmarish misadventures when, years after the war, he is suddenly recognized as the infamous Howard W. Campbell. All at once, he is persecuted by outraged Holocaust survivors, pursued by the U.S. authorities as a traitor, and embraced by neo-Nazis and white supremacists who feel nostalgia for the "good old days," when race hatred was in full flower in Germany. Ultimately, Campbell is imprisoned in Israel and ordered to stand trial as a Nazi war criminal. During his incarceration, he desperately tries to prove that he was really a U.S. spy, while struggling with his own uncertainty as to whether he was actually a hero, a villain, or both.

A long-time Vonnegut fan, like so many readers of his generation, the story of Mother Night appealed to filmmaker Gordon on many levels. In fact, it was these very levels that provides the heart, soul, and theme of the work. "It's a wonderful combination" says Gordon, "of very odd Vonnegut humor and very skewed points of view on guilt and innocence. But, it's all mixed with elements of great tragedy and heartbreak. And I've always loved that about Vonnegut books; he can make you cry and he can make you laugh from page to page. The story goes back and forth between comedy and drama, between the tragedy and the absurdity of life."

Fidelity to the author, in matters pertaining to style, tone, and intention, was of paramount importance to Gordon and his producing partner Robert B. Weide, even though the mission of capturing the author's voice on screen was not always easy. Gordon is quick to point out that adaptations of Vonnegut are rare, with Slaughterhouse Five being the most notable example. Gordon observes that "some of Vonnegut's books are really literary. Breakfast of Champions for instance, is about being a book. It's not designed to be a movie. Mother Night, more than a lot of Kurt's books, is more of a straightforward, linear narrative, while still having that ironic perception of life that is the hallmark of Kurt's style."

It was conveying this cosmic sense of humor, so central to Vonnegut's world view, that the filmmakers felt would be vital to the success of Mother Night. As Bob Weide points out, "Vonnegut has always referred to himself, in conversation and in letters, as a 'joke writer,' above all else. If you look at the structure of his books, they are written in very short chapters. And, he has talked in the past about those chapters always ending in a joke. We've tried to translate that into our film." Such joke-ridden, jarring juxtapositions between the serious and the playful inform the entire film, from its initial sequence. Gordon points out, "the first thing you hear in the film is Bing Crosby's version of 'White Christmas' playing over a stark black and white image of an Israeli flag. Right from there, you know you are in an ironic land." The continuing use of black and white photography for the 60's sequences set in Israel is just one of the numerous stylistic flourishes employed by Gordon to convey Vonnegut's multiple tones of voice. Other forms of stylization (such as Helga, and later, Resi being bathed in a pool of golden light at key moments) serve much the same purpose.

Another distinguishing characteristic of Vonnegut's universe is the absence of conventional moral judgements, and Gordon and Weide, assisted by Nolte and the entire cast, have steered clear of the "good guy vs. bad guy" dynamic usually associated with World War II dramaturgy. Weide recalls being told by Vonnegut that the author's father once observed "There are never any villains in your books." Weide continues, "Kurt thought about it and though it was never anything intentional, he realized his father was right. And certainly, Mother Night is the epitome of that idea, in that there is no obvious villain. Its hero is its villain and its villain is its hero."

Weide then goes on to stress that Vonnegut's peculiar wartime experiences shaped his consciousness irrevocably. As an American soldier of German heritage, he fought against the Germans and was captured during The Battle of the Bulge. "The Germans looked at his dog tags," Weide says, "and saw his last name and realized he was of German ancestry. And they said to him 'Why do you fight against your brothers?' He had never considered himself a German, so this struck him as an almost surreal question." Vonnegut himself, in the introduction to Mother Night, says "If I'd been born in Germany, I suppose I would have been a Nazi, bopping Jews and gypsies and Poles around, leaving boots sticking out of snowbanks, warming myself with my secretly virtuous insides."

This notion that one's allegiances are arbitrary or that one's sense of good and evil can shift with one's point of view informs the moral perspective of Mother Night. As Gordon puts it, "here was this man, Howard Campbell, trying to fight the Nazis, but yet in certain aspects he was a Nazi. So, the main concept of the film ultimately becomes, did he do more harm than good? And did he become what he was pretending to be? Another way of putting it is: If you try to do something good, and evil results, are you good or are you bad? And, conversely if your intentions are bad but yield good results, what is the moral value of that?"

It is in asking these profound questions that Mother Night achieves its stature as an important work of fiction. "Vonnegut raises these issues, but doesn't provide any answers. In this way, he makes us think, like Mark Twain or Voltaire make us think. They just say: you try to make sense out of the fact that all these contradictory things exist simultaneously. And you can't." Weide adds, "I think the best satirists will always admit that the questions are much more interesting to them than the answers. In fact, they don't propose to have any answers!"

Both before and during the adaptation process, Gordon and Weide received gracious support from Vonnegut himself. "I grew up reading Vonnegut's books," recalls Gordon "and I always thought Mother Night would make a great movie. The years went by and I thought about it occasionally. But then Bob, who is close to Vonnegut, had the idea 'why don't we try to get this made?' Kurt was wonderful about it and gave us the rights to the book based on a handshake. We didn't have any money, so he just said: 'go for it.' He became a spiritual godfather for the project from the beginning, and was probably the most 'never-say-die' member of the team."

Gordon and Weide are particularly pleased that Vonnegut visited the set and agreed to a cameo appearance in one of the film's Greenwich Village scenes, actually shot in Montreal. Gordon points out that Vonnegut appears in the film Mother Night as himself as he "appears" as one of his own characters in his book Breakfast of Champions. "He actually shows up in just this way in the film -- only briefly, but as Vonnegut," says Gordon. "So, we actually managed to do something with Vonnegut's on-screen presence that is, hopefully, Vonnegutian."

An eclectic but carefully selected cast was key to creating the complexity of tone that is Vonnegut. As Gordon observes, "the challenge in dealing with Vonnegut is to keep all those levels, when you're juggling a lot of balls at the same time. You're juggling comedy, and tragedy, you're juggling a love story and you're also juggling a very ironic view about love. You're juggling romanticism as well as cynicism. And every time you feel: 'This is good,' you suddenly find it's not good at all, it's bad. Every time a relationship seems to be safe, it is not safe. Every time somebody does something you think is not a good thing, it turns out to be a wonderful thing. For filmmakers and actors, this is a lot of fun. Hopefully it's fun for an audience too!"

At the center of this prismatic tale is Nick Nolte, selected to play the mercurial Howard Campbell because as Gordon sees him, "He's a chameleon. If you look at Nick's work over the years, no two roles are the same. He never looks the same and never sounds the same. This quality was what we needed for Campbell because he goes through so many changes and the story spans so many years. Another thing that excited me about Nick is that he is unafraid of playing characters who are gray -- who have darker sides or confused moral compasses. He doesn't always have to be the hero."

Gordon also points out that Nolte's all-American appearance served Vonnegut's conception of the character perfectly. "One of the great ironies of the piece," he stresses "is that in some ways the ultimate Nazi was also the ultimate all-American boy: blonde, appealing, suave, and good-looking. That's what Vonnegut is satirizing, the idea of the quintessential hero. And, at what point can the quintessential American hero be a Nazi, and vice versa?"

Gordon and Weide actually had Nolte in mind when they first started planning their film of Mother Night, nearly six years ago. Unfortunately, at that point, Nolte's agents rejected the project as being "too small." In keeping with the film's spirit of role-playing, Gordon, a former actor, engaged in his own subterfuge, by getting a one-day role in I Love Trouble which the star was then shooting. "I went on the set," the director recalls, "and went up to him and said 'you're going to think I'm a lunatic, but I'm really not. I'm a filmmaker and I have this script, and it's Kurt Vonnegut. Would you read this?' Nick was incredibly gracious and took the script and, within a couple of months, he was committed to doing the movie."

Following her acclaimed roles as a German photographer in Backbeat and in such varied American independent films as Homage, Notes From Underground, and Fall Time (all of which made world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival), Sheryl Lee co-stars as Campbell's beautiful German bride, Helga, from whom he is tragically separated near the end of the war. Oscar-nominated actor Alan Arkin, a veteran of numerous classic comedies (including the thematically-related Catch-22), appears as George Kraft, a fellow artist who befriends Campbell during his Greenwich Village days, and who supports him even after his true identity is revealed. Kirsten Dunst, who received enormous praise for her appearances in Interview With The Vampire and Little Women, appears as Resi, Helga's younger sister, who matures into a force to be reckoned with.

