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Hemingway's Garden of Eden

Where to watch.

Watch Hemingway's Garden of Eden with a subscription on Prime Video, rent on Fandango at Home, or buy on Fandango at Home.

What to Know

Garden of Eden dramatizes Ernest Hemingway's clipped storytelling without carrying over the intelligence that undergirded the author's writing, yielding a thin drama full of artifice and no feeling.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Mena Suvari

Jack Huston

Caterina Murino

Richard E. Grant

Col. Philip Boyle

Matthew Modine

David's Father

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Movie Review | 'Hemingway’s Garden of Eden'

In the South of France, a 1927 Ménage à Trois Takes an Incendiary Turn

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By Stephen Holden

• Dec. 9, 2010

The life and work of Ernest Hemingway have been notoriously difficult to translate comfortably onto the screen. For one thing, his signature spare sentences, when spoken by actors, often sound as affected as the most rococo effusions of Oscar Wilde. Beyond that, Hemingway’s chest-beating, rifle-bearing Papa Bear explorer persona seems overbearingly pompous if not creepily antediluvian in these postfeminist times.

For all the cinematic crimes against him, there has been no book-to-screen translation of his work quite as atrocious as “Hemingway’s Garden of Eden,” directed by John Irvin from a screenplay by James Scott Linville. An adaptation of Hemingway’s problematic erotic novel, “The Garden of Eden,” posthumously published in 1986, it stars Mena Suvari as the meanest mean girl (pun intended) to spit venom in any film since I don’t know when.

Her character, Catherine, a rich, bored heiress, is so unrelentingly cruel to her husband, David Bourne (Jack Huston), a shy young writer enjoying his first flush of success, that the now-frowned-upon adjective “castrating” is the most appropriate printable word to describe her.

The story, set in 1927 in the South of France and Spain, follows the rapidly disintegrating marriage of David and Catherine, who met in Paris. No sooner have they wed than she persuades him to experiment with sexual role reversal. During sex (and there’s a lot of it), she insists on being the aggressive top partner.

Catherine cuts her hair to look more like a boy, and before long, both their heads are bleached identical shades of platinum. She lures Marita (Caterina Murino), an Italian beauty, to live with them as a ménage à trois in their beachside house in La Napoule, not far from Cannes. After sleeping with Marita, Catherine pressures David to do the same. Catherine is so wildly jealous of her husband’s writing that she impulsively incinerates his hot-off-the-typewriter short story, along with the clippings of his good reviews.

In that short story David recalls a boyhood excursion to Africa with his father (Matthew Modine), during which he witnessed the killing of an elephant. As the movie crisscrosses awkwardly between David’s memories of the trip and his honeymoon in hell, it metaphorically (and ludicrously) compares his losses of innocence in the jungle and in the bedroom. Ms. Suvari’s Catherine is so extravagantly monstrous that Mr. Huston’s David, who provides a desultory narration, comes across as an inert nonentity.

Of the many howlers in a film that has a sickly bleached palette and a soupy soundtrack, my favorite is David’s haughty warning: “You know, you want to be careful about absinthe. It tastes exactly like remorse, and yet it takes it away.”

“Hemingway’s Garden of Eden” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has sexual situations and strong language.

HEMINGWAY’S GARDEN OF EDEN

Opens on Friday in New York and Los Angeles.

Directed by John Irvin; written by James Scott Linville, based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway; director of photography, Ashley Rowe; edited by Jeremy Gibbs; production design by Tim Hutchinson; costumes by Alexandra Byrne; produced by Timothy J. Lewiston and Bob Mahoney; released by Roadside Attractions. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes.

WITH: Mena Suvari (Catherine Bourne), Jack Huston (David Bourne), Caterina Murino (Marita), Carmen Maura (Madame Aurol), Richard E. Grant (Colonel Boyle) and Matthew Modine (David’s Father).

A film review on Friday about “Hemingway’s Garden of Eden” misidentified the character who makes a comment about absinthe and misstated part of what he says. The speaker is David, not Catherine. And he says: “You know, you want to be careful about absinthe. It tastes exactly like remorse, and yet it takes it away.” He does not say, “You must be careful about absinthe.”

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Movie review: ‘Hemingway’s Garden of Eden’

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Based on a posthumously published novel, “Hemingway’s Garden of Eden,” directed by John Irvin from an adaptation by James Scott Linville, tells the story of a writer (Jack Huston), his wife ( Mena Suvari) and the heiress ( Caterina Murino) who ignites a brief passion among all three.

Handsomely presented, with locations in Spain and Africa, the film at moments accomplishes its ambitions of being a tart piece of steamed-up Jazz Age storytelling (casting Richard E. Grant as a drunken friend crisply ups the ante for most any film). Aside from a general lack of intensity that keeps it from really capturing the grasp of romantic obsession, inarguably the biggest problem with “Eden” is a structural one.

