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

In interwar Britain, a rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a new housekeeper. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway · 1997

MovieDramaRomance

Clarissa Dalloway looks back on her youth as she readies for a gathering at her house. The wife of a legislator and a doyenne of London's upper-crust party scene, Clarissa finds that the plight of ailing war veteran Septimus Warren Smith reminds her of a past romance with Peter Walsh. In flashbacks, young Clarissa explores her possibilities with Peter.

More Like This

The Ciambra

The Ciambra · 2017

MovieCrimeDrama

Pio Amato, a 14 year-old member of a small Romani community in southern Italian town of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, is in a hurry to grow up. Pio follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere and from him he learns how to hustle and how to navigate the streets of his hometown. One night Pio sets out to prove to his brother that he is as good or better than him but, when things go wrong, a series of events will forever change the way he sees the world.

My Girl

My Girl · 1991

MovieComedyDrama

Vada Sultenfuss is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. She is also in love with her English teacher, and joins a poetry class over the summer just to impress him. Thomas J., her best friend, is "allergic to everything", and sticks with Vada despite her hangups. When Vada's father hires Shelly, and begins to fall for her, things take a turn to the worse...

Bloody Sunday

Bloody Sunday · 2002

MovieDramaHistory

The dramatised story of the Irish civil rights protest march on January 30 1972 which ended in a massacre by British troops.

Atonement

Atonement · 2007

MovieDramaRomance

A young girl irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice · 2005

Pride & Prejudice

MovieDramaRomance

A story of love and life among the landed English gentry during the Georgian era. Mr. Bennet is a gentleman living in Hertfordshire with his overbearing wife and five daughters, but if he dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family's future happiness and security is dependent on the daughters making good marriages.

Les Misérables

Les Misérables · 1958

Les Misérables

In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

Les Misérables

Les Misérables · 1998

Les Misérables

MovieCrimeDrama

In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

Candy

MovieDramaRomance

A poet falls in love with an art student, who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle — and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter