Fresh off the success of her latest and highest grossing film, “Certain Women,” director Kelly Reichardt has announced her next project. As The LA Times reports, her next film is “a collaboration with the Oregon writer Patrick DeWitt on his novel ‘Undermajordomo Minor,’ a castle-set parable.”
The darkly comic novel’s official synopsis reads: “Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in his bucolic hamlet of Bury, a weakling and compulsive liar in a town famous for producing brutish giants. When Lucy finds employment — as Undermajordomo, assisting the Majordomo of a remote, foreboding castle — he soon discovers the place harbors many dark secrets, not least of which is the whereabouts of the castle’s master, Baron Von Aux. Along the way, he encounters thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and Klara, a delicate beauty for whose love he must compete. Thus begins a tale of theft, heartbreak, mystery, and cold-blooded murder in which every aspect of humanity is laid bare for our hero to observe. ‘Undermajordomo Minor’ is an adventure story, a fable without a moral, an ink-black comedy of manners, and a love story — and Lucy must be careful, for love is a violent thing.”
Reichardt’s “Certain Women” has just passed the $1 million mark at the box office, making it her most successful film ever. It stars Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, and newcomer Lily Gladstone in a trio of interspersed stories set in rural Montana. “Certain Women” took home top honors at the BFI London Film Festival. The ensemble drama was named Best Film at the 60th edition of the fest. There was a retrospective of Reichardt’s films held in Europe earlier this year.