Every time the film switches over to dramatize a story that the writer is working on, a hunting adventure of a boy and his father, the momentum stops dead in its tracks. The true heart of the film is the tempestuous relationship between the writer and his wife and the way the presence of their mutual lover brings it to a boil, so why Irvin and Linville would be so thoroughly distracted by elephant hunting in the desert is anyone’s guess.

“Hemingway’s Garden of Eden” is better than it might have been yet still a definite letdown, a literary B-side turned into something not awful, just forgettable.

—Mark Olsen

“Hemingway’s Garden of Eden.” MPAA rating: R for strong sexual content, nudity and some language. Running time: 1 hour, 51 minutes. At Laemmle’s Music Hall 3, Beverly Hills.

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The garden of eden.

Ernest Hemingway's posthumously published and most controversial novel has now become a racy but lifeless film.

By Natasha Senjanovic , The Associated Press October 29, 2008 9:00pm

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Rome International Film Festival

ROME — Ernest Hemingway’s posthumously published and most controversial novel has now become a racy but lifeless film. The nudity and sex — lesbian, menage a trois, you name it — make British director John Irvin’s “The Garden of Eden” a hard sell. The film is not helped by dialogue that never makes it off the written page or the postcard presentation of its European locales. Costumes by Oscar-winning costume designer Alexandra Byrne (“Elizabeth: The Golden Age”) are gorgeous, however.

Set in the Jazz Age, up-and-coming young American writer David (Jack Huston) and rich girl Catherine (Mena Suvari) are on their honeymoon when she becomes sexually restless. She cuts her hair like a boy’s, starts dominating her husband in and out of bed and picks up an Italian heiress (Caterina Murino) to spice things up.

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The three start engaging in sexual games that are more cerebral than erotic or emotionally dangerous. There is no chemistry among the actors. Although Catherine tells David that as (wealthy) artists they can choose not to live by social restraints, the only boundaries “The Garden of Eden” breaks are cinematic – by more puritanical U.K. and U.S. standards. It seems patently shy about exploring the psychological or erotic nature of what lies beyond them.

Former Bond girl Murino’s gives the most natural performance. Suvari proves herself adept at playing perversion. Huston though exudes little of the machismo associated with Hemingway’s men though that does make him more easily malleable at the hands of his wife.

There is also a parallel, autobiographical short story David is writing, about a father (Matthew Modine) and son hunting an elephant in Africa, which is meant to show the writer’s loss of innocence as a young boy.

Production companies: Tranquil Seas, Devonshire Productions. Cast: Mena Suvari, Jack Huston, Caterina Murino, Carmen Maura, Richard E. Grant, Matthew Modine, Mathias Palsvig, Hector Thomas. Director: John Irvin. Screenwriter: James Scott Linville. Based on a novel by: Ernest Hemingway. Producer: Lorne Thysson. Director of photography: Ashley Rowe. Production designer: Tim Hutchinson. Music: Roger Julia. Costume designer: Alexandra Byrne. Editor: Jeremy Gibbs. Sales Agent: Tranquil Seas. No rating, 108 minutes.

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HEMINGWAY’S GARDEN OF EDEN directed by John Irvin – adapted from THE GARDEN OF EDEN by Ernest Hemingway – Movie Review

by Alix Cohen on December 10, 2010

NOT YOUR MOTHER’S HONEYMOON

Picture one of those seaside cafes on The Riviera from the idyllic literature of pre-depression jazz age.  Everyone’s well mannered; clothes are pastel; sailboats bob in the sun; the air seems rarified. Young writer David Bourne  has just married rich, spoiled, pretty, poisonous Catherine. They’re footloose on an extended honeymoon.

“I’m the inventive type,” David reflects.

“I’m the destructive type,” Catherine retorts with an effort to raise an eyebrow.

“What are you going to destroy?” he asks without a flicker of awareness.

“You.” She responds.

And she tries. Very hard.

As David writes, his story is shown as a (well produced) film within the film. Centering on the boyhood memory of a traumatic African elephant hunt with his father (Matthew Modine in a solid, if brief, performance), it parallels the betrayal and destruction he’s experiencing in his life.

Hemingway’s Garden of Eden is an idea that doesn’t flesh out into the drama it should be. Underdeveloped characters strain its credibility, and ultimately, the hijinks are more irritating than shocking.

alixcohen @ stageandcinema.com

Hemingway’s Garden of Eden rated R now playing  in limited release and Video On Demand

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The Garden of Eden

Where to Watch

Jack Huston (David Bourne) Mena Suvari (Catherine Hill Bourne) Caterina Murino (Marita) Carmen Maura (Madame Aurol) Richard E. Grant (Col. Philip Boyle) Matthew Modine (David's Father) Mathias Koie Levi Palsvig (Young David) Héctor Tomás (Patrice) Dritan Biba (Waiter) Luis Callejo (Monsieur Jean)

A young American writer completes his service in WWI and travels across Europe with his wife and her attractive Italian girlfriend. Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway.

