She was a human being. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Branden also interviewed over 100 people who knew Rand during all phases of her life. The screenplay is written by Howard Korder and Mary Gallagher. (TV Movie 1999). "[10], In a lengthy essay review, David Ramsay Steele declared that "The tale told by Barbara Branden is absolutely riveting. 'Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged is a feature length documentary film that examines the resurging interest in Ayn Rand's epic and controversial 1957 novel and the validity of its dire prediction for America. Cal (John Lynch), a young man on the fringes of the I.R.A., falls in love with Marcella (Dame Helen Mirren), a Catholic woman whose husband, a Protestant policeman, was killed one year ... See full summary ». View production, box office, & company info. 20 of 32 people found this review helpful. "[5], One of the positive reviews that the book received, shortly after publication, came from Joseph Sobran: "...The Passion of Ayn Rand is an excellent book, especially for those (like me) who had their youthful fling with Objectivism. Honesty is a key virtue in Rand’s ethics, which, on the other hand, have no commandment against adultery.” (Pg. The Passion of Ayn Rand was a surprising insightful and thoughtful book on the life and times of Ayn Rand. This is the story of the affair, based on the book by Branden's wife, Barbara (Julie Delpy). No need to waste time endlessly browsing—here's the entire lineup of new movies and TV shows streaming on Netflix this month. It is based on the book of the same name by Barbara Branden (one of Rand's former associates and Nathaniel Branden's first wife). [14], In 2005, James S. Valliant published a book-length negative review, The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics, aiming to discredit The Passion of Ayn Rand on grounds of internal inconsistency, inconsistency with other available sources, and inconsistency with previously unpublished diary entries made by Rand in 1967 and 1968. Rand takes the youthful Nathaniel under her wing and begins to show a non-platonic interest in her protégé. 421 pp. The scale was epic; the principle is inherent in human existence. Revealing the surprising life story of one of the world's most influential minds, this unprecedented film weaves together Ayn Rand's own recollections and reflections, providing a new understanding of her inspirations and influences. The Passion of Ayn Rand is a 1999 television film directed by Christopher Menaul. "[13] Peikoff pronounced that the biography was motivated by "venomous hatred" and agreed with Schwartz that its entire contents were "non-cognitive"; unlike Schwartz, however, he proclaimed that he had never read it and never intended to. The rather eccentric (especially in her thinking) author of "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" becomes involved with a much younger, and married man, to the dismay of those close to her. Barbara and her husband, Nathaniel Branden (Eric Stoltz), meet Rand and her husband, Frank O'Connor (Peter Fonda) and immediately establish a rapport. A grizzled Australian painter decides to jolt his stale creativity in a remote island on the Great Barrier Reef, where he meets an alluring young islander who becomes his enchanting model. Use the HTML below. It is considered high praise to say of a book that, having once begun it, you can't put it down, but for me the more significant accolade is that having finished it you can't put it down, and that is certainly true of this amazing and fascinating story. "[11] Steele complained, however, that the book makes excuses for its subject: "The attitude Branden has towards Rand is one that individuals generally hold only towards their parents: a burning anger, a rage for self-justification, contained by a rigid insistence that the parent is good and worthy. Thus the name of this film: The PASSION of Ayn Rand----not the REASON or LOGIC of Ayn Rand. A story about a very strange love triangle, THE PASSION OF AYN RAND is based on a book by Nathaniel's girlfriend, Barbara, and it illuminates the massive ego and charisma of one of the most influential females of the twentieth century. This movie is an accurate and fair por- trayal of a woman who often incited controversy with her powerful commitment to the consistency of her actions with her ideals. This film has something for everyone. The history of any ideology is in large part a catalogue of purges, a sour and acrid rule to which the American Right has been no exception. Thus the name of this film: The PASSION of Ayn Rand----not the REASON or LOGIC of Ayn Rand. A failing star is faced with a lifestyle change when her rich husband suddenly dies while they are en route to Italy. One can understand why this individual, whatever her intellectual and personal foibles, could command loyalty and inspire commitment. "[11] In 1986 Peter Schwartz declared that The Passion of Ayn Rand is a tissue of arbitrary assertions: "Epistemologically, conclusions reached by a categorically non-objective method have the status of the arbitrary. Title: Biographical movie of the life of French sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (Scott Antony). "[9], According to Mimi Reisel Gladstein, "Branden accomplishes a rare feat for biographers; she is able to illuminate the attractive and repellent aspects of Rand's personality, showing why so many would follow her unreservedly, while others reacted with abhorrence. She helped disseminated Rand's ideas in newsletters and journals, organized her lecture tours, gave lectures, and helped establish organizations for the study of Objectivism. The Passion of Ayn Rand is a biography of Ayn Rand by writer and lecturer Barbara Branden, a former friend and business associate. This film will be a valuable resource for the ingenue researching Ayn Rand's life and work for the first time. Could the untamed girl be his long-awaited muse? She then sets off in a series of flings with gigolos found for her by ... See full summary », Beaty (Dame Helen Mirren) is a prostitute working out of a high-class London cabaret where Emory (John Shea) is a technician. Admirers of Ayn Rand need not – and