Oscar and Lucinda (film)

As a little girl living in Australia, Lucinda Leplastrier is given a glass bead known as a Prince Rupert's drop. This gift sparks a lifelong obsession with glass.

Lucinda's parents die when she is young, and she becomes a wealthy heiress after her guardians sell off the vast farmland that was her family's home. She buys a glass factory with her money. But she also takes to gambling after being introduced to it by her accountant.

Meanwhile, a young Oscar is being reared as a Plymouth Brother by his father. After receiving a sign from God, he decides to join the Anglican faith. While studying, Oscar is introduced to gambling and becomes highly successful. He uses his winnings to fund his studies and gives the rest to the poor. He earns a scholarship to study in New South Wales. On the boat over, he meets Lucinda and hears her confess to gambling. He says that it is not a sin. They play cards together until Oscar becomes panicked at the sight of a storm.

In New South Wales, Oscar loses his scholarship after he is unable to stop gambling. He goes to live with Lucinda, who allows him to work in her glass factory. Inspired by a model of a glass church that she shows him, he asks her to make a lifesize replica to ship to their mutual friend the Revered Dennis Hasset. Oscar bets that he can deliver it by Good Friday. Lucinda decides that they will each bet their inheritance.

Because he fears water, Oscar takes the church mostly over land and water in an expedition led by Mr. Jeffries. He witnesses Jeffries murdering and raping Indigenous Australians. Oscar kills Jeffries in self-defense after the other man attacks him.

Oscar successfully delivers the church by the deadline. Weakened upon arrival, he is left in the care of a woman named Miriam Chadwick, who rapes him. In love with Lucinda but fearing that he will have to marry Miriam, Oscar enters the glass church to pray. He falls asleep and is drowned inside when the church sinks; it had been resting on a barge in the water.

Miriam gets pregnant from her abuse of Oscar. Hasset burns the papers that confirm the wager with Lucinda, as he did not want Lucinda's money to be inherited by Miriam. She dies shortly after her son is born, whom she names Oscar. The boy is reared by Lucinda.

{{div col|colwidth=18em}}

• Ralph Fiennes as Oscar Hopkins
• Cate Blanchett as Lucinda Leplastrier
• Ciarán Hinds as the Reverend Dennis Hasset
• Tom Wilkinson as Hugh Stratton
• Richard Roxburgh as Mr. Jeffries
• Clive Russell as Theophilius
• Bille Brown as Percy Smith
• Josephine Byrnes as Miriam Chadwick
• Barnaby Kay as Wardley-Fish
• Barry Otto as Jimmy D'Abbs
• Linda Bassett as Betty Stratton
• Peter Whitford as Mr. Ahearn
• Geoffrey Rush as Narrator
• Adam Hayes as Young Oscar
• James Tingey as 13 year-old Oscar
• Polly Cheshire as Young Lucinda
• Geoff Morrell as Charley Fig
• Lucy Bell as Miss Mary Hasset

{{div col end}}

The film is based on the 1988 Booker Prize-winning novel Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey. Gillian Armstrong, director of the film, had long wanted to film Peter Carey's novel but the rights were originally bought for John Schlesinger. However, after several years they could not come up with a script anyone was happy with; Schlesinger dropped out, Armstrong became involved and she brought in Laura Jones to write the screenplay.(4 September 1998). [https://archive.today/20130112052227/http://www.signis.net/malone/tiki-index.php?page=Gillian+Armstrong&bl "Interview with Gillian Armstrong"]. Signis.net. Retrieved 17 November 2012.

Robin Dalton, Timothy White, and Mark Turnbull produced the film. Cinematography was by Geoffrey Simpson; Nicholas Beaumont edited the film; and Luciana Arrighi was production designer.{{cite web | title=Oscar and Lucinda (1998) | website=Screen Australia | url=https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/oscar-and-lucinda-1997/7024 | access-date=14 January 2025}}

Filming took place in Sydney (as well in the Sydney suburbs of Glebe and Randwick) and all around New South Wales. Scenes were also filmed in Hobart, Tasmania, and some others in Cornwall, south-west England.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}}

The film score was composed by American composer and conductor Thomas Newman. The soundtrack was released by CBS Masterworks Records on 9 December 1997 in Australia and the United States, performed by Newman and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. The soundtrack was completely recorded at Paramount Scoring Stage and at The Village Recorder, in Los Angeles, California on 9–30 June 1997.{{cite web|url=http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1087985/a/oscar+and+lucinda.htm|title=Oscar And Lucinda Soundtrack CD|work=cduniverse.com|access-date=29 November 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/9386/Oscar+And+Lucinda|title=Oscar And Lucinda- Soundtrack details - SoundtrackCollector.com|work=soundtrackcollector.com|access-date=29 November 2015}} The music from the track "Sydney Harbor" would eventually appear in a teaser trailer for Wall-E, another movie that Thomas Newman conducted the score for.