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Hemingway’s Garden of Eden

Mannered, bloodless and appallingly thesped filmization of Hemingway's posthumous novel.

By Ronnie Scheib

Ronnie Scheib

• Film Review: ‘Song of Lahore’ 9 years ago
• Film Review: ‘One Cut, One Life’ 9 years ago
• Film Review: ‘Applesauce’ 9 years ago

Vet British helmer John Irvin’s mannered, bloodless and appallingly thesped filmization of Hemingway ‘s posthumous novel, though unlikely to set the author rolling in his grave, may still have viewers rolling in the aisles. This semi-autobiographical, Jazz Age account of a young writer’s sexual experiences at the hands of his rich, spoiled, emotionally unstable bride aims for a level of sophistication miles beyond tyro scripter James Scott Linville’s callow reach. Bowing Dec. 10 in Gotham and Los Angeles, “Garden of Eden” sends sleek, half-nude bodies glumly cavorting through lush Riviera landscapes in a paradigm of unintentional camp.

While Jack Huston’s Paris-based scribe merely registers as a bland, none-too-bright pretty boy, Mena Suvari’s stab at impersonating a gender-bending flapper fatale seems downright clueless, her bizarre line readings divorcing already clunky dialogue from any believability. The leads further suffer in comparison with the secondary players: Caterina Murino smolders as the bisexual beauty brought in to form a “perverse” menage a trois; Richard E. Grant infuses the expat community with a welcome whiff of depravity; and Carmen Maura singlehandedly evokes an entire coastline of sensible, stalwart natives. Even Matthew Modine’s great white hunter in a film-within-the-film escapes ridicule.

• Production: A Roadside Attractions release of a Tranquil Seas presentation of a Devonshire production in association with Berwick Street Prods., Freeform Spain. Produced by Lorne Thyssen, Tim Lewiston, Bob Mahoney. Co-producers, Mario Jurisic, Geoff Jarrett, Vincente Tamarit. Directed by John Irvin. Screenplay, James Scott Linville, from the novel by Ernest Hemingway.
• Crew: Camera (color), Ashley Rowe; editor, Jeremy Gibbs; music, Roger Julia; production designer, Tim Hutchinson; costume designer, Alexandra Byrne. Reviewed at Magno Review 1, New York, Nov. 16, 2010. Running time: 97 MIN.
• With: With: Mena Suvari, Jack Huston, Caterina Murino, Carmen Maura, Richard E. Grant, Matthew Modine. (English, French dialogue)

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Garden of eden.

Directed by John Irvin

A young American writer completes his service in WWI and travels across Europe with his wife and her attractive Italian girlfriend. Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway.

Jack Huston Mena Suvari Carmen Maura Richard E. Grant Caterina Murino Matthew Modine Isabella Orlowska Serah Mwihaki Hellen Waithira Olivia Njambi

Director Director

Producers producers.

André Djaoui Geoff Jarrett Alan Latham Tim Lewiston Bob Mahoney

Writer Writer

James Scott Linville

Original Writer Original Writer

Ernest Hemingway

Casting Casting

Dan Hubbard

Editor Editor

Jeremy Gibbs

Cinematography Cinematography

Ashley Rowe

Production Design Production Design

Tim Hutchinson

Art Direction Art Direction

Jonathan McKinstry

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Bárbara Pérez-Solero

Costume Design Costume Design

Alexandra Byrne

Devonshire Productions Berwick Street Productions Freeform Spain

Releases by Date

01 jan 2008, releases by country.

• Theatrical R

111 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Katie Kelly ★

"Fuck elephant hunting."

Review by NinjaDomoEsq ★★

It makes me want to read the book at least! That said, this is often times a dreadful and embarrassing film that buckles under its source material. For something that's supposed to be erotic, it's odd how PG it can often feel. The shining light in this disappointment is probably Caterina Murino.

Review by Kneedecker ★

Mena Souvari thought she was acting in a stage play; no one told her this was a film and that she did not need to declare each individual word like that. I’m not familiar with the source material, so I’m not sure how faithful this adaptation was, but Souvari’s mid-Atlantic style speech up against her husband’s very modern-sounding speech was jarring. Waiting until halfway through the movie to start cutting away to the writer’s story was also jarring—there are a lot of minor players introduced in the beginning that never come back around.

Review by May Berchon ★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

My favorite part was when she stuck her fingers up his butt and called him a girl.

I know people have a weird relationship with Ernest Hemingway and his work. The way people talk about him, you'd think he was Archie Bunker. But his protagonists come across as any self-absorbed 20- or 30-something guy walking around in contemporary America. The type of guy who wants to be tough. The type of guy whose artistry is often at odds with his past, his intellect, and gender norms. There's a lot about this movie that is somewhat cringey. But I find a lot of people in today's world just as ridiculous.

