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American writer and unlikely Beat icon who married Jack Kerouac's wild road companion Neal Cassady

In her book Off the Road (1990), Carolyn Cassady, who has died aged 90, charted her extraordinary life with the Beat writers Neal Cassady, her husband, and Jack Kerouac, her lover. Carolyn was an unlikely, and in many ways an unwilling, Beat icon herself. When she met Neal in Colorado in 1947, Carolyn was a student of theatre design at the University of Denver, having attended a smart east coast ladies' college; he was a car thief, an energetic seducer of women and occasionally men, and possessed of a restless, manic energy that had already bewitched Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. He also had a teenage bride, LuAnne Henderson. Soon after they had begun their relationship, Carolyn crept into Neal's flat one morning to give him a surprise, only to find him asleep with LuAnne on one side and Ginsberg on the other.

One of the many films making its premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival is writer/director Michael Polish’s adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel Big Sur. Though his work has long been described as unfilmable, there has been a bit of a boom in Kerouac feature films in the past year or so, and Big Sur marks a very faithful adaptation of one of the author’s darkest works. The film stars Jean-Marc Barr as Kerouac and chronicle’s the author’s struggle with alcoholism and depression in the early 1960s following the publication of On the Road. This week in Park City, I had the chance to speak with Josh Lucas and Radha Mitchell, who play Neal and Carolyn Cassady in the film. The actors talked about the pressure of tackling such a beloved property, vocalizing Kerouac’s distinct dialogue rhythms, portraying the complexities of the Neal/Jack relationship,...

Recently, HitFix chatted with Kirsten Dunst on her role in "On the Road," the new film directed by Walter Salles ("Central Station," "The Motorcycle Diaries.")   The movie, based on the famed Jack Kerouac novel, features Dunst as Camille, the wife of main character Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund, "Tron: Legacy").     A semi-autobiographical novel, Camille is based upon Carolyn Cassady and Moriarty on Neal Cassady, with Sal Paradise standing in for Kerouac himself (played here by Sam Riley, "Control").   Considered a classic in American literature, Kerouac's novel is about the Beat Generation and its ideals and follows Sal on...

On the Road's Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst on how they brought Kerouac's 'silent heroines' into sharper focus

For many, On the Road is primarily one for the boys. Jack Kerouac's obsession with the egotistical and hedonistic drifter Neal Cassady dominates the book, with the female characters relegated to the back seat, disposable objects that float in and out of the tale at the convenience of the proto-beat lads.

That's one view. But to director Walter Salles, the novel's female characters, especially those based on Cassady's long-suffering wives, are "the silent heroines" of the piece. Accordingly, he has cast two of Hollywood's most sought-after actresses – Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst – to play them.

Stewart is Marylou, the book's version of Cassady's first wife, LuAnne Henderson, who joined Cassady and Kerouac on their road trips across America; Dunst is Camille, aka second wife Carolyn Cassady, who stayed at home...

It's no surprise that the film adaptation of Kerouac's book is rocky: the Beats have rarely fared well on the big screen

The Beat generation was vibrant for just a short cultural moment, proclaiming a loud "no way" to the great American "yes sir" sighed by fat, complacent Eisenhower-era America. The Beats sought escape in jazz, marijuana and heroin; in racial and sexual transgression and spiritual questing; in language still deemed obscene (Ginsberg: "America, go fuck yourself with your atom bomb"); and with a determination to live free of ambitions and schedules. Their exploits unfolded in a world now vanished, where racial segregation was the norm, and jazz was still a living music, not a museum art; before Eisenhower shrank America with the transcontinental highways, and the road was still The Road. They're people in history now, the Beats.

It's taken 55 years for Kerouac's On The Road, the movement's signature novel,...

The long, difficult journey from page to screen for Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" has been well-documented over the years, and one thing that has been consistent throughout is the passion and love evinced for the novel by all involved --particularly the godfather of it all, Francis Ford Coppola, who acquired the novel's rights back in 1978 at the height of his success.

Now, fifty-one years after the novel was first published, we're on the eve of the film adaptation's unveiling at the Cannes Film Festival. Little word has spilled about the final product, however, the cast and crew's experience is seemingly personified (for better or worse) by an email sent by Walters Salles when things had wrapped, which explained that "being in a movie is like being in a war: when you come back home, it is difficult to tell that story to others."

