Jon Curran, Stone

John Curran, whose new movie Stone pairs Robert De Niro and Edward Norton for the second time, is a director who, says Norton, his friend and two-time leading man, continually examines authenticity in his films. The Painted Veil was a remarkably astute adaptation of the Somerset Maugham story of infidelity and forgiveness between a married couple (Norton and Naomi Watts) in 1920s China. Stone, which was adapted from a play and filmed around Detroit, considers a parole officer (De Niro) and a convict named Stone (Norton) and the “war” they engage in while sitting in chairs on opposite sides of a desk as one man crumbles and the other finds peace. (28 minutes)

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