Mena Suvari and Jack Huston are pretty good together. This is…

Review by Hope García ★★

I didn't understand what was happening, and is almost... Uncomfortable to watch

Review by Filipe de Souza ★★

This is basically about a throuple with an elephant hunting story. Caterina naked was the best highlight of it.

Review by Nick Guzan ★

look i get that not everyone’s a hemingway fan but did he really deserve THIS? the sun shouldn’t have risen on this one... (😏)

furious at whatever sick impulse i have to finish watching movies compelled me to stick it out to the end of this, but at least the costumes helped? (not helpful? that fake ass fish)

probably would have been much more watchable if i had kept it completely muted since the dialogue and music gave me such intense secondhand embarrassment that my therapist will be hearing about it for the next few sessions

Review by Marcos De Oliveira ★★

Despite of good costumes, make up and overall production design, the subpar acting drags the interest down for most of the movie.

Pretty sure Hemingway is not happy with his posthumous book and its film adaptation.

Review by mrsmae54 ★★

I wasn’t too into this movie. Catherine is seemingly spoiled but wild. Trying to remain open but taking everything so personal. Dramatics. It’s like a lifetime movie... not great. Recommended I would say if you read the book..

Review by Emily ★★★

Replace me in a chosen vessel, we died our hair platinum, tanned our skin, lived intimately enough for you to become me & I, you, I called you by my name sub coming to my desires changing our pattern of love, but I wanted & wanted & wanted, In those moments we were one, but then I introduced another & now everything's different, now I'm in Paris & you're with her,

I'm alone once more

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Hemingway's Garden of Eden

Time Out says

For an especially egregious bit of miscasting, look no further than Mena Suvari, star of this tony adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's posthumously published novel about a disintegrating marriage. Called upon to be an outwardly sensuous, inwardly distressed '20s flapper, the performer best known for s-curving her torso while reclining on a sea of digital rose petals in American Beauty struts around with studied mock confidence. You keep thinking she'll take a quick glance downward to find her mark in between all her deer-in-the-headlight readings of semiarchaic terms such as gamine . It's painful to watch.

As her Hemingway-like male counterpart, Huston (who stole the show as a half-faced assassin on the first season of Boardwalk Empire ) at least leavens things with his pomade-slick machismo. But his efforts prove futile when the film introduces the sexpot (Murino) who comes between the couple on their hedonistic Spanish honeymoon. It's then that the risible yet still superficially entertaining elements---plush scenery, faux-daring soft-core sex scenes (ooh, she stuck her finger up his bumhole!)---reveal themselves as the groundwork for an overly bookish dissection of romance, gender and obsession. Some ineptly incorporated elephant-hunting flashbacks with Matthew Modine as Huston's cocky paterfamilias imply that all the characters's sexual hang-ups lead back to Dad. What David Cronenberg might have made of these scenes: Hatari! by way of Naked Lunch ? We can dream.

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Hemingway's Garden of Eden

Film details, brief synopsis, cast & crew, mena suvari, jack huston, caterina murino, richard e. grant, carmen maura, technical specs.

Set in the jazz age of the 1920s, the story follows a successful young American writer, David Bourne, and his beautiful wife, Catherine, on their extended honeymoon in Europe. Catherine soon becomes restless and starts to test her husband's devotion, pushing him to the limits of her erotic imagination and luring a sultry Italian girl Marita into their inner circle. With the stakes continually ratcheting higher, the events that follow change their lives forever.

Matthew Modine

Alejandro arroyo, mathias koie levi palsvig, michail krasnoborov redwood, enrique zaldua, sheara abrahams, susie allnutt, dan alterman, chris andrews, miquel august, paula boram, trevor brown, alexandra byrne, jocelin capper, claudia cimmino, mark corpuz, matt curtis, lucia del rio, giancarlo dellapina, dani devereux, antonio calvo dominguez, helen marti donoghue, kati marti donoghue, christopher downs, joseph dymond, louis elman, frederic fabrega, robert farr, steven forrester, dominic fysh, don gallacher, jeremy gibbs, elliott gilhooly, lisa giralt, constantine gregory, elena griolli, alice guien, miguel sese guillot, natalia sese guillot, noel harmes, ernest hemingway, carolina hernandez, warwick hewett, dan hubbard, christoffer hulusjo, louise hussey, georgina hutchinson, tim hutchinson, silvie imbert, daniel izar del la fuente, jane jackson, geoffrey jarrett, roger julia, cecilia lanzi, anthony laranjo, tim lewiston, james scott linville, sharon long, gabriella louise loria, bob mahoney, virginia maillo, shiv mandavia, octavi martinez, roger martinez, katherine mccormack, vincent mcgahon, erin mcgookin, jonathan mckinstry, romano molter, andrew morgado, simon morris, guillermo florez muniz, nicola dalla mura, jairo murray, linda o'reilly, nelle ormrod, leonardo osello, aitana ozaeta, john palmer, wojtek palys, vasileios papatheocharis, catalina parra, richard payne, barbara perez-solero, victor pesavento, andrew pilgrim, nigel pollock, jonathan privett, ashley rowe, yolanda rubio, richard sallqvist, gabriel rubio sanchez, jose antonio sanchez, xavier sarasa, david sevilla, kelly smith, eddie stacey, mark stevens, ruth sullivan, lorne thyssen, alan williamson, miscellaneous notes.

