Oscar-winning multi-hyphenates Angelina Jolie (she won a statue for the her supporting turn in the 1999 film Girl, Interrupted) and Brad Pitt (he won his as one of the producers of 2013’s 12 Years a Slave) headline the upcoming drama By the Sea. The film, written and directed by Jolie herself, marks the first time the real-life married couple have shared the screen together since the 2005 Doug Liman blockbuster Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Today comes word that the films’ distributor, Universal Pictures, has given it an awards friendly release date of November 13, 2015. By the Sea marks Jolie’s third outing as director – she directed Unbroken, a biography of World War II pilot and Olympian Louis Zamperini last year and in 2011 directed the film In the Land of Blood and Honey.
Set in the 1970s, By the Sea revolves around a married American couple – Roland (Pitt), a writer, and Vanessa (Jolie), a former dancer – at at time in crisis while abroad at a picturesque seaside resort in France. As their marriage begins to crumble, the couple spend time with a pair of newlyweds and town locals. Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds), Mevil Poupoud (Lawrence Anyways), Niels Arestrup (A Prophet), and Richard Bohringer (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover) make up the internationally flavored ensemble cast. Said to be inspired by European film and theater of the 1960s and 1970s, Jolie commented about the project, “This is a story about a relationship derailed by loss, the tenacity of love and the path to recovery and acceptance. It has been a privilege to explore these universal human experiences with such a generous and talented cast and crew.”
While plot details may seem a bit sparse, it can certainly be said that Jolie surrounded herself with a strong crew behind the camera. Christian Berger, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Michael Haneke’s haunting 2009 drama The White Ribbon, came aboard as the director of photography, as did Unbroken production designer Jon Hutman. And while Unbroken may have received a bit of a critical drubbing when it opened last Christmas, the film was a strong box office performer and received three Academy Award nominations in the end (including one for famed cinematographer Roger Deakins). By the Sea is slated to arrive in theaters on November 13th.
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