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The Girl From Petrovka
This nOde last updated August 1st, 2001 and is permanently morphing...
(4 Ahau (Flower)/4 Junajpu (Marksman) - 160/260 - 12.19.8.8.0)

Actor Anthony Hopkins  recounts a bizarre case of double  coincidence. Several years ago when he heard he'd landed the leading
role in a film based on the book _The Girl from Petrovka_ by George Feifer, he tried to get hold of a copy but couldn’t find one in any of London’s major bookstores. Waiting for a train at Leicester Square he thought he was hallucinating when he glanced at a discarded book lying on the bench beside him . . . The Girl from Petrovka.  The coincidence didn't end there. On set in Vienna later that year Hopkins met the author, George Feifer, who lamented the fact that he no longer had the one and only annotated copy of his book as he'd lent it to a friend who’d lost it in London. Yes, the book Anthony had found was his.

In september, 1971, I lent an impatient friend and advance copy of my novel, _The Girl From Petrovka_.  I'd been reluctant, for it was a unique copy, bearing marks of intensive work.  Major errors in the American proofs of the same book persuaded my New York editor to publish an Americanized version of the English edition - which itself had been specially  anglicized, since I am American.  My red marks, four or five to a page, indicated necessary changes - "labour" to "labor", and so on - for re-americanization.  This gave the copy almost as much sentimental as practical value for me. Within a week, my friend had lost it from his car in Bayswater.  Frantic searches and proffered rewards failed.  It was an oddly painful experience that seemed to jinx the book.

Twenty-six months later, in November, 1973, I travelled to Vienna to write an article about the novel's filming, and quickly felt submerged in the haunted lives of the persons on whom the characters are based.   On meeting Anthony Hopkins, who plays one of the strongest characters, he told me of a puzzling incident the previous summer.  Having signed to do the part, he went to central London to buy a copy of the book.  Returning home after a fruitless trip, he noticed an abandoned book on a bench in the Leicester Square underground station.  Turning it over, he read the title: The Girl From Petrovka.  He was still confounded by the red marks scattered on most pages. "Might that copy," he asked, "have some personal meaning for you?"

Writing credits
Chris Bryant
Allan Scott

Plot Outline: An American reporter falls in love with an eccentric Russian girl. (view trailer)
 

Cast overview, first billed only:

Goldie Hawn ....  Oxtvarina
Hal Holbrook ....  Joe
Anthony Hopkins ....  Kostya
Grégoire Aslan ....  Minister
Anton Dolin ....  Ignatieviten
Bruno Wintzell ....  Alexander
Zoran Andric ....  Leonid
Hanna Hertelendy ....  Judge
Maria Sukolov ....  Old Crone
Zitto Kazann ....  Passport Black Marketeer
Inger Jensen ....  Helga Van Dam
Raymond O'Keefe ....  Minister's Driver
Richard Marner ....  Kremlin Press Official
Michael Janisch ....  Police Chief
Harry Towb ....  American Reporter

Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color (Technicolor)
Certification: USA:PG

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