"One of the areas I feel most lucky about" comments producer/director Keith Gordon, "is the casting. The variety of types of actors, and the strengths they all bring to the film speaks to the complex world that Vonnegut creates. Normally, they're not all people who would necessarily be in the same movie. Yet, here, they each bring a different color to the film, and bring each segment of the film a different sort of feeling." Creating an ensemble that includes Alan Arkin, John Goodman, (who appears in an unbilled role as Frank Wirtanen, the government operative who recruits Howard Campbell into service) and Henry Gibson (who gives an off-screen performance as the voice of Adolph Eichmann, Campbell's neighbor in an Israeli prison) strengthens Gordon's view that Vonnegut's universe is ironic at the core. "These actors have comic overtones and, in this film, they get to use them. But, they also have serious darker sides to them as well, and they bring the world of this film a tremendous richness."

"The thing about Vonnegut in general" concludes Gordon, "and about Mother Night specifically, is that it speaks to 1996 as much as it spoke to 1961 or 1938. That's what makes it a modern classic. Vonnegut's work has always been somewhat unattached to time. They are, in many ways, literally about jumping around in time. But they are also about themes and ideas that extend back thousands of years and which extend through to today. We are seeing in America right now a tremendous rise of the radical right and the neo-Nazi movement. There is a tremendous desire to get back to very simplistic answers to very complicated questions. Yet, the second you try to simplify morality into one sentence, you're in deep trouble. And that's a large part of what Mother Night is about."

SYNOPSIS

In 1961, Howard W. Campbell, Jr. (Nick Nolte) an obscure American playwright, is delivered to an Israeli prison. Awaiting trial as a Nazi war criminal, Campbell finds himself in the cell directly below that of the notorious Adolph Eichmann, who is also about to stand trial for his crimes against humanity. Asked by the Israelis to prepare his memoirs for the archives, Campbell is given a typewriter and enough paper and ribbon to account for his long and complicated life. He starts to write, and thus begins the tale of Howard W. Campbell, a man who embraced the worst of causes for the best of reasons...

The son of Americans who relocated to Germany between the wars, Campbell grows up to be a playwright and soon becomes the darling of the German literary set. Campbell is happily married to the beautiful actress Helga Noth (Sheryl Lee), his leading lady on stage and in life. Together, they form "a nation of two," blissfully unaware of the gathering storm that will soon envelop the entire world.

One day, Campbell is approached by a mysterious American, Frank Wirtanen (John Goodman), who identifies himself as a secret U.S. operative and who makes Campbell an unexpected proposal: since he is celebrated and accepted by the Germans, would he consider masquerading as a Nazi sympathizer in order to spy on behalf of the American government? Forever the romantic, Campbell is seduced by the idea, if not the ideals, of clandestine heroics. He accepts Wirtanen's proposal.

Each week, Campbell writes a speech which he reads over the radio. Though on the surface, these speeches are impassioned diatribes against America, Roosevelt, and the Jews, contained within them are secret, encoded messages to the Allies. Though the world is hearing hateful Nazi propaganda, only Campbell is aware of the carefully placed coughs, stammers and snorts that are meant to convey something important to some unknown secret operative.

Revered in Germany, but reviled back home, Campbell's true purpose is known only to himself, Wirtanen and President Roosevelt. He tells no one else - not even his beloved Helga - and, if apprehended, his ties to the U.S. will be denied. His father-in-law, a "good" Nazi officer who's Berlin's chief of police, is a devout listener; his young sister-in-law, Resi (Kirsten Dunst), worships him; and Helga has never loved him more. It never occurs to Campbell that the man they all love and respect, is, by all appearances, a despicable bigot who, on a weekly basis, inspires millions of Germans to pursue genocide.