Limited Release in United States Winter December 10, 2010

Released in United States September 2008

Shown at Rome International Film Festival September 4-7, 2008.

Based on the unfinished novel "The Garden of Eden" written by Ernest Hemingway.

Released in United States September 2008 (Shown at Rome International Film Festival September 4-7, 2008.)

Limited Release in United States Winter December 10, 2010 (Los Angeles & New York City)

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The Garden of Eden

A young American writer completes his service in WWI and travels across Europe with his wife and her attractive Italian girlfriend. Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. A young American writer completes his service in WWI and travels across Europe with his wife and her attractive Italian girlfriend. Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. A young American writer completes his service in WWI and travels across Europe with his wife and her attractive Italian girlfriend. Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway.

• James Scott Linville
• Ernest Hemingway
• Jack Huston
• Mena Suvari
• Caterina Murino
• 18 User reviews
• 22 Critic reviews
• 28 Metascore

• David Bourne

• Catherine Hill Bourne

• Madame Aurol

• Col. Philip Boyle

• David's Father
• Young David
• (as Mathias Palsvig)
• (as Hector Tomas)

• Monsieur Jean
• (as Alvaro Roig)
• Girl Onlooker
• (as Yael Belicha)
• (as Maria Miguel)
• Ritz Waiter
• (as Enrique Zoldua)
• Rotund Woman

• Man in Crowd
• Girl At Party
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia This is the fiftieth adaptation of an Ernest Hemmingway story.
• Goofs The fish David "catches" is clearly made of rubber. The fish has an adipose fin which only salmon and catfish have. This fake fish does not look like a salmon at all with the spiky dorsal fin and the snapper head.

David Bourne : You know you want to be careful about Absinthe. It tastes like remorse, yet it takes it away.

• Soundtracks The Jefferson Stomp (uncredited) Performed by Raimond Bugatti and his Platinum Lounge Syncopators

User reviews 18

• tony-22-615424
• Apr 6, 2011
• How long is The Garden of Eden? Powered by Alexa
• Did Jack Huston really dive off the cliff?
• September 15, 2011 (Chile)
• United Kingdom
• Hemingway's Garden of Eden
• Los Alcázares, Murcia, Spain (Hotel des Voyageurs scenes)
• Devonshire Productions
• Berwick Street Productions
• Freeform Spain
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Dec 12, 2010

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 51 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Review: hemingway’s garden of eden.

It’s not hard to spot the allure in filming stories like The Garden of Eden , big messy works that exceeded even the grasps of their authors.

It’s not hard to spot the allure in filming stories like The Garden of Eden , big messy works that exceeded even the grasps of their authors. But there’s also an enormous amount of risk inherent in adapting something that wasn’t entirely finished in the first place. Pair this with a writer famous for his basically unfilmable novels and you have Hemingway’s Garden of Eden , a turgid, unsatisfying rendering of the author’s risqué uncompleted opus.

John Irvin’s adaptation falls pretty to the same snares that likely marred Hemingway’s ability to wrap up the story, mainly the collision between a high-toned, sepia-tinged remembrance piece with the callow sex fantasy that inhabits the story’s core. Wasting time in Europe after finishing his WWI service, young writer David Bourne (Jack Huston) falls into a whirlwind romance with the rich, voracious Catherine (Mena Suvari). The extended honeymoon that follows finds him steadily overwhelmed by her dominating sexuality, a situation that reaches its climax when she installs the exotic Marita (Caterina Murino) as their relationship’s third wheel.

In this Riviera vacation atmosphere, all sun, sand, and skin, the dialectic of opposites the film attempts to enforce instead melts down to little more than kinky foreplay. There are wispy suggestions of underlying ideas, about the mutability of gender roles and the way in which masculinity, Hemingway’s stock topic, reacts when faced with a threat to its supremacy. Dedication to this theme crests early on, when Bourne, withering under Catherine’s commanding influence, dyes his hair blond to match his wife’s. That this ends up more as a visual joke than anything else indicates the film’s ultimate disinterest in actually broaching the issue.