Perhaps most indicative of just...

Kirsten Dunst/Camille On the Road poster If this isn't an all-out smile, I don't know what is. Those sparkling white teeth and healthy-looking gums belong to Kirsten Dunst. What a world! What a life! What a dentist!. I'm assuming Dunst's is the last On the Road "character" poster we're adding, as every major On the Road character has already gotten his/her poster. Dunst's actually came out before the ones for the film's three leads, Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, and Kristen Stewart. We're just late posting it. In On the Road, Dunst plays Camille, the wife of Dean Moriarty (Hedlund), who leaves her behind to go on the road with the much younger Marylou (Stewart). Camille is based on Carolyn Cassady, the first wife of the sexually adventurous Neal Cassady (Moriarty in the novel/film). Sissy Spacek played Carolyn Cassady in John Byrum's Heart Beat, based on Cassady's 1976 book of memoirs,...

Yes, lots of new posters to dazzle your eyeballs, so let's jump right in. There are few things surer in life than death and taxes, but at least this week, you can add "On The Road" appearing at the Cannes Film Festival. With the festival set to unveil their slate on Thursday, the new film from Walter Salles is one of surer bets out there. The latest -- and sunniest -- one sheet from the film has arrived, this time focusing on the lovely Kirsten Dunst who plays Carolyn Cassady in the film. She was married to Neal Cassady and was a friend of the Beats including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. And sorry KStew fans, we're still waiting on a poster for her....

Meanwhile, with an international trailer bowing over the weekend, marketing for "The Amazing Spider-Man" is kicking up a few notches with two brand new posters now arriving.

Well, we got the trailer for "On the Road" about a month ago, and since then a handful of character posters for Viggo Mortensen, Tom Sturridge, Amy Adams, Alice Braga and Elisabeth Moss, so how about a few more looks at the actual movie?

The official website (via HeyUGuys) for the film has unveiled a handful of new images both from the film and behind the scenes, giving us another opportunity to peek at the extended ensemble cast. We get our first look at Kirsten Dunst, who plays Camille (aka Carolyn Cassady), the wife of Neal Cassady and friend to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. We also get snaps of Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley as Marylou, Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise. It's all pretty lovely stuff, and mostly, we just hope a bunch of Twihards start reading Proust because Stewart is holding "Swann's Way."

We don't need to remind you,...

Chicago – Behind the scenes at the 2011 Chicago International Film Festival is a corp of programmers who determine what films, documentaries and special events will take place during the run of the festival. Their views and passions are the basis for the success of the two week film extravaganza.

HollywoodChicago.com spoke to three of the programmers – Penny Barlett on short films, Lee Ferdinand of documentaries and Rebecca Fons, who directs the education program.

Lee Ferdinand and Penny Barlett of the Chicago International Film Festival

Photo credit: Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com

Penny Bartlett, Programmer for Short Films

HollywoodChicago.com: What is your definition regarding the art of the short film?

Penny Bartlett: One approach that I really like is a variation on the Ernest Hemingway metaphor regarding short stories. It’s the tip of the iceberg, where you show a small segment of a relationship, a world or a story...

Created to celebrate the contributions that female writers and directors continue to make to film around the world, the REELwomen program at the 47th Chicago International Film Festival will introduce Chicago audiences to the works of first-time women filmmakers and documentarians.

More than half of the documentaries featured in this year.s Docufest competition are directed by women, most of them focusing on the arts. First-time filmmakers like Yasemin Samderelli, Alice Rohrwacher and Julia Leigh explore issues of identity – whether national or sexual – while others, like Susan Jacobson are staking a claim on genre films. The program also welcomes the return of Festival alumni filmmakers Mia Hansen-Løve and Lynne Ramsay.

All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert USA (Director: Vivian Ducat) . If there was ever a case for designating a person a National Treasure, Winfred Rembert is that person. Though he lived through segregation and the civil rights era in the Deep South,...

Chicago International Film Festival 2011

Love Always, Carolyn

Directed by: Malin Korkeasalo and Maria Ramstrom

Cast: Carolyn Cassady, John Allen Cassady, Cathy Cassady Sylvia

Running Time: 1 hr 10 mins

Rating: Nr

Release Date: Tbd

Click Here for complete coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff 2011)

Plot: This film follows the exploits of Carolyn Cassady, husband of Neal Cassady and lover of Jack Kerouac.

Who’S It For? Fans of the Beat movement will undoubtedly be intrigued, but this film is also a beautiful example of what it means to be a woman, a mother, and a wife. Fans of female-driven films should take note of Carolyn Cassady’s story.

Overall

Love Always, Carolyn has the same sensibility as Grey Gardens in the sense that I was never sure if I wanted to laugh or if I wanted to cry. Then again, a well-made movie is capable of doing both and never...

Kirsten Dunst has said that she feels "really honoured" to be in the first major movie adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On The Road. The Melancholia actress plays Camille in Walter Salles's upcoming film, a character based on real-life writer Carolyn Cassady. Asked about starring an such an iconic project, Dunst told Digital Spy: "Luckily I'm not playing Jack Kerouac! I only have a small part in the film." She added of Cassady: "She wrote a book called Off The Road, so I had my own personal bible that I could reference, She's a really great writer (more)...

Filed under: Documentaries, Hot Docs Film Festival, Moviefone Canada

Hot Docs, North America's biggest documentary film festival, kicks off its 2011 run on April 28 in Toronto. Jam-packed with documentaries running through May 8, Moviefone Canada will be there from start to finish, offering up looks at some of the festival's noted films.

When myth becomes reality, is it worth pushing back with the truth? What if your truth is wrong?

These are the questions asked of Carolyn Cassady in 'Love Always, Carolyn: A Film About Kerouac, Cassady and Me'; forty years after the death of her iconic husband Neal, it seems the record on his life and the details of his legend are somewhat off by her count. But does anybody care?

If you haven't been influenced by the beat generation, you likely know someone who has. Your free-spirited girlfriend, a college buddy who was into everyone and everything, or that Deadhead...

Updated through 4/30.

"At first it was about neighborhood," begins Eric Hynes in the Voice. "Then it was about stars, parties, and supersizing. But finally, for its 10th incarnation, the Tribeca Film Festival (April 20-May 1) seems to be about movies. Gone are the superfluous, attention-sucking Hollywood premieres (Tom Cruise on a Jet Ski, anyone?), and few are the big-name, low-quality vanity projects. Several years into a vital slimming of the slate — the fest topped out at 176 films in 2005; this year, it's a manageable 93 — Tff remains New York's largest film survey."

To celebrate Tribeca's 10th, we're running a retrospective of some of the best films the festival's shown over the past decade here at Mubi. Happy viewing.

"A notoriously uneven assemblage of titles, Tribeca aspires toward something like a mini Toronto, but despite, in recent years, bringing such important films as Jia Zhangke's Still Life and Mohammad Rasoulof's The White Meadows...

Tribeca Film Festival has announced the line up of this years competition categories, including World Narrative Feature, World Documentary Feature, and the brand new Viewpoints which highlights eleven independent features and nine documentaries.

Tribeca Film Festival is one of leading film festivals located in New York City, showcasing many films not screened in any other U.S. film festival along with forty three world premieres and fifty four directorial debuts. Cameron Crowe’s premier of his concert documentary, The Union, will start the festival followed by a performance by Elton John. The rest of the lineup will be announced March 14th, and look out for coverage of the festival in April. Below you can find the complete press release on the lineup.

10th Tribeca Film Festival Announces World Narrative

And Documentary Competition Selections, And New Viewpoints Section

Tribeca Expands Awards Scope

2011 Festival to Present 88 Feature-Length and 61 Short Films April 20 – May...

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (April 20-May 1) on Monday announced the first 44 feature films of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival slate, comprising the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections, and one new section: Viewpoints.

In a record year for submissions, the 2011 film slate was chosen from a field of 5,624 entries. Tff 2011 will include feature films from 32 countries, including 43 world premieres, 10 international premieres, 19 North American premieres, seven U.S. Premieres and nine New York premieres.

“It’s our 10th Tribeca Film Festival, and in our relatively brief existence we have evolved dramatically,” said Tff executive director Nancy Schafer in a statement. “The festival has become an integral part of the cultural landscape of New York City as well as a globally recognized platform for storytelling.”

A complete list of the films announced Monday follows, with descriptions provided by the festival.

World Narrative Features

“Angel’s Crest”

Directed by Gaby Dellal

Written by Catherine Trieschmann

(UK,...

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (April 20-May 1) on Monday announced the first 44 feature films of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival slate, comprising the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections, and one new section: Viewpoints.

In a record year for submissions, the 2011 film slate was chosen from a field of 5,624 entries. Tff 2011 will include feature films from 32 countries, including 43 world premieres, 10 international premieres, 19 North American premieres, seven U.S. Premieres and nine New York premieres.

“It’s our 10th Tribeca Film Festival, and in our relatively brief existence we have evolved dramatically,” said Tff executive director Nancy Schafer in a statement. “The festival has become an integral part of the cultural landscape of New York City as well as a globally recognized platform for storytelling.”

A complete list of the films announced Monday follows, with descriptions provided by the festival.

World Narrative Features

“Angel’s Crest”

Directed by Gaby Dellal

Written by Catherine Trieschmann

(UK,...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival revealed the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections for the 10th annual Tff, which will be held April 20 to May 1 in lower Manhattan.

In addition, Tff organizers unveiled the first edition of the new section — Viewpoints.

Forty-four of the 88 feature-length films that will screen during the fest have been announced. Much more information on each title can be found below.

“It’s our tenth Tribeca Film Festival, and in our relatively brief existence we have evolved dramatically,” said Nancy Schafer, Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Festival. “The Festival has become an integral part of the cultural landscape of New York City as well as a globally recognized platform for storytelling.”

So what will screen at Tribeca this year? In part, the following:

World Narrative Feature Competition

· Angels Crest, directed by Gaby Dellal, written by Catherine Trieschmann. (UK, Canada) – World Premiere.

And the festival beat marches on… nothing on this list immediately jumps out at me… no titles I recognize. These are just the World Narrative and Documentary competition selections, so, there’ll be more announcements made later. I do see representation from South Africa, Egypt and Rwanda. As I always do, I’ll be taking a closer look at the lineup for any titles worth profiling on this website. The festival runs from April 20th to May 1st. It’s in my backyard, so you know I’ll be covering it!

For now, here’s the full press release:

New York, NY [March 7, 2011] – The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (Tff), presented by American Express®, today announced the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections and the first edition of the new section—Viewpoints. Forty-three of the 87 feature-length films were announced. The 10th edition of the Festival will take place from April 20 to May 1 in lower Manhattan.

The Tribeca Film Festival announced selections for its World Narrative, World Documentary, and Viewpoints competitions at its 10th annual event, running from April 20 to May 1 in New York. Eighty-eight features (such as Angels Crest, with Jeremy Piven) and 61 short films from 32 different countries were selected from more than 5,600 submissions to screen at the festival. “In programming the Festival this year we had to make some incredibly difficult decisions, but we are excited about the quality, ingenuity, risk-taking and diversity of this year’s program,” David Kwok, Director of Programming, said in a statement. “We are particularly proud that we have...

Getty Robert DeNiro

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, which will run from April 20 to May 1 in lower Manhattan, has announced the films that will play in this year’s World Narrative and Documentary Competition film categories, which are both competition sections. The also named the films that will will play in its new, out-of-competition section “Viewpoints.”

Now in its tenth year, this year’s festival features movies from 32 different counties and 99 different filmmakers, who were selected from a pool of 5,624 entries.

It's more than half a century since Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl landed like a bombshell in the staid world of 1950s America. But what was the poet really like? Friends and colleagues remember him

When Allen Ginsberg performed at the Six Gallery reading in San Francisco 1955, he was a fretful, unpublished poet, a man approaching his 30th birthday with a nagging sense that time was running out. The poet Gary Snyder predicted the night would be a "poetickall bomshell". He was right, but really, the bombshell was Howl itself. Ginsberg's poem was an incantatory epic – emotionally and sexually explicit and intent on exploding the anxieties of the atomic age. It helped jump-start the counter-cultural revolutions of the next decade and its author was hailed as the voice of the Beat Generation.

He may have been the most important American writer of the last century. He certainly thought he could be.

Is the new film about Allen Ginsberg and the Howl obscenity trial a little too sane?

Allen Ginsberg, who set out to change the world so that he could fit into it, was admitted to the Columbia Psychiatric Institute, in upper Manhattan, in 1949. He was 23. On his first day there, he met Carl Solomon, two years younger but already bearing a history of mental imbalance. Solomon was well-read, with a special interest in the French symbolist writer Antonin Artaud, who had died in a lunatic asylum the previous year, and who Solomon believed had appointed him his representative in America.

The two psychiatric cases sized each other up. "I'm Prince Myshkin", Ginsberg said, alluding to the gentle anti-hero of Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot. The reference would have escaped most inmates, but Solomon got it. "And I'm Kirilov", he replied (from The Possessed). A friendship had begun, which would be immortalised in a declamatory,...

'He gets a lot of people following him around,' 'On the Road' star say of fellow heartthrob at the Golden Globes.

By Mawuse Ziegbe, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Garrett Hedlund on the 2011 Golden Globes Awards red carpet

Photo: Steve Granitz/ WireImage

Garrett Hedlund has already scored some unforgettable memories on the set of his Beat Generation flick "On the Road," but getting heartthrob tips from co-star Kristen Stewart's rumored flame Robert Pattinson is not among them.

MTV News caught up with the "Country Strong" actor on the Golden Globes red carpet Sunday (January 16), and while he admitted that they chopped it up when Pattinson popped by the "Road" set to visit his lady friend, he didn't score any gems on how to handle his budding screen-idol status.

"You're trying to milk me for great little things; I got nothing on it," Hedlund shrugged to MTV News' Josh Horowitz.

'He gets a lot of people following him around,' 'On the Road' star say of fellow heartthrob at the Golden Globes.

By Mawuse Ziegbe, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Garrett Hedlund on the 2011 Golden Globes Awards red carpet

Photo: Steve Granitz/ WireImage

Garrett Hedlund has already scored some unforgettable memories on the set of his Beat Generation flick "On the Road," but getting heartthrob tips from co-star Kristen Stewart's rumored flame Robert Pattinson is not among them.

MTV News caught up with the "Country Strong" actor on the Golden Globes red carpet Sunday (January 16), and while he admitted that they chopped it up when Pattinson popped by the "Road" set to visit his lady friend, he didn't score any gems on how to handle his budding screen-idol status.

"You're trying to milk me for great little things; I got nothing on it," Hedlund shrugged to MTV News' Josh Horowitz.

'It's all kind of a blur,' actor recalls of making the film.

By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Garrett Hedlund

Photo: MTV News

Garrett Hedlund might have been treated to Kristen Stewart's cooking during the filming of "On the Road," but it was another memorable meal that the "Country Strong" star recalled from the last night of working on the film that sounds like it could have been pulled right from the Jack Kerouac novel.

"It's all kind of a blur," he told MTV News. "The last night that I was in San Francisco, Carolyn Cassady, who's the actual Camille in the book, she's 89 years old [and she] came down to San Francisco to meet with us. A lot of the family members came down and we got to all have dinner together."

What Hedlund most wondered was if he would pass the test to play the role.

'It's all kind of a blur,' actor recalls of making the film.

By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Garrett Hedlund

Photo: MTV News

Garrett Hedlund might have been treated to Kristen Stewart's cooking during the filming of "On the Road," but it was another memorable meal that the "Country Strong" star recalled from the last night of working on the film that sounds like it could have been pulled right from the Jack Kerouac novel.

"It's all kind of a blur," he told MTV News. "The last night that I was in San Francisco, Carolyn Cassady, who's the actual Camille in the book, she's 89 years old [and she] came down to San Francisco to meet with us. A lot of the family members came down and we got to all have dinner together."

What Hedlund most wondered was if he would pass the test to play the role.

The first production from recently formed "Kerouac Films" is a documentary on the Kerouac's retreat from society and the writing of his novel Big Sur. This same production company also has feature versions of both Big Sur and Dharma Bums in development, and this is along with news that UA is backing an adaptation of On the Road while MGM is supposedly backing The Subterraneans. Jeez, let's hope they don't kill the legend. Apparently this doc has been playing a few fests since last year but I can't find a dvd release on the horizon. There is, however, an audio cd release coming up of the readings.

He was called the vibrant new voice of his generation -- the avatar of the Beat movement. In 1957, on the heels of the triumphant debut of his groundbreaking novel, On The Road, Jack Kerouac was a literary rock star, lionized by his fans and devotees.