As the Reich begins to crumble, Campbell's world also starts to collapse. When he learns that Helga has been killed while entertaining troops at the front, he is devastated. And when his broadcasts cease, he no longer has a reason to live. Wandering aimlessly, he is apprehended by the Americans, and one soldier, in particular, Bernard B. O'Hare (David Strathairn) is all too eager to remind him that he is "the enemy." Through the last minute intervention of Wirtanen, Campbell escapes execution and is permitted to slip through the cracks.

With Wirtanen's help, Campbell winds up with a new identity in America and loses himself among millions of anonymous New Yorkers. In Greenwich Village, he lives an isolated existence. Gradually he befriends a neighbor and fellow artist, George Kraft (Alan Arkin), and even reveals to Kraft that he is, in fact, the Howard Campbell, notorious Nazi propagandist. But his anonymity is short-lived. Soon Campbell is "outed" by a white supremacist periodical who hail him as their hero and publish his address. Vandalism and threats from patriotic Americans and outraged Jews follow.

Then, one day, these comically pathetic supremacists - The Iron Guard of the White Sons of the American Constitution - turn up on Campbell's doorstep, offering him sanctuary. They also bring a great surprise: Helga has been found in Europe, seemingly risen from the dead. Overjoyed to be reunited with his lost love, Campbell is nonetheless stymied by the fact that the only people who will accept him are detestable neo-Nazis. With outraged citizens and the U.S. government on his trail, Campbell, Helga, and Kraft are spirited away to an abandoned warehouse basement somewhere in New York City.

There, while awaiting passage to Mexico, Campbell and Helga play out the last stages of their convoluted drama. When it is discovered that Helga and George harbor their own secrets, much as Campbell did, all appears to be lost, and Campbell no longer knows whom to believe or whom to trust.

Then, once again, Wirtanen magically reappears, offering to save Campbell one last time.

Now, Campbell must decide if he wants, or deserves, to be saved...

ABOUT THE CAST

NICK NOLTE - Howard Campbell

An Omaha, Nebraska native, Nick Nolte discovered acting as an adult and began his career traveling around the country for 14 years with various regional theater companies. In California he landed his breakthrough role in 1976 in the legendary television miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man," in 1976, and movie stardom soon followed.

After his success in television, Nolte was cast opposite Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep, and by the early 80s, he was among Hollywood's crop of talented leading men. Best known for his roles in such films as 48 Hours, its sequel Another 48 Hours, and Down And Out In Beverly Hills, Nolte has also garnered success as a dramatic star, achieving critical accolades as the tormented father in a race against time to save his ailing son in Lorenzo's Oil, as a Vietnam veteran in Karel Reisz's Who'll Stop the Rain, and as a man trying to face his family's tragic past in Barbra Streisand's The Prince Of Tides, for which he received an Academy Award nomination.

Nolte's other big screen credits include the football expose North Dallas Forty, which he developed with author Peter Gent, Sidney Lumet's Q&A, the Scorsese segment of New York Stories, Roger Spottiswoode's Under Fire, John Milius' Farewell To The King, David S. Ward's Cannery Row, and Walter Hill's Extreme Prejudice.

More recently, Nolte starred with Jessica Lange in Martin Scorsese's thriller Cape Fear; in I Love Trouble, opposite Julia Roberts; in James L. Brooks' I'll Do Anything; in Merchant Ivory's Jefferson in Paris; and in Lee Tamahori's Mulholland Falls. Nolte just completed Night Watch co-starring Patricia Arquette.

SHERYL LEE - Helga Noth

Sheryl Lee first came to public attention playing the deceased girl Laura Palmer in David Lynch's long-running cult hit television mini-series "Twin Peaks." She worked with the director again in the "Twin Peaks" prequel "Fire Walk With Me." She also played the girlfriend of fifth-Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe, opposite Stephen Dorff in Backbeat. She continues to successfully work in the independent film scene and starred in two films at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, Fall Time with Mickey Rourke, Stephen Baldwin and David Arquette and Homage with Frank Whaley and Blythe Danner. She also appeared in Notes from the Underground, which debuted at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. Lee also starred opposite Terence Stamp in the Lance Young film Bliss and in Michael Ablowitz's This World Then The Fireworks.