should not – feel compelled to try to rebut each and every concrete charge made by Barbara Branden (and others who are sure to follow). Catherine could be twice as Great at the Emmys: Nominations for both Elle Fanning and Helen Mirren? [ The Passion of Ayn Rand credits: Dir: Christopher Menaul/ Helen Mirren, Eric Stoltz, Julie Delpy, Peter Fonda/ 104 min/ Drama, Biography/ Ayn Rand] See trailer here. Rand IS the leader of a cult and her devotees are in thrall. Branden was a close associate of Rand's for 18 years. During her lifetime she was the managing editor of The Objectivist and the executive vice president of the Nathaniel Branden Institute in New York. Ever wonder what A Christmas Story star Peter Billingsley and other adorable kids from holiday movies look like now? UPC. As I wrote, she was much more than that: she was a human being and a woman .... it is only in that context that Objectivism can be separated from its founder and its supporters and be seen as a philosophy which stands or falls by its own relationship to reality – not by the virtues or vices of those who espouse it."[4]. Initially I was expecting a hatchet job since many people despise her, but Barbara Branden provides a well balanced look at one of the most controversial and influential f She became part of Ayn Rand's inner circle in the 1950s and '60s. Her distaste for ... See full summary ». Upon the death of Ayn Rand (Dame Helen Mirren), Barbara Branden (Julie Delpy) recounts the story of her dealings with the enigmatic twentieth century philosopher and author. For the film, see, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, http://www.jenniferburns.org/ayn-rand-read-the-rand-archives/, The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Passion_of_Ayn_Rand&oldid=982933222, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 11 October 2020, at 07:45. A paperback edition was released by Anchor Books in 1987. DVD. It leaves the viewer, as the historian, to draw her or his own conclusions about the strength or weakness of Miss Rand's character, without in- doctrinating her point of view. Peter Fonda, Star of ‘Easy Rider,’ Dies at 79. Rand IS the leader of a cult and her devotees are in thrall. Barbara must sit by as the two begin what becomes a long, tumultuous affair. The Passion of Ayn Rand is a biography of Ayn Rand by writer and lecturer Barbara Branden, a former friend and business associate. [2] Branden drew in part on the same audiotaped interviews with Rand that she had conducted for the earlier project. Still, nobody can ever say that Ms. Rand was not a striking woman in every sense of the word. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? The English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Stereo. According to Steele, "The orthodox Randists, led by Leonard Peikoff, have put it about that anyone who utters a word in praise of the book is to be shunned, boycotted, and cut off root and branch. Valliant partly concurred with Schwartz and Peikoff's judgment of arbitrariness,[15] but he also claimed to have shown that much of what The Passion of Ayn Rand said about Rand's character and actions was false, and that it was "valueless" as a historical document. (PARC = Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics) Nathaniel Branden used Rand as his 'psychotherapist' for months on end in 1968, feeding her a web of lies about his feelings toward her and a younger woman with whom he had been having an affair. Ayn Rand was one of the most significant writers in the Science Fiction genre of the early 20th Century. Christopher Menaul's The Passion of Ayn Rand comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer that preserves the original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Branden built up an institute to spread Rand's ideas, but the two eventually had a falling out. Check out our gallery. Author Ayn Rand (Dame Helen Mirren) engaged in an affair with a psychologist twenty-five years younger than her, by the name of Nathaniel Branden (Eric Stoltz). Branden seems not to realize that her harsh criticisms of Rand is to Objectivists, what Rand's harsh criticism of Woolf was to Branden herself. The screenplay is written by Howard Korder and Mary Gallagher. Frank Berin (Michael Reardon) was removed from an investigation into Mac Brown (Vittorio Duse), the owner of a pharmaceutical company, who was suspected of drug trafficking and illegal experiments on teenagers. $19.95. There are no subtitles, but the soundtrack is closed-captioned. "[7], Another early review came from the sociologist of religion Peter L. Berger. Rand's diamond hard theories are hard to practice and arguably adolescent. Okay, I'll say it: The Passion of Ayn Rand (Sunday, May 30; 8 to 10 p.m.; Showtime) is as delicious as it is dumbfounding, as mirthful as it is misbegotten. But when the cook, a thief, his wife and her lover all come together, they unleash a shocking torrent of sex, food, murder and revenge. "[17] She wrote that Valliant "often goes overboard" in his attack on Branden's biography[18] and concluded in a retrospect the following year that the biography was largely accurate. and The Passion of Ayn Rand. But she admires Miss Rand on her (Mrs. Branden's) own terms. This FAQ is empty. The book was first published in 1986 in a hardcover edition from Doubleday. The Passion of Ayn Rand Quotes. With her panache and ... See full summary », Chase Phillips (Dame Helen Mirren), a lifetime resident of Martha's Vineyard, married Richard (Beau Bridges), and like the area, grew into the upper middle class. The film succeeds because it portrays Ayn Rand's character in all of its complexity without emphasizing any one single as- pect.Some of Miss Rand's devotees may find this production oversexu- alized, but as someone familiar with her life and work, I find the account of her behavior and her thinking to be consistent with much of what I've read about her and heard in interviews. Product Key Features. This was an entertaining, thought-provoking movie. Barbara and her husband, Nathaniel Branden (Eric Stoltz), meet Rand and her husband, Frank O'Connor (Peter Fonda) and immediately establish a rapport. 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