''Across the River and into the Trees'' is a 2022

war drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional te ...

film directed by

Paula Ortiz Paula Ortiz Álvarez (born 8 January 1979) is a Spanish Film director, director, screenwriter and Film producer, producer who works for Get in the Pictures Productions and Amapola Films, teaches Audiovisual Communication at the University of ...

and adapted by

Peter Flannery Peter Flannery (born 12 October 1951) is an English playwright and screenwriter. He was born in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear and educated at the University of Manchester. He is best known for his work while a resident playwright at the Royal Shakespear ...

from the 1950 novel by

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

. It stars

Liev Schreiber Isaac Liev Schreiber ( ; born October 4, 1967) is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award as well as nominations for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. Schreiber's early film roles incl ...

, Matilda De Angelis,

Josh Hutcherson Joshua Ryan Hutcherson (born October 12, 1992) is an American actor. He began acting in the early 2000s and appeared in several commercials and minor film and television roles before gaining prominence in his teenage years with main roles in ' ...

Laura Morante Laura Morante (born 21 August 1956) is an Italian film actress. Life and career Morante was born in Santa Fiora, province of Grosseto (Tuscany), the daughter of lawyer and playwright Marcello Morante, who was the son of Irma (née Poggibonsi) ( ...

Massimo Popolizio Massimo Popolizio (born 4 July 1961) is an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Massimo Popolizio studied at the Silvio D'Amico National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome in 1984, Popolizio started his career as a stage actor and, after gradu ...

, and

Danny Huston Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an American-British actor, director and screenwriter. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston. He is known for ...

. The film premiered at the Sun Valley Film Festival on 30 March 2022.

Premise

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Colonel Richard Cantwell confronts the news of his terminal illness with stoic indifference and enlists a military driver for presumably his final hunting trip and a visit to Venice. Along the way, Cantwell investigates an alleged

war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

and has a chance encounter with a young woman from the

Italian nobility The Italian nobility ( Italian: ''Nobiltà italiana'') comprised individuals and their families of the Italian Peninsula, and the islands linked with it, recognized by the sovereigns of the Italian city-states since the Middle Ages, and by the k ...

Cast

as Colonel Richard Cantwell * Matilda De Angelis as Renata Contarini *

as Jackson *

as Contessa Contarini *

as Vanni Rizzon *

as Captain Wes O'Neill *

Sabrina Impacciatore Sabrina Impacciatore (; born 29 March 1968) is an Italian actress. She is known internationally for her role as Valentina on season two of the HBO black comedy drama series ''The White Lotus'' (2022), which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomi ...

as Agostina

Production

Screenwriter

's plans to adapt

's ''

Across the River and into the Trees ''Across the River and into the Trees'' is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1950, after first being serialized in ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine earlier that year. The titl ...

'' into a feature film date back to 2016, when

Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He was the fifth actor to play the fictional secret agent Portrayal of James Bond in film, James Bond in the List of James Bond films, James Bond film series, starri ...

Isabella Rossellini Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (; born 18 June 1952) is an Italian actress and model. The daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted for her successful tenure as a Lancôme ...

, and

María Valverde María Valverde Rodríguez (born 24 March 1987) is a Spanish actress. Her feature film acting debut in '' The Weakness of the Bolshevik'' (2003) earned her a Goya Award for Best New Actress. Early life María Valverde was born in Madrid on ...

came on board to star and

Martin Campbell Martin Campbell (born 24 October 1943) is a New Zealand film and television director and producer. He is best known for his works in the Action film, action and thriller film genres, including the James Bond in film, James Bond films ''GoldenE ...

was set to direct. In September 2020,

replaced Campbell as director and every role was recast, with

, Matilda De Angelis,

Javier Cámara Javier Cámara Rodríguez (born 19 January 1967) is a Spanish actor. He became known for two television roles as a priest in '' ¡Ay, señor, señor!'' and ''Éste es mi barrio''. He has since featured in films such as '' Torrente, the Dumb Arm ...

, and

Giancarlo Giannini Giancarlo Giannini (; born 1 August 1942) is an Italian actor and voice actor. He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in '' Love and Anarchy'' (1973) and received an Academy Award nomination for '' Seven Beaut ...

joining the cast.

was added to the cast in November, and

joined the following year in February. After delays in securing insurance,

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began in late 2020 or early 2021 amid the

COVID-19 pandemic in Italy The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy was part of the COVID-19 pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2 ...

with cinematographer

Javier Aguirresarobe Javier Aguirresarobe Zubía (born 10 October 1948) is a Basque Spanish cinematographer. After working primarily in Spanish movies during the 1980s and 1990s, he gained international recognition for his work on the 2001s film '' The Others''. Fr ...

. Locations included

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

;

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

, including the ; and the

Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, a bay of the Adriatic Sea. Friuli-Venezia Giulia has an area of and a ...

region. A nationwide lockdown allowed the cast and crew to film in an empty St Mark's Square. Most of the film was shot in black-and-white except for flashbacks, which were captured in color. By March 2021, production concluded. Editing was completed by

Stuart Stuart may refer to: People *Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) * Clan Stuart of Bute, a Scottish clan *House of Stuart, a royal house of Scotland and England Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, ...

and Kate Baird.

Release

The film premiered at the Sun Valley Film Festival in the Sun Valley Opera House on 30 March 2022 in

Sun Valley, Idaho Sun Valley is a resort city in the western United States, in Blaine County, Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in the Wood River valley. The population was 1,783 at the 2020 census. The elevation of Sun Valley (at the Lodge) is above se ...

, a

resort town A resort town, resort city or resort destination is an urban area where tourism or vacationing is the primary component of the local culture and economy. A typical resort town has one or more actual resorts in the surrounding area. Sometimes ...

where Hemingway once lived. In 2022, the film picked up the Jury Prize from the Italian Contemporary Film Festival, and Jose Tirado was recognized for his production design at the

Ischia Film Festival The Ischia Film Festival (IFF) is an annual international film festival held in the Aragonese Castle on the island of Ischia, Italy in late June to early July. Founded in 2003 and still directed by Michelangelo Messina, the festival focuses on ...

, where it held its European premiere on 2 July. The film was released in Spain on 11 October 2023.

Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightlife, nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood popular today for music venues and comedy as well as a ...

was originally set to distribute the film after buying the rights in May 2023. In May 2024, Level 33 Entertainment acquired the North American distribution rights from them, scheduling the film for a theatrical run starting 30 August 2024.

Critical response

References

External links

* * {{Ernest Hemingway 2022 films 2020s English-language films Films based on American novels Films based on works by Ernest Hemingway Films scored by Edward Shearmur Films shot in Venice Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2022 drama films 2020s Italian films 2020s British films 2020s Canadian films British war drama films Canadian war drama films Italian war drama films