Ad in Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter, July 10

Lanois Productions

and

Century Films

Are proud to announce the completion of principal photography on

HARD MEMORIES

Starring Michelle Beck and David Grunwald

Written by Connie Reiser & Larry Card

Directed and Produced by Roland Lanois

LIMITED RELEASE: DECEMBER 19 IN NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES

WIDE RELEASE JANUARY 23

Entertainment Weekly, August 8

Stingless 'Scorpion'

Mindless Summer Explode-Fest Rings Hollow

......Inquiring minds want to know: in this utter loss of a movie, does anything work? Well, the explosions are pretty. Apologists may note the presence of Michelle Beck, whose upcoming performance Hard Memories is one of the most intensely awaited of the Oscar season. Maybe some of that alleged intensity rubs off here? No such luck. This Michelle Beck, at least, is scene decoration, hardly onscreen before her helicopter is blown out of the sky by a preposterous string of coincidences. Don't worry, this revelation won't ruin the plot for you: there'd have to have been a plot at all for that to happen.

Rating: D

Daily Variety, August 11

'SCORPION' VENOMOUS TO COMPETITION

$19.7M takes tops BO report; 'Gold Master' takes silver at $6.2M

Scorpion's Tail proves that some films are critic-proof; the widely panned action flick stung the competition with a $19.7 million take, injecting a boost in the severely lagging summer box office......

Entertainment Weekly, September 22nd

OSCAR WATCH

....Oscar-nominated director-producer Roland Lanois (The Green Fields) may have another contender on his hands with Hard Memories. Insiders at a Century Pictures rough cut screening say the film caused notoriously thick-skinned Century head Lewis Schon to cry into his trademark Goobers. Of special note is Michelle Beck's performance, which those at the screening labeled "revelatory". Century's marketing department is already getting in high gear for the Award season....

The Arizona Republic, September 25th

Obituaries

Sarah Rosenthal, of Scottsdale, of complications from a stroke, at 3:15 pm, September 23rd. Mrs. Rosenthal born in Hamburg, Germany on April 3, 1911 and emigrated to the United States in December of 1945. She is survived by daughter Elaine Stein, also of Scottsdale, and grandson Thomas Stein, of La Canada, Ca.

The Chicago Sun-Times, October 8

Hollywood Star, Agents to Endow U of C Chair

CHICAGO — The University of Chicago, normally the most staid of places, received a little Hollywood sparkle on Tuesday as Michelle Beck, star of the smash hit Summertime Blues, and the upcoming Hard Memories, arrived on campus to announce a $3 million gift to endow a chair in Holocaust Studies.

Speaking in the University's cavernous Mandel Hall, Beck alluded to her experience working on the Holocaust drama Hard Memories as a motivating factor in the gift.

"We must not be so worried about history repeating itself as simply rubbing itself out of existence," she said. "Each year that passes rubs off a little more of the memory. This is a way to keep the memories fresh, and to refresh the story for each generation of students that walks through these halls."

The chair, formally known as the Sarah Rosenthal and Daniel Stein Chair for Holocaust Studies and Jewish History, will be filled in the next year, following a nationwide search. The chair is named for Sarah Rosenthal, a survivor of the Holocaust, and her son-in-law Daniel Stein, who graduated from the University of Chicago in 1962.

Besides Beck, other endowers of the chair include Carl Lupo, CEO of Lupo Associates, a talent agency in Los Angeles, and Tom and Miranda Stein, also agents at Lupo Associates. Tom Stein is the son of Daniel Stein.

Entertainment Weekly, Novemeber 17

WINTER MOVIE PREVIEW

December — Hard Memories

What a difference a year can make. Last year at this time, no one would have predicted that Michelle Beck, of all people, would be whispered as the front runner for the Best Actress Oscar. Best Beach Bunny, maybe. Best Actress, no way.

One year later, though, Beck's performance in Hard Memories is the talk of the town — even with those who haven't seen the performance yet. They talk of the protests when Beck was cast in the role. They talk of the now-mythologized reading at the Fine Arts theater which quelled all complaint. They talk about Century Pictures prez Lewis Schon blubbering uncontrollably into his snack food. Some theorize her miraculous recovery from her coma earlier this year did something unexpected — kicked her acting centers into gear, perhaps......

Premiere Magazine, December

Michelle Beck, Resurrected

Michelle Beck nearly died in February when a freak accident during the ramp-up to Earth Resurrected sent her spiraling into a coma. Since then she's been in the center of the Hollywood storm with her new film Hard Memories. Beck just doesn't know how not to get in trouble.

To begin, Michelle Beck sympathized with the people who hated her getting Hard Memories.

"Who are we kidding?" she says. "The woman is an icon, Jewish, older, and intellectual. I'm not any of those things. I don't think I would have cast me, and if I had, I'd probably have claimed temporary insanity afterwards."

But a funny thing happened on the way to the flogging: Michelle Beck stood up to the critics and turned them around. Now the actress, just turned 26, looks like the closest thing to a lock in the Best Actress race. All it took was one reading.

"Arrrgh, the reading." Beck says, and scrunches up her face. "It's becoming like Woodstock, you know. Everybody who was actually physically in Los Angeles says they were there that night. I mean, come on! What does the Fine Arts sit? 300? 400 at most."

Beck leans forward as if to confide. "The fact was I was terrible that night. I was nervous as hell — I just about spotted my panties in fright. I would have been happy just to get out of there alive."

Instead, she got a thunderous ovation. Not bad for a woman who a month earlier was in a coma, hooked up to life support.

"Yes, yes, yes," Beck waves off the coma story. "You want to know what the coma was like? It was dark, mostly. That's it. I didn't see God when I was in my coma. I didn't even see Elvis. And when I came out of it, nothing had changed — most people forget that I had read for Hard Memories before I went into the coma. It wasn't like I came out of it with a gift. I was just following the plan I had set for myself long before."......

Daily Variety, December 16

Review: Hard Memories

It's been a rumor for so long it's become almost mythical — Michelle Beck's transformation from beach blonde to serious actress with her role in Hard Memories. Her performance has been so built up for so long that it's finally a relief to have seen it, and to be able to say that it's everything it has been claimed to be — and even more, if that's possible. Guided by Roland Lanois' sure directorial hand, Beck hands in a performance that not only rockets her to the top of the Oscar nomination list, but perhaps also into the first rank of our nation's actresses. Following what is sure to be a record-breaking limited engagement, this picture should do solid business in wide release, possibly flirting with the $100 million mark if public opinion gets behind it....