A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

The city of lights. A famous American author and the decade that changed a generation...forever.

R 1998 · 127 min · ★ 6.1 · Drama

This fictionalized story, based on the family life of writer James Jones, is an emotional slice-of-life story. Jones is portrayed here as Bill Willis, a former war hero turned author who combats alcoholism and is starting to experience health problems. Living in France with his wife, daughter, and an adopted son, the family travels an unconventional road which casts them as outsiders to others. Preaching a sexual freedom, his daughter's sexual discovery begins at an early age and betrays her when the family moves to Hanover in America. Her overt sexuality clashes with the values of her teenage American peers and gives her a problematic reputation. Meanwhile, her brooding brother copes with his own interior pain regarding his past, only comfortable communicating within the domestic space.

Directed by James Ivory · Written by James Ivory

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Streaming

Cast

Kris Kristofferson Bill Willis
Leelee Sobieski Charlotte Anne 'Channe' Willis, Age 14
Jane Birkin Mrs. Fortescue
Barbara Hershey Marcella Willis
Dominique Blanc Candida
Virginie Ledoyen Billy's Mother
Jesse Bradford Billy Willis, Age 14
Isaach de Bankolé Mamadou
Anne-Cécile Crapie Mademoiselle Picot
Anthony Decadi Schoolyard Tease
Harley Cross Keith Carter
Macha Méril Madame Beauvier

Make it a double feature

4h 21m together

A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

The Remains of the Day

Both from James Ivory.

More from James IvorySee all →

Call Me by Your Name

Call Me by Your Name · 2017

Call Me by Your Name

MovieRomanceDrama

In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.

A Cooler Climate

A Cooler Climate · 2022

A Cooler Climate

MovieDocumentaryHistory

In 1960, acclaimed filmmaker James Ivory traveled to Afghanistan to shoot scenes for a documentary that was never completed. In 2022, he decided to revisit this unique footage, which takes him back to his adventurous youth.

Merchant Ivory

Merchant Ivory · 2024

MovieDocumentary

The first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and their primary associates, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins. Footage from more than fifty interviews, clips, and archival material gives voice to the family of actors and technicians who helped define Merchant Ivory’s Academy Award-winning work of consummate quality and intelligence. With six Oscar winners among the notable artists participating, these close and often long-term collaborators intimately detail the transformational cinematic creativity and personal and professional drama of the wandering company that left an indelible impact on film culture.

Maurice

Maurice · 1987

MovieDramaRomance

After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.

The Remains of the Day

The Remains of the Day · 1993

The Remains of the Day

MovieDramaRomance

A rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.

Howards End

Howards End · 1992

MovieDramaRomance

A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.

A Room with a View

A Room with a View · 1986

A Room with a View

MovieDramaRomance

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?

American Playhouse

American Playhouse · 1982

American Playhouse

SeriesDramaComedy

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

ABC Afterschool Special

ABC Afterschool Special · 1972

ABC Afterschool Special

Dramatically presented situations, often controversial, of interest to children and teenagers. Several episodes were either in animated form or presented as documentaries. Topics included illiteracy, substance abuse and teenage pregnancy.

Lumière & Company

Lumière & Company · 1995

Lumière & Company

MovieDramaDocumentary

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

The White Countess

The White Countess · 2005

The White Countess

MovieDramaRomance

In 1930s Shanghai, 'The White Countess' is both Sofia, a fallen member of the exiled Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create.

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge · 1990

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge

Set during World War II, an upper-class family begins to fall apart due to the conservative nature of the patriarch and the progressive values of his children.

Heat and Dust

Heat and Dust · 1983

MovieDramaRomance

Anne is investigating the life of her grand-aunt Olivia, whose destiny has always been shrouded with scandal. As Anne delves into the history of her grand-aunt, she is led to reconsider her own life.