Additional television appearances include Showtime's "Red Shoe Diaries," ABC's "Follow the River," Lifetime Television's "Guinevere" and NBC's "Love, Lies and Murder."

On stage, Lee played opposite Al Pacino in "Salome" for the Circle in the Square in New York; "Love Letters" for the Canon Theater in Los Angeles, and in "Crimes of the Heart" for the National Conservatory in Denver.

ALAN ARKIN - George Kraft

Born in New York, Alan Arkin launched his career with the original company of Chicago's improvisational revue, "Second City." This led to his first part on Broadway, the lead in Carl Reiner's play "Enter Laughing," for which he won a Tony Award.

Arkin's first feature, The Russians Are Coming, earned him both a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Although known primarily as a comic actor, he received a second Oscar nomination for his performance in The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter for his heart-rending portrayal of a deaf-mute. Other film performances include his role as Audrey Hepburn's tormentor in Wait Until Dark, as a desperate and tormented salesman/con-artist in Glengarry Glen Ross and in a brilliant comedic performance, as a wacky dentist opposite Peter Falk in Andrew Bergman's The In-Laws. Other on-screen film credits include Arthur Hiller's Popi, Mike Nichols' Catch-22, Herbert Ross' The Seven Percent Solution, Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, Sydney Pollack's Havana, Rob Reiner's North and Andrew Davis' Steal Big, Steal Little.

On television, Arkin has starred in "Deadly Business," "St. Elsewhere," "Busting Loose," "Cooperstown" for TNT, "The Emperor's New Clothes" for Showtime's Faerie Tale Theater and "Escape From Sobibor," a three-hour CBS special which earned him an Emmy nomination. He wrote, produced and starred in "Necessary Parties," an award-winning special for PBS.

He has directed such television productions as the adaptation of the Broadway play "Twigs," the pilot "Fay" with Lee Grant, and the multiple award-winning "The Visit" for PBS. He has also directed for the stage, beginning with the much-acclaimed "Eh?," (which introduced Dustin Hoffman), and two plays written by Jules Feiffer: "Little Murders" (which he also directed for the big screen) and "The White House Murder Case," the latter earning him an Obie.

Arkin has published six books, including The Lemming Condition, which was selected to be a part of the White House library collection. He has also appeared on over a dozen albums as a performer and songwriter. His songs have been sung by musical artists including Carly Simon and The Weavers and his recordings for children with The Babysitters have been selling steadily for more than 30 years.

KIRSTEN DUNST - Resi Noth

Kirsten Dunst has been in front of the camera almost her entire life. She modeled for print ads as a baby and began appearing in television commercials by the time she was three years old, eventually accumulating over 70 commercials.

Dunst made her film debut in the Woody Allen segment of New York Stories, which she quickly followed with Bonfire Of The Vanities, playing Tom Hanks' daughter. Dunst delighted critics in her portrayal of the young Amy March opposite Winona Ryder and Claire Danes in Gillian Armstrong's Little Women. Prior to that, she co-starred with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Interview With The Vampire, receiving a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actress nomination; with Kirk Douglas and Michael J. Fox in Greedy; and, most recently, in the Robin Williams' hit Jumanji. Dunst's television work includes the recurring role of "Kitten" in the NBC television series "Sisters," ABC's "Loving," two appearances on "Saturday Night Live" and in the NBC Movie of the Week "Darkness Before Dawn," as well as the two-part CBS mini-series, "Ruby Ridge."

ARYE GROSS - Abraham Epstein

Best-known as "Adam" on the hit television show "Ellen," Arye Gross has worked extensively in film and on the stage. Mother Night marks the second pairing of Gross and director Keith Gordon, as the two previously worked together on Gordon's second feature, A Midnight Clear. Prior to that, other film credits include the Bette Midler starrer For The Boys, Tequila Sunrise with Michelle Pfeiffer, Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell, Soul Man with Leslie Neilsen and James Earl Jones; Coupe De Ville with Daniel Stern and Alan Arkin; and The Experts, in which he starred opposite John Travolta.

More recently, he has appeared in Hexed with Adrienne Shelley and The Opposite Sex with Courtney Cox. He worked with Cox once again as a guest star on the mega-hit television show "Friends."

