Миссис Паркер и порочный круг

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is a 1994 American biographical drama film directed by Alan Rudolph from a screenplay written by Rudolph and Randy Sue Coburn. The film stars Jennifer Jason Leigh as writer Dorothy Parker and depicts the members of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of writers, actors and critics who met almost every weekday from 1919 to 1929 at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel. The film was an Official Selection at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. The film was a critical but not a commercial success. Leigh won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress. Peter Benchley, who plays editor Frank Crowninshield, was the grandson of humorist Robert Benchley, who once worked underneath Crowninshield. Actor Wallace Shawn is the son of William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker.

During the Prohibition era in the United States, the Algonquin Hotel is a hub for the "Vicious Circle," a group of intellectuals. Among them is Dorothy Parker, a successful writer. Dealing with a troubled marriage to a drug addict, she finds solace in the genuine friendship of Robert Benchley, a colleague at Vanity Fair. The "Vicious Circle" successfully stages an improvisational theatrical performance, leading Dorothy to cross paths with Charles Mac Arthur. Their relationship results in abandonment and an abortion, further shaping her sharp and skeptical character. Amidst depression, Dorothy attempts suicide, but Robert intervenes, choosing not to pursue a romantic involvement due to fear of potential heartbreak. Without the prospect of love, Dorothy and Robert navigate separate paths, seeking solace in different relationships and experiences. In 1945, Dorothy discovers Robert's death from cirrhosis of the liver, adding another layer of hardship. Attempts at psychoanalysis fail to alleviate the darkness within her. In 1958, aged and increasingly isolated in New York, she receives a significant literary award.

Director Alan Rudolph was fascinated with the Algonquin Round Table as a child when he discovered Gluyas Williams' illustrations in a collection of Robert Benchley's essays. Speaking in 1995, he said "the Algonquin Hotel round table, what it symbolised, and the ripple effect that went out from it, was probably up there in the 50 most significant events of the century". After making The Moderns, a film about American expatriates in 1920s Paris, Rudolph wanted to tackle a fact based drama set in the same era. He began work on a screenplay with novelist and former Washington Star journalist Randy Sue Coburn about legendary writer Dorothy Parker. In 1992, Rudolph attended a Fourth of July party hosted by filmmaker Robert Altman who introduced him to actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. Rudolph was surprised by her physical resemblance to Parker and was impressed by her knowledge of the Jazz Age. Leigh was so committed to doing the film that she agreed to make it for "a tenth of what I normally get for a film".

Rudolph shot the film in Montreal because the building facades in its old city most closely resembled period New York City. During the film’s 40 day shoot, the cast stayed in a run down hotel dubbed Camp Rudolph and engaged in all night poker games. Leigh chose not to participate in these activities, preferring to stay in character on and off camera. She did a great amount of research for the role and said "I wanted to be as close to her as I possibly could." A rough cut of Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle was screened at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival where it divided film critics. It was rumored afterwards that Leigh re recorded several scenes that were too difficult to understand because of her accent but she denied that this happened. For her performance in the film, Leigh was nominated for both the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.