The sexual roundelay that follows, with the three characters trading beds and bards, is tiresome, a flaw that traces back to the source text. To offer some respite, Hemingway’s Garden of Eden flashes to the story Bourne is currently writing, a tale of elephant hunting in Africa that mirrors the main attraction. This is a cheesy, distracting flight of fancy, but at least spares us from the increasingly dreary main conflict, with Suvari’s agonizing approximation of what a wealthy jazz-age flapper should talk like, all creakily elevated diction and overwrought pauses. It’s a dreadful performance, against which Huston, who’s done recent work in the same time period, playing the half-faced Richard Harrow on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire , manages to come out relatively unscathed. The same can’t be said for Hemingway’s story, itself already a flawed working bordering on the tawdry, which has been shaped into an ultimately hollow and tedious film.

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Jesse Cataldo

Jesse Cataldo hails from Brooklyn, where he spends his time writing all kinds of things, preparing elaborate sandwiches, and hopelessly trying to whittle down his Netflix queue.

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‘Garden of Eden’ – Exclusive First Look at New Horror Movie from Director Marcel Walz

Neon Noir , the production company formed by Marcel Walz, Sarah French and Joe Knetter , has wrapped principal photography on their second movie, titled Garden of Eden .

Bloody Disgusting has been told that the film, shot in the LA area, “tackles heavy subject matter that will no doubt lead to some controversy during its planned film festival run.”

Exclusively check out two first-look images plus the poster and expect more soon.

In Garden of Eden , “The Eden family are devout Christians and do everything they can to live the word of God and set an example of what is right and wrong. They have been very successful in business and are rich beyond their needs. In order to give back, the family throws garden parties. Each guest that is lucky enough to find a key gets to have their most wished for dream come true. But a dream for some can be a nightmare for others.”

Director Marcel Walz ( Pretty Boy ) said in a statement to BD, “My heart was full of joy after finishing Garden of Eden . This was a such wonderful experience for me, seeing this cast and crew putting so much love and beauty into a movie with so many disturbing and controversial scenes. We created something special.”

Writer Joe Knetter adds, “There were moments where we questioned whether we were going too far. But it isn’t exploitation. Everything serves the story. In the end there’s beauty in the brutality. We want the audience to think about what they’ve seen and what it means.”

“I love working on films that think outside the box, push the envelope and have deep, meaningful characters so it’s a no-brainer that these are the types of films I want to produce,” said French.

Garden of Eden stars Robert Rusler, Monique T. Parent, Sarah French and Sarah Polednak as the Eden Family with Gigi Gustin, Sarah Nicklin and Dazelle Yvette in supporting roles.

Marcus Friedlander is the Director of Photography.

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

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Hemingway's Garden of Eden - Movie Review

Ernest Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden , published posthumously in 1986, is not the best representation of Hemingway’s genius as an American author.  Much has been debated (and deleted) concerning the quality of his ninth book, yet that didn’t stop Hollywood from plowing straight into another version of this tale concerning a Mediterranean ménage à trios and androgynous obsession.  Filmed in 2008 (but only now finding itself in limited release), Hemingway’s Garden of Eden – while filled with bits and nuggets of Euro soft-core - is more of a tease than it is a tassel.

David Bourne [Jack Huston (yes, from THAT Hollywood family)] and his wife Catherine (Mena Suvari) are vacationing in the French Rivera.  It is there that the young couple meets the temptress that is Marita (Caterina Murino), a Sardinian beauty with a whole lot of money, who teases and tests their wedding vows with her über sexiness and charisma.  Catherine might be somewhat obsessed with androgyny, convincing her husband to look like her, and her own status, but – it seems – she is no match for her husband’s carnal instincts where Marita is concerned.  They both can have her, but only one can love her and the cost of daring such a thing is indeed a steep price.

Inserting the story sequences concerning a hunting trip in Africa David had with his father into the picturesque setting of the French Rivera and its ensuing love affair might have sounded like a good idea, but fractured into the narrative it merely spoils the lush atmosphere with misdirection.  It’s purposeless and shallow, revealing nothing about David’s talents as a writer.  It’s intended to be the story he is working on while vacationing in the French Rivera, but – disappearing into a tale about his youth – he can’t muster any excitement out of it and merely trips the audience up with a heavy-handed anecdote.

Yes, this is true to Hemingway’s novel, but – even in the novel – there seems to be some confusion about its meaning.  Director John Irvin doesn’t forcefully settle on a reason for much in this narrative and lets things play out in a sort of soap operatic manner that hinders the true story hidden within the subtext of the original.  This is why Hemingway’s books make horrible movies.  Their subtleties are usually ruined by false staging.

The performances aren’t bad, but they aren’t dynamic either.  They are adequate.  Murino simply has to smolder in front of the camera and she does, being a nice pictorial contrast to the bleach blondeness of Suvari and Hudson.  Hudson is serviceable as the Hemingway hero, but doesn’t become the striking object he needs to be in order to ignite any real sparks.  And Suvari, jealous of her husband’s relationship with his typewriter, goes from enticing flapper to a raving bitch by the end of the film.  If it seems overdramatic, know that witnessing it is worth and equally nonsensical.  There is nothing beyond the frames of this picture; no real value and no authentic note in its muse.  It’s a buttery and vapid meal, with no real sizzle.

The Garden of Eden , in book form, is not great Hemingway.  It’s not even good Hemingway.  Released twenty-five years after his death, the original text was sliced and diced in an effort to tell the bare bones of the story he was working on.  Yes, the very minimum.  As a result of the editor’s heavy hand, we will never know for sure what Hemingway envisioned in his head for David and Catherine Bourne.  This movie - which probably should have stayed shelved - will make sure that audiences don’t even care to know the real story.

{pgomakase}

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Rediscovering the Garden of Eden On this island paradise, anything is possible

A woman poses with a Coco de Mer in the Seychelles (Rainer Binder/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Andrew Doyle

May 29, 2024   6 mins.

In 1882, General Charles Gordon rediscovered the Garden of Eden. This renowned military hero, who had played a significant role in quelling the Taiping Rebellion and was later to perish at the Siege of Khartoum , had been dispatched to the Seychelles to determine whether this archipelago in the Indian Ocean might be a suitable location for a British military base. Instead, he found himself following in the footsteps of Adam and Eve. 

I recently took a stroll through Gordon’s supposed Eden, and must confess to sensing a certain kinship with his romantic speculations. To enter the Va llée de Mai, a forest of almost 50 acres on the island of Praslin, feels like a small adventure, a throwback to a time when the kind of burly colonialists envisaged by H. Rider Haggard would hack their way through dense undergrowth with machetes. It is what conservationists call a “primary forest”, an uninterrupted ecosystem that has been relatively unscathed by human interference. I can understand why Gordon thought he had stumbled upon the terrestrial paradise. 

It only takes a few steps into the Va llée de Mai before the vegetation engulfs you on all sides. You can no longer see the road, only patches of sky through the ceiling of immense overlapping fanlike leaves. The forest’s isolation for millions of years has meant that it is home to many unique forms of flora and fauna, and it is now a Unesco World Heritage Site. “This is a special place,” my guide tells me. She isn’t wrong.  

Gordon’s belief that this was mankind’s original home was expressed in a letter to the botanist Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, then assistant director of Kew Gardens. His case was based on multiple factors. Gordon was one of many religious thinkers of the time who subscribed to the belief in the lost continent of Lemuria, which was said to be the source of human life and to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean. Before we learnt about plate tectonics, this hypothesis made sense of the corresponding natural features of Africa, Australia and the Indian subcontinent. In his letter, Gordon employs some creative and tortuous logic to connect the underwater clefts at the seabed, one of which runs in the direction of the Seychelles, with the four rivers mentioned in the Book of Genesis.  

After spending some time in the Va llée de Mai, one senses a profound connection to a primordial era. While fantasies of Lemuria have long been discredited, there is a plausible theory that the area is a remnant of Gondwana, the supercontinent that broke apart approximately 140 million years ago. Its most famous plant, the coco de mer , bears a seed that is far too heavy to be dispersed by natural means. It is endemic only to Praslin and the nearby island of Curieuse, although it has been successfully grown elsewhere. One tree was imported to the Palm House at Kew in 1994, and another flourishes at the botanical gardens on Mahé (the largest island in the Seychelles), planted there by the late Duke of Edinburgh in 1956.  

Blasphemy laws have returned to Denmark

By Andrew Doyle

Let’s talk about that seed. I am ashamed to say it took me two attempts to lift it; in my defence I was hungover and unprepared for its weight. Each seed can be as heavy as 25kg, and can grow up to half a metre in length, making it the largest in existence. But it is the shape that has made it legendary. Once the husk is removed, it resembles female genitalia, complete with hair at the pubic region and buttocks at the back. O ne of the seed’s botanical names, l odoicea callipyge , comes from the Greek for “beautiful rump”.  

Naturally, the seed has always been a symbol of fertility, and there are traditions that the pulpy kernel — apparently delicious — is an aphrodisiac. It is sometimes known as a “love nut” or the suggestive “double coconut”, and one London shop specialising in sex toys and lingerie has called itself “Coco de Mer”. As a symbol, the seed is everywhere on the Seychelles; it is mounted in hotel lobbies, and its image is emblazoned on souvenirs and tourist advertisements. At the Va llée de Mai gift shop you can even buy a perfume which incorporates extracts from the fruit.  

