Albert Finney ‘Under the Volcano’

Press, 12 June 1986, Page 18

Albert Finney ‘Under the Volcano’

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hons petrovic

John Huston’s “Under the Volcano,” which depicts the last 24 hours in the life of an alcoholic retired British consul in Mexico, will start at the Academy tomorrow. Based on the Malcolm Lowry novel which was published in 1947 and is considered a classic, “Under the Volcano” stars Albert Finney as the consul, Jacqueline Bisset as his wife, and Anthony Andrews as their friend. Huston had wanted to make the novel into a film for 30 years. During that time, he read more than 20 screenplays and talked to numerous actors who wanted to play the role of the consul. It was only on seeing a script by Guy Gallo that Huston felt the project might at last be made. The production team scouted many villages and areas around Cuernavaca, Mexico, before deciding on the village of Yautepec, which would double for Cuernavaca in 1938. They also found a house in the old part of Cuernavaca that would double for the consul’s house, and a resort area, Cocoyoc, where the Red Cross ball would be staged. It was Huston who gave the final approval — from the very beginning, he

knew exactly how the film should look. “Under the Volcano” takes place in a 24-hour period during the Day of the Dead festivities, when three people play out the last moments of their lives against a background of looming horror. It is a story about the breakdown of values which forces the reader or viewer to admire the courageous self-destruc-tion of a man. It is considered one of the few modern tragedies. Mexico is a country which John Huston loves, and where he has already made three other films: the award-winning “The treasure of the Sierra Madre,” with Humphrey Bogart and his father, Walter Huston, “The Unforgiven” and “The Night of the Iguana,” the latter photographed by Gabriel Figueroa, who is the director of photography for “Under the Volcano.”