White Palace │ Alliance Entertainment
Courtesy of Alliance Entertainment
by CHAD KENNERK
Now available on Blu-ray from Alliance Home Entertainment, director Luis Mandoki’s steamy 1990 love story White Palace stars Susan Sarandon and James Spader in the throes of a passionate May-December relationship. Based on the novel of the same name by Glenn Savan, the offbeat romance was something of a counterweight to Pretty Woman, which dominated the box office earlier that year. Successful advertising executive Max (Spader) is mourning the death of his wife when he meets the fiercely independent Nora (Sarandon), a working-class waitress at a hamburger joint. Drawn together despite their differences, their relationship challenges the status quo in both their lives. The film’s title serves as a thinly veiled reference to burger chain White Castle, which denied the use of its branding for both the novel and the film.
White Palace is among the latest Blu-ray releases in Alliance Entertainment's Retro VHS Collection. The series brings VHS-retro slipcovers and an 80s/90s video store aesthetic to a collection of cult favourites, comedies, thrillers, and overlooked gems. Directly inspired by their original VHS boxes, the design of the series’ slipcovers hones in on that nostalgia, with ‘be kind rewind’ stickers and great details, down to the wear and tear replicating the well-worn copies once found on the shelves of local video stores.
White Palace was a victim of the Pretty Woman treatment by studios hoping to capitalise on the Julia Roberts hit. Different endings were reportedly being shot and tested nearly right up to the film’s release, with the ending ultimately changing from both the novel and the screenplay. Studio notes on the production also insisted that Sarandon’s character not be shown drinking a beer in a movie theatre, yet didn’t seem to mind the scene where Spader and Sarandon drive drunk. Shot largely in St Louis, city landmarks include a cameo of the historic Fabulous Fox, an iconic performing arts theatre and former movie palace.
In the Jan/Feb 1995 edition of Movieline magazine, Sarandon said of the film, “In Italy, they saw White Palace as a movie about class, not age. In other countries they allow women to be so many more things," Sarandon lamented. “It’s frustrating. You put your guts out there on the line; then finally somebody takes your entrails and puts them before the public.” Film Review’s original coverage at the time of release called Sarandon sensational and summarised, “This is an entertaining, adult fairy tale (complete with plugs for morality) that ultimately succumbs to the Hollywood formula.” Despite some narrative flaws and a scene that romanticises lack of consent, the compelling performances from Sarandon and Spader are worth the rewind. An entire subplot from the novel was left on the cutting room floor, reducing Kathy Bates to a bit part.
White Palace is available on Blu-ray 23 June from Alliance Home Entertainment.
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