Gross' extensive stage credits include "La Bete" for the Stages Theatre Center, "Room Service," for the Pasadena Playhouse, "Three Sisters" for the Los Angeles Theatre Center, "Taming of the Shrew" and "Much Ado About Nothing" for the Grove Shakespeare Festival and "Troillus and Cressida" for the Globe Playhouse and "Screwball" and "Let's Play Two" for the South Coast Repertory Theatre.

FRANKIE FAISON - Black Fuehrer of Harlem

Frankie Faison has an impressive list of film, stage and television roles to his credit splitting his work equally among them.

His film work includes Kevin Spacey's Albino Alligator, John Landis' Coming To America, Milos Forman's Ragtime, Paul Schrader's Cat People, Sidney Poitier's Hanky Panky, Alan Parker's Mississippi Burning, Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, Michael Mann's Manhunter, Jonathan Demme's Silence Of The Lambs, John Sayles' City Of Hope, Charles Shyer's I Love Trouble and Jon Amiel's Sommersby.

For television, Faison's credits include the Stephen King mini-series "The Langoliers," PBS' "King Lear," FBC's "True Colors," CBS' "Kate and Allie," "Common Ground," and "Equalizer," and soaps including "All My Children" and "Another World."

On stage, Faison received a Tony nomination for his role in August Wilson's "Fences." He has also performed on Broadway in "Getting Away with Murder," "Of Mice and Men," and the Circle in the Square's productions of "The Shadowbox" and "The Iceman Cometh." Off-Broadway, he starred in "Before It Hits Home" at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Athol Fugard's "Playland" at the Manhattan Theatre Club and "King Lear" for the NYSF Delacorte Theatre.

DAVID STRATHAIRN - Bernard B. O'Hare

A seasoned actor on and off Broadway, on the big screen and on the small one, David Strathairn attended Ringling Bros. Clown College and Williams College before launching a successful acting career.

Strathairn has appeared in numerous Williams' College classmate John Sayles' features including his own and Sayles' directorial debut The Return Of The Secaucus Seven. Other Sayles features for which Strathairn starred include Matewan, Brother From Another Planet, Eight Men Out, City Of Hope and Passion Fish.

Continuing to work with Hollywood's top directors, some of Strathairn's film credits include Mike Nichols' Silkwood, Sydney Pollack's The Firm, Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts, Penny Marshall's A League Of Their Own and Taylor Hackford's Dolores Claiborne.

Also working with Hollywood's hottest talent, he has starred opposite Meryl Streep in The River Wild, with Richard Dreyfuss in Lost In Yonkers, with Jessica Lange in Losing Isaiah, with Ray Liotta and Jamie Lee Curtis in Dominick And Eugene, with Sean Penn and Christopher Walken in At Close Range and with Debra Winger in A Dangerous Woman.

On Broadway, Strathairn appeared in "Einstein & the Polar Bear" and off Broadway, he was in "Temptation," "Fen" and "Salonika" for the Public Theatre, "Lie of the Mind" for the Promenade Theater and in "Hapgood" for Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater.

Television credits include the HBO feature "The James Brady Story," "The American Clock" for TNT, "O Pioneers" for Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the CBS miniseries "Day One." He was also a regular on the television series "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd."

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

KEITH GORDON - Director & Producer

Although he began his professional life as an actor, Keith Gordon always sought to get back to his first dream, film making. He used his experience acting for directors such as Brian DePalma and Bob Fosse as a kind of paid apprenticeship.

He appeared in leading roles in John Carpenter's Christine, DePalma's Dressed To Kill and Home Movies, the comedy Back To School, as well as supporting roles in numerous films including Bob Fosse's All That Jazz. He also worked extensively in theater in New York both on and off Broadway.

As a stepping stone behind the camera, Gordon starred in, but also co-wrote and co-produced the independent feature Static. The film earned Gordon the Best Actor Award at the Madrid Film Festival, but more importantly earned him the chance to direct his first film.

In 1989 Gordon wrote and directed The Chocolate War, adapting Robert Cormier's classic novel. The film won critical acclaim, and got Gordon an IFP/Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature.

