The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999)
Actors:
Diane Pitblado (miscellaneous crew),
Joanne T. Harwood (miscellaneous crew),
Joe Everett (miscellaneous crew),
Helen Mirren (actress),
Jeff Beal (composer),
Jessica Drake (miscellaneous crew),
Derek Brady (miscellaneous crew),
David Ferry (actor),
Don McKellar (actor),
Peter Fonda (actor),
Eric Stoltz (actor),
Tom McCamus (actor),
Julie Delpy (actress),
Drazen Baric (miscellaneous crew),
Catherine Currie (miscellaneous crew),
Plot: The novelist Ayn Rand engaged in an affair with a psychologist 25 years her junior by the name of Nathaniel Branden. Branden built up an institute to spread Rand's ideas, but the two eventually had a falling out. This is the story of the affair, based on the book by Branden's wife, Barbara.
Keywords: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, actor, actress, adultery, altruism, anti-communism
Genres:
Biography,
Drama,
Quotes:
Barbara: I didn't know you were an actor.::Frank: Neither did anyone else in Hollywood.
Frank: [talking about Ayn] She had a typewriter, a Remington Rand, crazy about movies. Came right up to me and said 'you are the embodiment of my ideal man'. I never had a chance.
Ayn Rand: Love is a command to rise to one's highest potential, the best and noblest vision of ourselves. Love is a reward, the greatest we can earn, granted to us for the moral qualities we have achieved in our lives.
Ayn Rand: Tell me your principles.::Nathaniel Branden: To think for myself. To reach my own conclusions. To seek truth, wherever it might lead.
Nathaniel Branden: I feel as if... as if my whole life I've been on a leaky raft in the middle of the ocean and, and as soon as I cover one leak with my foot, there's another and...::Barbara: [Interrupting] Yes, alone and sinking.::Nathaniel Branden: Yes, but after tonight, I think... it's possible to stand on solid ground, to understand, to really know.
Ayn Rand: You respect his intellect?::Barbara: Very much.::Ayn Rand: You share the same principles?::Barbara: Absolutely.::Ayn Rand: You accept that emotion ultimately derives from the thinking one has done, or has failed to do?::Barbara: I do.::Ayn Rand: Then there is only one possible conclusion. Nate is your ideal man.
Caroline: I know I still care what other people think. I know I am guilty of social metaphysics. And I know my wish to correct my thinking comes from a desire to please Nathan, who I respect tremendously. And I know that that desire is very, very, very, very wrong.
Caroline: I do not exist for other people. I must not rely on other people. I must... identify the origins of my emotions. I must establish a rational... I can't.::Nathaniel Branden: Can't what?::Caroline: I can't stop thinking about you.
Wise-ass Man: Excuse me, Miss Rand. I was wondering if you could give us the essence of your philosophy - standing on one leg.::1st Supporter: Go on!::2nd Supporter: Sit down!::Ayn Rand: [Stands on one leg] Metaphysics: objective reality. Epistemology: reason. Ethics: self-interest. Politics: capitalism.