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Balaban’s ‘Bernard and Doris’ airing on HBO

Published on January 29, 2008

Finally! Bob Balaban’s Bernard and Doris might not have been fortunate enough to find itself in theaters (it did get a Hamptons International Film Festival preem late last year) – but this pegged grown-up fairytale is being aired on February 9th on HBO. We’ve got a promo spot below.

Based on the life story of billionaire tobacco baroness
Doris Duke, comedic and popular character actor Bob Balaban delves into the
scandal about her will. Doris (Susan Sarandon) is an extravagant woman of much
wealth and influence who amassed many high society friends in her lifetime.
Surprisingly, upon her death in 1993, she leaves her entire estate in the care
of her gay Irish butler Bernard (Ralph Fiennes), who is barely literate.
Controversy erupts on how exactly Bernard came to be the sole recipient of his
employer’s entire fortune. The film offers an intimate, humorous look at how the
relationship between the two might have unfolded.

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).