‘Place to Be’ Helmer Kornél Mundruczó on Directing Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi and a Pigeon in an Unlikely Love Story
Burstyn plays a widow whose pigeon rescue leads to a cross-country trip and an unlikely friendship with Taika Waititi, with about 1,000 birds used.
- On Wednesday, legendary actress Ellen Burstyn premiered director Kornél Mundruczó's 'Place to Be' at the Venice Film Festival, where she received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
- Burstyn plays Brooke, a widowed woman who embarks on a cross-country road trip from Chicago to New York to return a lost pigeon, meeting divorcee Nelson played by Taika Waititi.
- Seventeen pigeons portrayed the bird named Intruder, as Mundruczó utilized around 1,000 birds during filming in Sydney, Australia and New York with professional handlers to minimize CGI.
- The 93-year-old Oscar winner showcases immediate chemistry with Waititi on screen, bringing genuine depth as two lost souls finding affection in unexpected ways.
- Decades after winning the Academy Award for 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,' Burstyn continues working as a nonagenarian, marveling at her 70-year career.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Road movie by Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó, Place to Be features the venerable American actress Ellen Burstyn who finds in Taika Waititi, flamboyant New Zealand director, an incomparable road companion.
‘Place to Be’ Review: Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi, Pamela Anderson and a Pigeon Star in a Strange, Sentimental, Occasionally Endearing Road Movie
Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi star in Kornél Mundruczó's 'Place to Be,' about a widow who travels to New York with a divorced dad and a pigeon.
‘Place To Be’ Review: Ellen Burstyn Shines In Kornél Mundruczó’s Tender, Uneven May-December Romance Opposite Taika Waititi
The last few years have seen a rise in lighthearted dramedies about elderly women chucking the morose routine of a retirement home for the thrills of subversive adventures. Octogenarian June Squibb has cornered that market, crawling out of a Holocaust-related lie in “Eleanor the Great” and chasing after bandits on a mobility scooter in “Thelma.” With Kornél Mundruczó’s “Place to Be,” legendary actress Ellen Burstyn enters that canon, although he…
‘Place to Be’ Review: Ellen Burstyn Is Radiant in Otherwise Lackluster Late-Life Drama
There is no such thing as a bad Ellen Burstyn performance. For starters, who else could deliver an utterly preposterous line like “all this astronaut dick has made you soft” in 2019’s risible “Lucy in the Sky”? The 93-year-old performer, who trained under the famed Lee Strasberg, represents one of the last living connections to the original American practitioner of Method acting. Her grasp on locating and conveying an inner motivation remains on…
‘Place to Be’ Review: Ellen Burstyn Shines in Tender Road Trip Comedy
A gentle coming of (old) age two-hander, “Place to Be” finds Hungarian auteur Kornél Mundruczó imbuing a straightforward genre — the road trip comedy-drama — with sentimentality. He directs Ellen Burstyn in a deceptively simple role, resulting in a career-capping performance that proves why she’s still one of our greatest actresses. It is, after all, the challenge of a lifetime: acting opposite an intrusive racing pigeon (in addition to an unple…
Ellen Burstyn Talks Working Into 90s with Starring Role In Unexpected Love Story ‘Place To Be’; Pays Tribute To Gloria Steinem – Venice
Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn addressed shifting attitudes to older woman in Hollywood ahead of the world premiere of Kornel Mundruzcó’s Place To Be, in which she co-stars opposite Taika Waititi, at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday. The Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and The Last Picture Show star revealed that she had started to […]
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