{{Infobox album

| name = Oscar and Lucinda: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

| type = Film

| artist = Thomas Newman

| cover =

| alt =

| released = {{Start date|df=yes|1997|12|09}}

| recorded = 1997

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Contemporary classical

| length = {{Duration|h=|m=55|s=26}}

| label = CBS Masterworks Records

| producer = Thomas Newman, Bill Bernstein

| prev_title =

| prev_year =

| next_title =

| next_year =

}}

{{Track listing

| all_music = Thomas Newman

| total_length = 55:26

| title1 = Prince Rupert's Drop

| length1 = 02:37

| title2 = Throwing Lots

| length2 = 00:48

| title3 = Dutch Hazards

| length3 = 00:50

| title4 = Sydney Harbor

| length4 = 01:57

| title5 = Rumors

| length5 = 01:26

| title6 = The High Downs And The Sea

| length6 = 01:52

| title7 = Forgive Me

| length7 = 01:02

| title8 = Bruckner: On Justi

| length8 = 04:39

| title9 = Six Rivers To Cross

| length9 = 01:14

| title10 = Two Gamblers

| length10 = 02:22

| title11 = The Murder Of The Blacks

| length11 = 01:42

| title12 = Never Never

| length12 = 01:16

| title13 = Floorwashing

| length13 = 00:40

| title14 = Cards And Dogs

| length14 = 01:02

| title15 = One Obsessive

| length15 = 01:09

| title16 = The Church Of Glass

| length16 = 03:50

| title17 = Letters On The mantel

| length17 = 01:25

| title18 = Odd Bod

| length18 = 01:05

| title19 = Prayer Wounds

| length19 = 02:11

| title20 = Leviathan

| length20 = 01:08

| title21 = Magic Boxes (White Man's Dreaming)

| length21 = 01:49

| title22 = The Other Compulsive

| length22 = 01:02

| title23 = A Broken Thing

| length23 = 00:59

| title24 = The Seduction Of Mrs. Chadwick

| length24 = 02:31

| title25 = Wesley: Blessed Be The God And Father

| length25 = 01:19

| title26 = Aqua

| length26 = 04:10

| title27 = The Caul

| length27 = 01:22

| title28 = Oscar And Lucinda

| length28 = 02:49

| title29 = Excerpt From The Random House Audio book

| length29 = 05:10

}}

Oscar and Lucinda grossed $1,768,946 at the box office in Australia,[http://film.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/AA4_Aust_Box_office_report.pdf "Film Victoria – Australian Films at the Australian Box Office"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218045303/http://film.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/AA4_Aust_Box_office_report.pdf |date=18 February 2011 }}. Retrieved 23 August 2013. which is equivalent to $2,458,835 in 2009 dollars. The film grossed $4,953,510 between the USA, Australia, the UK, and Germany.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119843/business|title=Oscar and Lucinda (1997) – Box office / business|work=IMDb|access-date=29 November 2015}}

Oscar and Lucinda received generally positive reviews from critics. {{Rotten Tomatoes prose|67|6.6|33|ref=yes|access-date=8 December 2022}} {{MC film|66|22|ref=yes|access-date=8 December 2022}}

• Cinema of Australia

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0119843}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|oscar_and_lucinda}}
• {{Mojo title|oscarandlucinda}}
• [https://www.collection.nfsa.gov.au/title/333705 Oscar and Lucinda at the National Film and Sound Archive]
• [https://www.ozmovies.com.au/movie/oscar-and-lucinda Oscar and Lucinda] at Oz Movies

{{AACTAAward BestMusicScore 1980-1999}}

{{Gillian Armstrong}}

Category:1997 films

Category:1997 romantic drama films

Category:1990s American films

Category:1990s British films

Category:1990s English-language films

Category:1990s French-language films

Category:Australian historical romance films

Category:American romantic drama films

Category:American films about gambling

Category:Australian romantic drama films

Category:Australian films about gambling

Category:British historical romance films

Category:British romantic drama films

Category:British films about gambling

Category:English-language romantic drama films

Category:Films directed by Gillian Armstrong

Category:Films based on Australian novels

Category:Films set in the 19th century

Category:Films set in colonial Australia

Category:Films shot in Tasmania

Category:Films scored by Thomas Newman

Category:Fox Searchlight Pictures films