The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Directed by	Ted Kotcheff
Produced by	John Kemeny
Written by	Lionel Chetwynd Mordecai Richler
Starring	Richard Dreyfuss Micheline Lanctôt Jack Warden Randy Quaid
Music by	Stanley Myers Andrew Powell
Cinematography	Brian West
Editing by	Thom Noble
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	April 11, 1974 July 14, 1974 (NYC only)
Running time	120 min.
Language	English
Budget	Can $910,000 (est)
IMDb profile

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is a 1974 Canadian comedy-drama film based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Mordecai Richler.

Synopsis

Duddy Kravitz is a brash Jewish kid from Montreal who is determined to "make it": whatever "it" is, and whatever "it" takes. Taking to heart his grandfather's maxim that "a man without land is nothing", Kravitz schemes and dreams and hits on his idea: a lakeshore property in the Laurentian mountains. To become successful, he often betrays the people who have loved and helped him. He finally gains the land he wants, but loses love and friendship.

Production

The film was shot in Montréal and in the Ontario village of Elora.^{[citation needed]}

Awards and honours

Duddy Kravitz has an important place in Canadian film history because it was the most commercially successful Canadian film ever made at the time of its release, and has thus been described as a 'coming of age' for Canadian cinema.^[1] The film has been designated and preserved as a "masterwork" by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada, a charitable non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of Canada’s audio-visual heritage. [1]

Prizes

• Berlin International Film Festival - Golden Bear Award
• Canadian Film Awards - Film of the Year
• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium – (Mordecai Richler & Lionel Chetwynd)

Nominations

• Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay – (Mordecai Richler & Lionel Chetwynd)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film

Principal cast

• Richard Dreyfuss  : Duddy
• Micheline Lanctôt  : Yvette
• Jack Warden  : Max
• Randy Quaid  : Virgil
• Joseph Wiseman  : Uncle Benjy
• Denholm Elliott  : Friar

Stage adaptation

In 1987 The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was adapted into a musical for the New York stage, directed by Austin Pendleton.

Notes

1. ^ George Melnyk, One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema (University of Toronto Press, 2004), p. 118.

External links

• Canadian Film Encyclopedia
• Video clip for selection as MasterWorks Recipient of 2002 by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada

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