Next, Gordon adapted and directed A Midnight Clear from William Wharton's autobiographical anti-war novel. The film starred Ethan Hawke and Gary Sinise in his film debut. In addition to landing on a large number of yearly "10 best" lists, the film got Gordon his second IFP/Spirit Award nomination, this time for Best Screenplay.

Gordon has also kept busy directing the occasional odd and adventurous piece for television, including two hours of Oliver Stone's "Wild Palms" mini-series for ABC, an episode of Barry Levinson's "Homicide" series for NBC, and an episode of Showtime's award-winning film noir anthology series "Fallen Angels." He is currently screenwriter and producer on an HBO adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel's classic novella "Dawn."

ROBERT B. WEIDE - Writer & Producer

Award-winning writer/producer/director Robert B. Weide has been creating films and television specials since 1982, when at the age of 22 he produced and co-wrote "The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell," a PBS documentary that was received with critical acclaim and was one of the networks' highest rated programs of the decade.

In 1984, Weide produced, directed and co-wrote "The Great Standups: Sixty Years of Laughter" for HBO. More critical praise accompanied his 1986 production of "W.C. Fields Straight Up," which also brought Weide an Emmy Award.

Continuing his fondness for comics and comedy, Weide produced, directed, wrote and edited "Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition" for the PBS series "American Masters" in 1989. Weide has recently completed a documentary on controversial comedian Lenny Bruce entitled "Swear To Tell The Truth," and is now in mid-production on a film biography of author Kurt Vonnegut.

In 1993, Weide produced two highly acclaimed specials for Showtime: Larry Gelbart's political satire "Mastergate" which boasted an all-star cast including James Coburn, Ed Begley, Jr. and Jerry Orbach, and "Only the Truth is Funny," Rick Reynolds' autobiographical one-man show which garnered an Emmy nomination. Both programs were nominated for Cable ACE Awards that year.

Weide's other production credits include "George Burns' 90th Birthday Special" (film segment producer) on CBS, "But Seriously Folks" (producer) for HBO and "The Lost Minutes of Billy Crystal" (producer and co-director for HBO). In 1992, Weide served as co-executive producer on the series pilot "My Family" for NBC.

Mother Night, for which he also wrote the screenplay, marks Weide's first foray into feature film. His next project is writing the screenplay adaptation of Lois Lowry's Newberry Award-winning novel, The Giver, which will mark actor Jeff Bridges' directorial debut. Following that film, Weide will be returning to Vonnegut for his next screen adaptation, The Sirens of Titan.

KURT VONNEGUT - Author/Novelist

Kurt Vonnegut is a master of contemporary American literature. His black humor, satiric voice and incomparable imagination have been on the forefront of America's literary consciousness for more than four decades. He is simply, as Graham Greene declared, "one of the best living American writers."

All of Vonnegut's books starting with "Player Piano" (1951) remain in print, leading to a rediscovery by each successive generation of readers. Since "Slaughterhouse Five" became a number-one bestseller in 1969, each of his subsequent offerings have spent time on The New York Times' bestseller's list, several at number one. He remains one of the most widely read American authors the world over.

His works include: "Player Piano," 1951; "The Sirens of Titan," 1959; Mother Night, 1961; "Cat's Cradle," 1963; "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater," 1964; Welcome to the Monkey House, 1968; Slaughterhouse Five, 1969; "Breakfast of Champions," 1973; "Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons," 1974; "Slapstick," 1976; "Jailbird," 1979; "Palm Sunday," 1981; "Deadeye Dick," 1982; "Galapagos," 1985; "Bluebeard," 1987; "Hocus Pocus," 1990; and "Fates Worse Than Death," 1991.

LINDA REISMAN - Executive Producer

Mother Night marks Linda Reisman's first collaboration with Keith Gordon. A New York-based independent producer, Reisman has also been closely affiliated with writer/director Paul Schrader for several years. Reisman produced Light Sleeper which starred Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon, also released by Fine Line Features, and was a producer on The Comfort Of Strangers and Patty Hearst. Light Sleeper premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and internationally at the Berlin Film Festival while The Comfort Of Strangers and Patty Hearst were both presented to great acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival.

