Sparsely Cast Movies

I know you said limit of three, but Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf.

‘Night Mother, two hander play adapted for the screen with Spacek and Bancroft in the roles. They may have added other characters, but it’s essentially them.

R1 I haven’t seen that movie, how many characters are there? Let’s hear about why it could fit as a sparsely cast film category anyway, if it’s as good as you think it is.

Closer. Excellent performances. May be the only film to ever pare down Julia Roberts. Beautiful English men. Portman out of nowhere proves herself a fine actress.

Cast Away! Its basically one character. Who gives a shit about Helen Hunt?

Passengers with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence.

Sci-Fi. Very interesting concept. Well done, w tiny cast.

Moon with Sam Rockwell

CREEP

Closer was better onstage with Natasha Richardson in the Roberts role and Anna Friel in the Portman role.

There was an interesting film from 1969 called Hell In The Pacific with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune as two WWII soldiers/enemies stranded on an island.

R1--- Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, Sandy Dennis.

Blue Lagoon

Z for Zachariah's a decent flick featuring Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Chris Pine. All do a wonderful job in their roles.

Liv Ullmann's Miss Julie with Colin Farrell, Jessica Chastain and Samantha Morton

Gus van Sant's Gerry with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck

Persona. There’s the actress, the nurse, blind husband, nurse manager, and son.

The Maids, a film of the Genet play with Glenda Jackson and Susannah York.

All Is Lost, with Robert Redford.

Clue has a small (and outstanding) cast but not 1-3

Sleuth - Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine

Give 'Em Hell, Harry, 1975. One cast member -- James Whitmore playing Harry Truman. Movie with the smallest number of cast members who were nominated for an Oscar - 1.

"The World, the Flesh and the Devil"

I'm blanking on the name of the film but it starred Sam Waterston, John Heard and Liv Ullmann. Very angst-filled, lots of end of the world discussion, IIRC.

Here's my quibble about WAOVW? Isn't there a bartender in there somewhere when they go out for a drink? I don't think he says anything and there is no credit, but I seem to recall a fifth person. Cannot confirm because I just cannot watch that movie again.

“I’m your number one fan”. Talking about Misery of course.

I think "Stranger Than Paradise" (1984) only has the three actors - John Lurie, Richard Edson and Eszter Baslint. What a great movie!

[quote] Bullock’s performance also held our attention.

It did? Gee, that's not how I remember it.

William Wyler's The Collector (1965) A bit of a cheat there are 4 speaking parts but there are 2 main characters and 2 supporting who have 1 scene each. A man (Terrence Stamp) kidnaps a beautiful student (Samantha Eager) and keeps her locked in his basement. Tense psychological thriller along the lines of Misery but not campy. The 2 leads took Best Actor and Actress at Cannes, Eager won the Golden Globe for Best Actress-Drama and the film received 3 Oscar nods for Best Actress, Best Director and adapted screenplay and it should have been a Best Picture nominee.

R9 Should put that in the sparsely cast play’s list

My Dinner with Andre

I don’t know if it counts because it’s a short only lasting 30 minutes, but last year Almodavar released the Human Voice based on the Genet play staring just Tilda Swinton. Would love to see it if anyone knows where it’s a available.

Some film with Emmanuel Seigner?(Polaski's wife). Takes place mostly on a stage with 2 characters. It's French. Mesmerizing

Robinson Crusoe on Mars, or, Three Men and a Monkey

R23 judging by popular consensus and using “our” as reflection of that. Are you one of those people who like to argue (badly) about contextual meanings of pronouns?

R28, the Polanski film is Venus In Fur.

The Anna Magnani part of "L'amore" (1948), which is just her on the phone the whole time.

Steven Knight's LOCKE. 90-minutes of Tom Hardy on a series of phone calls.

Steven Spielberg's Duel is (primarily) Dennis Weaver and a truck.

L'amore and The Human Voice are based on the same play by Jean Cocteau. Ingrid Bergman performed it on television in 1967. There's also a short film version of it with Rosamund Pike.

Rosemund Pike, the Gone Girl? How could she possibly pull off a monologue?

Ex Machina

Open Water for the majority of the movie.

R27 with that staging it could have been a Greenaway film.

Responding to a thread about actress Deborah Kerr I said her best performance was in probably in The Innocents (1961) Michael Redgrave appears in the opening scene but, for the rest of the movie there are only 4 speaking parts: Kerr, 2 children and the housekeeper.

Secret Honor. Starring Phillip Baker Hall.

Dutchman (1967) Set in a NYC subway car Shirley Knight and Al Freeman Jr. have the only speaking parts the rest of the cast are passengers who do move and partake in some minimal action but only the 2 leads have any dialog.

You'll Like My Mother (1972) 5 speaking parts The main part of the film involves 4 characters in a snowbound mansion.

The Shining has a lot more than three roles, but the cast outside the leads is limited to walk-ons and a handful of lines,

Oh yes- The Others, with Nicole Kidman and two kids. Quite good.

Cries and Whispers. 3 sisters, a maid and Erland Josephson in a flashback.

Hell in the Pacific

Starring American actor Lee Marvin and Japanese actor Toshirō Mifune

They are the only two characters in the entire movie, who play two WWII servicemen, one Japanese and one American, stranded on a deserted island in the Pacific during the war.

The general theme is that two men, wartime enemies, must learn to trust each other to survive. There are no subtitles or dubs and little dialog, which creates a realistic portrayal of the challenge of communication throughout the film.

[quote]The Shining has a lot more than three roles, but the cast outside the leads is limited to walk-ons and a handful of lines,

Why does this sentence end with a comma? A comma and a period are different.

Auto Fellatio (Because They Can) - volumes 1 & 2.

The Savage is Loose (1974) 3 characters shipwrecked on an island. 4 actors with 2 actors playing the son at different ages.

They Look Like People. It's a very limited main cast. Two friends reunite, one of them is down on his luck and basically homeless and struggling with mental health issues, so the other guy takes him in to help him out. It's a mixture of horror, thriller and drama.

Not necessarily a good film - but Gerry is just Matt Damon and Casey Affleck with little dialogue as they are lost in the desert.

Speaking of Damon - this does not really count since there are well more than 3 to four people, but for the much of the movie, it is just Damon.

R22 you forgot Cecillia Stark as Aunt Lotte in Stranger Than Paradise.

R48 'a comma and a period are different'

Anyone can see that. What's your point?

The Lighthouse with Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, with brief appearances by a mermaid and the ghost of Pattinson’s former boss.

R55 Those sound like spoilers to me.

[quote]Anyone can see that. What's your point?

Why are you so goddamned DUMB, R54? lol

Educate yourself. Learn the difference between a comma and a period.

10 Cloverfield Lane

What Happened Was

Whoopi Goldberg in The Telephone. Brilliant!