The Immigrant (2013) on Netflix
In 1921, Ewa and Magda leave Poland for New York. Magda is quarantined at Ellis Island with a lung disease, and Ewa, nearly deported, is freed when Bruno Weiss bribes an officer.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.6/1035,417 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes85%
Trailer
Plot summary
Two Polish sisters, Ewa Cybulska and Magda, arrive in New York in 1921 to start a new life. At Ellis Island, Magda's lung disease puts her in quarantine, and Ewa faces deportation. Bruno Weiss, who says he works for the Travelers' Aid Society, takes note of her and pays an officer to secure her release, then brings her to his home. Magda remains on the island, and Ewa must earn money for her sister's release. She looks for relatives already living in the city. Bruno arranges for her to perform at the Bandits' Roost theater, where she is drawn into prostitution; his romantic advances she turns down.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Immigrant (2013)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Gray said Harvey Weinstein's proposed cut of The Immigrant ran 88 minutes, was "completely incoherent" and had a voice-over throughout, and that Weinstein wanted the ending to combine Titanic and The Sound of Music, with Cotillard's character in old-age makeup walking over a mountain.
- The Weinstein Company bought U.S. distribution rights three months after filming wrapped but held The Immigrant back from the 2012 Toronto festival until Cannes 2013, while Harvey Weinstein hoped to convince James Gray to give it a Sound of Music-style ending; Gray refused, and the film reached U.S. cinemas only in 2014.
- James Gray met Marion Cotillard by chance at a Paris dinner without knowing who she was; she threw a piece of bread at his head and called him a jerk, which made him like her. He thought she resembled silent star Pola Negri and wrote the film for her without ever seeing her on screen.
- Gray's brother found journals from their grandfather, who ran a saloon on New York's Lower East Side in the 1920s after coming from Kiev; among the "low lives" who frequented it was a manipulative pimp who cruised Ellis Island for women arriving in the country alone.
- The Immigrant was the first film shot at Ellis Island; the National Park Service reluctantly gave the crew only two days there, from 5:30 pm when the last ferry left until sunrise, after cinematographer Darius Khondji suggested shooting the day scenes at night.
- Joaquin Phoenix loved Marion Cotillard and often apologized to her after takes in which his character mistreated hers; he felt so bad in one scene that he hid in his dressing room for hours, telling her: "I'm so sorry, this is not me, it's not me."
- Gray wrote around 20 pages of dialogue in Polish, and Marion Cotillard had only two months to learn it, along with speaking English with a credible Polish accent for the role.