The Golden Bowl

The Golden Bowl · 2000

The Golden Bowl

MovieRomanceDrama

Wealthy American widower Adam Verver and his daughter Maggie live a refined life in Europe, surrounded by art. Maggie marries impoverished Italian Prince Amerigo, while Adam marries Maggie's friend Charlotte Stant. The Prince and Charlotte are having an affair, which Maggie discovers and navigates through a silent, psychological battle of wills, ultimately using her cunning to preserve her marriage and protect her father.

Surviving Picasso

Surviving Picasso · 1996

Surviving Picasso

MovieDramaRomance

The passionate Merchant-Ivory drama tells the story of Francoise Gilot, the only lover of Pablo Picasso who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty and move on with her life.

Quartet

Quartet · 1981

MovieDramaRomance

When her husband's arrest leaves her penniless, a woman accepts an invitation to move in with a strange couple.

More Like This

Driving Miss Daisy

Driving Miss Daisy · 1989

Driving Miss Daisy

The story of an old Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and her relationship with her black chauffeur, Hoke. From an initial mere work relationship grew in 25 years a strong friendship between the two very different characters, in a time when those types of relationships were shunned.

The Straight Story

The Straight Story · 1999

The Straight Story

MovieDramaAdventure

Retired farmer and widower Alvin Straight learns one day that his estranged brother Lyle has suffered a severe stroke. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. He then has the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.

La Haine

La Haine · 1995

After a chaotic night of rioting in a marginal suburb of Paris, three young friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd, wander around unoccupied waiting for news about the state of health of a mutual friend who has been seriously injured when confronting the police.

Human Nature

Human Nature · 2001

MovieDramaComedy

Obsessive scientist Nathan and his lover, the naturalist Lila, discover Puff: a man born and raised in the wild. As Nathan trains the wild man in the civilized ways of the world, Lila fights to preserve the man’s natural state. In the power struggle that ensues, an unusual love triangle emerges.

Popular Music

Popular Music · 2004

MovieComedyDrama

Matti and Niila, growing up in the mid-sixties in the harsh and conservative environment of a Finnish-speaking part of Tornedalen in Swedish Laponia, close to the Finnish border. Their big dream is to become rock stars. In the present the now grown-up Matti feels guilt for the death of his drug-addicted rock star friend Niila.

Caché

MovieMysteryDrama

As the host of a literary TV show, Georges begins receiving anonymously filmed videos of his family alongside cryptic, disturbing drawings, but as the tapes become increasingly intimate, they reveal a stalker who has known him for a very long time.

A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind · 2001

A Beautiful Mind

MovieDramaRomance

From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash Jr. experiences it all. As a brilliant but socially awkward mathematician, he made a groundbreaking discovery early in his career and stands on the brink of international acclaim. But as the handsome and arrogant Nash accepts secret work in cryptography, he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. His life takes a nightmarish turn and he soon finds himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery.

The Green Mile

The Green Mile · 1999

MovieFantasyDrama

A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.

Cléo from 5 to 7

Cléo from 5 to 7 · 1962

Cléo from 5 to 7

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

12 Mighty Orphans

12 Mighty Orphans · 2021

12 Mighty Orphans

MovieHistoryDrama

Haunted by his mysterious past, a devoted high school football coach leads a scrawny team of orphans to the state championship during the Great Depression and inspires a broken nation along the way.

Once Upon a Time in America

Once Upon a Time in America · 1984

Once Upon a Time in America

MovieDramaCrime

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

Breathless

Breathless · 1960

MovieDramaCrime

A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.

Ronia: The Robber's Daughter

Ronia: The Robber's Daughter · 1984

Ronia: The Robber's Daughter

MovieAdventureDrama

Ronia lives happily in her father's castle until she comes across a new playmate, Birk, in the nearby dark forest. The two explore the wilderness, braving dangerous Witchbirds and Rump-Gnomes. But when their families find out Birk and Ronia have been playing together, they forbid them to see each other again. Indeed, their fathers are competing robber chieftains and bitter enemies. Now the two spunky children must try to tear down the barriers that have kept their families apart for so long.

The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs · 1991

The Silence of the Lambs

MovieCrimeThriller

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter