Mildred Pierce | |
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Official poster of the miniseries released by HBO.
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Genre | Drama |
Based on |
Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain |
Screenplay by |
Todd Haynes Jon Raymond |
Directed by | Todd Haynes |
Starring |
Kate Winslet Guy Pearce Evan Rachel Wood Melissa Leo |
Theme music composer | Carter Burwell |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of episodes | 5 |
Production | |
Producer(s) | Todd Haynes Christine Vachon John Wells Pamela Koffler Ilene S. Landress |
Cinematography | Edward Lachman |
Editor(s) | Affonso Gonçalves |
Running time | 336 minutes |
Budget | $20 million |
Release | |
Original network | HBO |
Original release | March 27 | – April 10, 2011
External links | |
Website |
Mildred Pierce is a five-part miniseries that first aired on HBO on March 27, 2011. Adapted from James M. Cain's 1941 novel of the same name, it was directed by Todd Haynes, and starred Kate Winslet in the title role, alongside Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood and Melissa Leo.Carter Burwell wrote the original score for the miniseries.
It is the second adaptation of the novel, after the 1945 film noir produced by Warner Bros. and starring Joan Crawford.
Mildred Pierce depicts an overprotective, self-sacrificing mother during the Great Depression who finds herself separated from her husband, opening a restaurant of her own and falling in love with a man, all the while trying to earn her spoiled, narcissistic elder daughter's love and respect.
Parts of the miniseries were filmed in three New York locations: Peekskill, Point Lookout and Merrick.
Mildred Pierce received generally favorable reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film currently holds an average score of 69, based on 28 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". In a WBEZ podcast on the best theatrical films of 2011, critic Jonathan Rosenbaum used the series as an example of television work that was on par with the year's best movies, calling it Haynes' best work to date.Salon.com called it a "quiet, heartbreaking masterpiece", while The New York Times reviewer, Alessandra Stanley, commented that while the miniseries was "loyally, unwaveringly true to James M. Cain's 1941 novel", it did not "make the most of the mythic clash of mother, lover and ungrateful child", and was "not nearly as satisfying as the 1945 film noir".