''The Shade'' is a 1999 film directed by Raphael Nadjari and starring

Richard Edson Richard Edson (born January 1, 1954) is an American actor and musician. Personal life Edson was born in New Rochelle, New York to a Jewish family. He has one brother, Steven, who resides in the Boston area, and two sisters, Andrea, who resides ...

and Lorie Marino. Nadjari's debut feature, it is a modern adaptation of

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

's short story "

A Gentle Creature "A Gentle Creature" (russian: Кроткая, translit=Krotkaya), sometimes also translated as "The Meek One", is a short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky written in November 1876. The piece comes with the subtitle of "A Fantastic Story", and it chr ...

" (1876), and takes place in contemporary

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Plot

The film tells the story of a Jewish middle aged pawnbroker who meets a mysterious woman who will become his wife without their truly knowing each other. The film begins with Simon, alone in his apartment with the corpse of his wife, Anna, who has just committed suicide. In his grief, he remembers the first time he met her, a year ago when she walked into his pawnbroker's shop in

Spanish Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fif ...

. Mysterious Anna, who seems to come from nowhere, impresses solitary Simon with her beauty, and he proposes to her on their first night out. They then enter into a passionate relationship that will lead her to death.

Awards and nominations

1999 Cannes Film Festival The 52nd Cannes Film Festival was held from 12 to 23 May 1999. Canadian filmmaker, actor and author David Cronenberg was the Jury President. The Palme d'Or went to the French–Belgian film ''Rosetta'' by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The festiv ...

- Official Selection,

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

* Bergamo Film Festival (1999) - Audience Award

References

External links

*
Review in the ''New York Times''
1998 films Films directed by Raphael Nadjari 1998 drama films American drama films Films based on works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Films based on short fiction Films set in New York City 1999 drama films 1999 films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films {{1990s-drama-film-stub