Currently, Reisman is preparing another film with Schrader, for Nick Nolte to star in. She is also involved in the development of a number of projects and hopes to reteam with Gordon on his next film.

TOM RICHMOND - Director of Photography

In addition to his work on Mother Night, Tom Richmond was director of photography on two other films which will be released this year, Oscar-winner Roger Avary's Mr. Stitch and Scott Silvers' Johns, which garnered critical praise at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival.

Richmond's first film was Straight to Hell in 1984, and he has been working steadily ever since, shooting a diverse range of projects including Ramon Menendez' Oscar-nominated Stand And Deliver, Keenan Ivory Wayans' I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Roger Avary's Killing Zoe and James Gray's Little Odessa. He has also been the director of photography for Keith Gordon's first two feature films, The Chocolate War and A Midnight Clear.

Along with his work in film, Richmond has shot music videos for such performers as Lisa Loeb, Pearl Jam, Neil Young and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

FRANCOIS SEGUIN - Production Designer

Francois Seguin has amassed an impressive body of work in Canadian cinema and has recently employed his talents in a number of American films.

His work can be seen in several Canadian productions including Night Magic, Milk & Honey and Jesus Of Montreal, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1990. More recently, Seguin has worked on Leolo, Love And Human Remains, Being At Home With Claude and Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle.

Seguin's television credits include "Million Dollar Babies" which starred Beau Bridges and Kate Nelligan and "God Bless the Child" with Mare Winningham.

In addition to Mother Night, Seguin has most recently completed work on Allison Anders' new film, Grace Of My Heart.

RENEE APRIL - Costume Designer

Renee April has designed costumes for a variety of time periods and styles, from the Algonquin Indians of the 1640's in Bruce Beresford's Black Robe to the artistic set of 1920's Paris in Alan Rudolph's The Moderns. She most recently revisited that era in Rudolph's Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle.

April has previously worked on such acclaimed films as Vincent Ward's Map Of The Human Heart, Randa Haines' Children Of A Lesser God, and Norman Jewison's Agnes Of God.

April's television credits include such films as "Day One" and "Million Dollar Babies."

JAY RABINOWITZ - Editor

In addition to Mother Night, Jay Rabinowitz recently edited Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man starring Johnny Depp. Rabinowitz's first feature editing job was on another Jarmusch film, Night on Earth.

Since then, he has served as editor on Robert Frank's The Last Supper; Lodge Kerrigan's Clean, Shaven; Sara Driver's When Pigs Fly and Barry Levinson's Jimmy Hollywood. Rabinowitz has also edited nine episodes of the critically acclaimed crime drama "Homicide: Life on the Street," including the premiere. He has also worked on music videos for Tom Waits and Neil Young.

MICHAEL CONVERTINO - Music Composer

Educated at Harvard, Yale and the Paris Conservatory, Michael Convertino has proven to be one of the most talented and versatile composers in film today. His extraordinary range is reflected in his musical history: he was the front man for the Yale Jazz Band, a member of a rock band, and had his classical composition debut at the age of 23 at Carnegie Hall. His scores include Randa Haines' Children of a Lesser God and The Doctor, Bull Durham starring Kevin Costner, The Hidden, Queen of Hearts, and The Waterdance.

In 1993, he scored the film Bodies, Rest and Motion which received much praise at the Sundance Film Festival, and Wrestling Ernest Hemingway starring Richard Harris and Robert Duvall. Last year, he scored Guarding Tess starring Shirley McLaine and Nicholas Cage, Milk Money starring Melanie Griffith and The Santa Clause starring Tim Allen. Convertino recently completed Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead, New Line Cinema's Bed of Roses starring Christian Slater and Mary Stuart Masterson, and Last of the High Kings.

ABOUT FINE LINE FEATURES

Fine Line Features' upcoming releases include: Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night, starring Helena Bonham Carter, Richard E. Grant, Nigel Hawthorne, Ben Kingsley, and Imogen Stubbs; Charles Matthau's The Grass Harp, starring Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Edward Furlong, Jack Lemmon and Nell Carter; and Scott Hicks' Shine, starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, Noah Taylor, Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, Googie Withers and John Gielgud.

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