Newsday
05-30-1999
BY DIANE WERTS. STAFF WRITER
Name a living philosopher.
Not so simple, is it?
But it was easy in '50s and '60s America. Ayn Rand was riding high with her philosophy of Objectivism - the moral sanction that one should live for one's own rational self-interest. Young people by the thousands attended Rand's lectures, and millions devoured her sweeping novels "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged," built around self-made heroes of firm conviction in reason and their own abilities.
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"The Passion of Ayn Rand," premiering Sunday night, May 30, at 8 on Showtime, chronicles the affair Rand (Helen Mirren) initiated in the '50s with her philosophical acolyte Nathaniel Branden (Eric Stoltz) - a 12-year liaison for which they demanded the permission of their spouses, Frank O'Connor (Peter Fonda) and Barbara Branden (Julie Delpy). Rand insisted that "logic" and "reason" required she and the disciple she called Nathan "be closer" than merely business partners in her institute.
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Rand would again and again mold her world into one that suited her notions - regardless of the human consequences. That's what drew Eric Stoltz, who specializes in smart and quirky movies, to the role of her eager young admirer. "These people are clearly brilliant and intelligent people - with furious minds - who somehow end up in impossible, brutalizing, foolish situations. Like we all do," Stoltz said over a catered lunch during a nighttime filming break.
Yet, "Passion" never neglects the deeper philosophical yearnings that originally brought them together. Stoltz said, "To hear these people who so valued the mind and thought and thinking is wonderful in this world of fast cutting and stimulants, instant gratification and disposable living."
"High intellect and deeply passionate emotion," Barbara Branden sums up. The author was on hand for production in Toronto as unofficial consultant and inquisitive interested party - since it's her life through which the film is framed. "It's not just the story of an affair, it's the story of an incredible woman sort of brought down by an affair that was a terrible mistake," she said.
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And she would take to the filming of Showtime's "The Passion of Ayn Rand" with her own swell of passion, spending every minute on the Toronto set, suggesting to Menaul an authentic line of dialogue here or there, answering the actors' questions about body language, making friends with studio workers. "Sometimes we look up and she'll be crying, watching a take," said Stoltz. "You don't often encounter that kind of openness on a movie set.'"
Yet, it seems Branden, Stoltz and the others making this film aren't in it just for the personal or professional satisfaction. They seem determined that once they've done their work here, maybe people will be able to name at least one modern philosopher.
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Costar Eric Stoltz read "The Fountainhead" in college: "I think it had a profound influence on me at a time in my life where I needed to hear what she was saying: the rights of the individual, being true to yourself."
"The Passion of Ayn Rand" director Chris Menaul notes, "It seems to be true that the people who are very affected by her ideas seem to be young people - you know, late teenage, early 20s. If you read the novels then, I think that's when people are sort of susceptible." Of course, that's exactly the age at which Nathaniel and Barbara Branden first read "The Fountainhead," then wrote an inquisitive letter to the philosopher-novelist - who would soon change their lives forever.