Green Mansions (film)

rdf:langString Green Mansions (film)

rdf:langString Green Mansions

rdf:langString Green Mansions

rdf:langString Theatrical release lobby card by Joseph Smith

rdf:langString United States

rdf:langString English

rdf:langString Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

rdf:langString Green Mansions is a 1959 American adventure romance film directed by Mel Ferrer. It is based upon the 1904 novel Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson. The film starred Audrey Hepburn (who at the time was married to Ferrer) as Rima, a jungle girl who falls in love with a Venezuelan traveller played by Anthony Perkins. Also appearing in the film were Lee J. Cobb, Sessue Hayakawa and Henry Silva. The score was by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Bronislau Kaper. The film was intended to be the first of several projects directed by Ferrer and starring his wife, but ultimately this was the only one released. It was one of the few critical and box office failures of Hepburn's career. Vincente Minnelli had originally been slated to direct the film, but delays in the project led Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to choose Ferrer to direct. The film was the first feature film to be photographed using Panavision lenses for 35mm anamorphic widescreen cinematography; however, the process listed on the titles was CinemaScope, the 35mm anamorphic widescreen process developed in the early 1950s by 20th Century-Fox in conjunction with the U.S. optical company Bausch and Lomb. MGM resented having to both rent the special lenses and pay a royalty to 20th for use of the CinemaScope credit on their films, so they engaged Panavision, a then small Los Angeles-area manufacturer of anamorphic projection lenses for theaters, to develope anamorphic lenses for photographing widescreen productions. Given the popularity and public awareness of the CinemaScope brand, MGM entered in to an agreement with 20th to continue paying for the use of the CinemaScope title on its productions while actually using the new Panavision lenses and listing a small credit elsewhere in the titles, "Process Lenses by Panavision". Projected in the theater, the processes are identical in terms of the size of the film used and the screen width and height. NOTE: By the late 1960s, 20th had adopted Panavision for use on its own 35mm anamorphic widescreen productions and withdrew the CinemaScope lenses from the market where Panavision had already become the motion picture industry's consensus choice due to its reputation for superior optical performance.