Even before its origins were understood — back before the Seychelles were first inhabited by French settlers in the mid 18th century — the seeds were said to have talismanic properties. When their shells would wash up on the shores of countries around the Indian Ocean (they will only float to the surface once the interior has decayed), locals assumed that they must grow on some underwater tree and that they had “fallen upwards”. In the Maldives, beached coco de mer nuts were automatically the property of the king. Those who kept them for themselves were executed. Today, poaching the seeds from the Va llée de Mai carries a prison sentence, a point that my guide is keen to emphasise. One would have thought that my difficulty in lifting the thing would make me an unlikely thief. 

Naturally, these shells became expensive gifts popular among royalty, a tradition we can trace from the mediaeval period until the present day. The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II purchased one for 4,000 gold Florins in 1602, and had it etched with nautical motifs and fashioned into an ornamental ewer (a photograph can be viewed on Oxford University’s Cabinet website). And having spent their honeymoon in the Seychelles in 2011, the Prince and Princess of Wales were presented with a coco de mer seed by the country’s foreign minister. It’s a socially acceptable version of the saucy wedding gift for aristocrats. 

The erotic impression becomes even more pronounced when one considers that the coco de mer trees are dioecious rather than hermaphroditic, which is to say that the species is divided into male and female. While the female trees bear yonic seeds, the males have catkins that are decidedly phallic in appearance and can grow to over a metre long. This has given rise to the local myth that, after nightfall, the boy trees uproot themselves and fornicate with the girls, like a pornographic version of The Day of the Triffids .

The trees must be strong, given that they can reach over 30 metres in height, carry dozens of these hefty fruits, and still stay upright during monsoon season. My guide explains how this is achieved by showing me the remnants of a dead coco de mer, a basin of wood which lies embedded in the ground for six decades after each tree’s death. This natural mechanism is similar in concept to a human knee, so that as the palms are thrashed about in the winds the bulbous base swivels in this socket and remains standing. It’s one of those incredibly sophisticated natural features that might prompt even the staunchest of evolutionists to entertain thoughts of an omnipotent designer.

But there is so much more to this forest than the coco de mer. Without a guide, I would have missed it all. She was adept at pointing out the tiny native Praslin snails that adhere themselves to palms. She identified the call of the black parrot, unique to the Vallée de Mai, often heard but rarely seen. She told me about the threats to the forest from invasive species, and in particular the influx of “yellow crazy ants” that spray acid into the eyes of geckos and skinks and other creatures that are essential to a functional ecosystem. Specialists have found methods to reduce this malevolent ant population, but preserving this little ancient realm is no easy feat. The risk of fire is another persistent worry. Forest fires tend to break out on Praslin every few years, and there was an especially severe one in April 1958 that would have totally destroyed the Vallée de Mai were it not for the expertise of a small group of local firefighters.

“As we generally believe that there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and a Tree of Life,” wrote General Gordon, “actual trees, set aside for a time to be imbued with mystic powers, there is no reason why these trees should not exist now.” He was convinced that the Tree of Life still existed in the form of the breadfruit tree — the edible fruit of which is often fried into chips — and that the Tree of Knowledge was an ancestor of the coco de mer.

Whether Gordon really believed this or not is perhaps beside the point. The dream itself has a certain poetic grandeur about it and, as he pointed out in his letter to Kew, “if it will save the Coco de Mer species from extinction or go some way towards it you will pardon it”. I personally doubt that the Vallée de Mai was the scene of Adam’s temptation, not least because Eve would have required the biceps of Charles Atlas to pick its fruit and pass it on to her husband. Then again, in this world of natural marvels, maybe anything is possible

Andrew Doyle is a comedian and creator of the Twitter persona Titania McGrath

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Excellent – something I had never heard of prior that adds a bit of wonder…

Is AD looking to make a wider point here, using what he found in the Seychelles as a metaphor for us to seek to rediscover our own Garden of Eden?

I’m pretty sure this article isn’t just a travelogue – that’s not AD’s style. His referencing of the ‘weight’ of the reproductive parts of plants could be taken as a means of seeking to bring us back to our senses around the entire sex and gender debate. It’s too precious to become lost in the headwinds of contemporary culture.

Agreed. But I’m left with the questions and no answers.

Is the 11th paragraph printed twice supposed to embody that “omnipotent designer”?

I expected this article to be about an island here in the South Pacific where, thanks to its natural resources, its inhabitants are paid a living wage and don’t do any work. Needless to say, it has become a living hell. I’m not sure I’m pleasantly surprised to find a different sort of content since I don’t really come to UnHerd for botanical news–even if it is a fascinating plant.

That assumes the article is only about a plant, rather than the plant being symbolic of a much wider aspect of something familiar to us all, as alluded to in my earlier comment. Andrew Doyle is not a botanist!

Very cool article. Been wanting to visit there for a few years but now I am just that much more motivated.

I assume that ‘hair in the public region’ should have been ‘in the pubic region’, unless there’s a secret, private region we haven’t been told about.

Surely the ‘public region’ would be more widely known? Or perhaps, he was referencing the rainforests of the Brazilian.