Snow Cake - A film about autism

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Snow Cake is a drama focused on the friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman (Sigourney Weaver) and a man (Alan Rickman) who is traumatised after a fatal car accident.

It just premiered at the Berlin Film festival and it got good reviews. It looks like it will be released, unlike poor Mozart and the Whale.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448124/

Just look at the cast!

Credited cast:
Alan Rickman - Alex
Sigourney Weaver - Linda
Carrie-Anne Moss - Maggie
James Allodi - Clyde
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jackie Brown - Waitress
etc.


From AutismConnect.

Finally, and on an entirely different note, a movie starring Sigourney Weaver as an autistic woman opened the 56th annual Berlin International Film Festival.

The actress spent months preparing for her role in Snow Cake, a British-Canadian co-production.

"It took me a long time to even understand how to prepare for this part because every person with autism is so unique, and to find someone like Linda took a long time," she told reporters. "I have to say it was one of the most fascinating years I've ever spent researching for this part - and I learned so much, I met so many wonderful people."

She added: "I think we have to begin to see it [autism] as a gift. We may not understand what it's there for, but if you're in the presence of someone with autism, you learn so much. You learn how to play, you learn how to see things, you learn how to experience things and how jarring the world is."

Snow Cake tells the story of a middle-aged English expatriate in Canada, played by Alan Rickman, and the relationship that he develops with Weaver's character, Linda Freeman.

Directed by Welshman Marc Evans from a script by Angela Pell - a British writer with an autistic son - Snow Cake explores the intense frustrations and rewards experienced by those who care for a unique and appealing autistic woman. Englishman Alex Hughes, played with sad, still reserve by Rickman, reluctantly agrees to take an insistent young woman to Winnipeg after she accosts him at a roadside cafe. A truck crashes into the car, killing her. Alex escapes almost without a mark. Overwhelmed by guilt, he goes to find her mother, the autistic Linda Weaver.

The film is the first of 19 in the running for a Golden Bear prize at the 56th Berlinale

Some clips here (zipped Windows Media file).

The film will be broadcast on BBC Two (and on BBC HD), on 10th January, at 11.15pm:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/programmes/ ... 2009/01/10

I watched that just now on the BBC's website. Very good. I can't find much to fault with it.

I watched it last night on TV. Great film. Sigourney Weaver was brilliant and it was interesting to read on this thread what she said about her research and autism being a gift.

Huh??? It´s just being released??? I saw it about 1 and 1/2 years ago already on dvd....

I liked this film. I found the characters interesting. I enjoyed it far more than "Mozart and the Whale". I think I prefer a movie like this, where there just happens to be an autistic character in the thread of life; whereas in the other film, I felt like they were trying too hard to make some kind of message about autism- (whatever that was, I didn´t quite get)- and so it lost some credibility for me.

Mmmmm, Snow Cake............maybe the best thing I can say about this film is nothing! Says it all really doesn't it.
Suffice to say I WON'T ever watch it! EVER!
I have my reasons.................plenty

I saw the movie yesterday on the BBC, missed the start (bugger) and I was very impressed. I never was a big fan of Sigourney Weaver, really, but she played her part/role very well. I thought it was quite good and convincing. Imo it's a better movie than 'Mozart and the Whale' and I'm going to watch it again soon, I think.

Oh and I think I'm going to reconsider my thoughts about S. Weaver after reading this:

Icing on the Cake topic

HartzofSpace tuned me in to Snow Cake eight months ago. Just a superb movie. I would like to see a sequel--maybe Alan Rickman could find an autistic relative in Winniqeg and go back to Wawa to visit Sigourney Weaver and CarrieAnn Moss. Or one of "Linda's" cousins, also AS/Autistic, could be added. Maybe "Linda" could become political somehow, or get a computer and join WP, and... The possibilities are there...

i think Snowcake was ok, but Ben X i thought was better.. as a film about ASD that is...

i diddnt have much love for Mozart and the whale though...

Mozart is a bit too dramatic. But I do not like snowcake too, it is does not fit together.

I still have to see Ben X. I have read the book, it was a bit more realistic for me.

In Snowcake it was a bit disappointing the daughter died, it would be interesting what a young person would be like, coping with her mother and such.

I could relate to Linda about her OCDness about the house. Lot of her reminded me about me in my teens when I didn't like things out of place, shoes on the floor, it made me nervous when my brothers would have friends over and move around in other parts of the house because I was afraid they'd make messes. It was hell.
I used to make up my own rules about board games and I loved to jump.


Linda was lucky to have a house of her own and not worry about people messing it up. I could imagine she was stressed out when she had lot of people over after her daughter's memorial service because she had to worry about rather they are going to make a mess and move her stuff. So what did she do instead to cope? Played music and danced to stay calm.
One person had problems with it but her mother told her to let her dance. I really didn't see what the big deal was about Linda dancing. It's just music and she wasn't in the way with her dancing.

Wow...Riply and Snape in a single movie...well, things being what they are, it'll get over here...maybe...next year.

I saw it on the BBC the other day (so it must
have already been released in UK a few years ago?) . I've always liked Sigourney Weaver and I know she did a lot of research into the part by liaising with and getting to know a real HFA person. In that respect the portrayal was accurate,but I'd like to have seen them make the autistic signs a little less exaggerated,as it perpetuates the myth that every autistic person is noticeably different whereas in reality it's possible to be HFA with most people around you being oblivious to the fact.Still,it was worth watching and the scene where she was dancing all made sense when you saw she was imagining that her
daughter was there with her.

I liked snowcake a lot, my fav part when she was always saying "I dont do social" hehe i feel the same way as her on that haha.

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