PEACE, LOVE & MISUNDERSTANDING

The above trailer (click on image to play) is from my latest film Peace Love and Misunderstanding which will be released in theaters June 8th! For more release information visit the IFC Films website here: http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/peace-love-misunderstanding

I love this movie. I co-starred with Catherine Keener, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chace Crawford and Nat Wolff. It’s directed by the wonderful Bruce Beresford (“Driving Miss Daisy”. “Tender Mercies,” etc) and was shot in and around Woodstock, New York, a beautiful, bucolic farming country several hours north of Manhattan. I play a free-wheeling, artistic, hippy grandmother. It was fun and a little challenging for me because, contrary to what some might think, I was never a hippie, never did the ‘60s scene in real life. I lived in France then. Totally missed out on the Woodstock generation.

Although the movie is contemporary, my character still lives like it was 1969 (a lot of people do in Woodstock!). I had to familiarize myself what that period was all about, what it felt like and sounded like. So, to get me prepared, it was Catherine Keener who told me what music to listen to, what documentaries about Woodstock to watch so I would catch the vibe. In our movie, she (my daughter) was born during the Woodstock festival. In fact, as I tell one character in the film, “my water broke while Jimmy Hendrix was playing The Star Spangled Banner. I guess my daughter was destined to be conservative!” It was Keener who gave me the brilliant documentary “The Last Waltz,” about the last performance of the Band. The late Levon Helm, the drummer of the Band and the singer of “The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down,” “The Weight,” among others, lived in Woodstock and helped us with some of the music for the film.

I wanted to work with Keener whom I admire enormously. She is the quintessential independent spirit. And I wanted to work with Bruce Beresford. But I also wanted to do this film because I wanted to do a movie that would make people laugh and feel good. I am so tired of violence, special effects and dysfunction (though I must admit I did love “The Hunger Games.” Jennifer Lawrence is a totally powerful, magnificent screen presence).

Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding” is about forgiveness which, as you know if you’ve been following my blogs, is for me an essential ingredient to a successful, happy life—something I work on within myself every day. And it is also about love. Love and forgiveness are partners. Love is not a given in anyone’s life. We must work to make ourselves ready for it when it comes our way; we must cultivate it in ourselves so that we spread it around just by being a loving person. For my book, “Prime Time,” I interviewed a 104-year-old woman who told me she smiles at everyone, “especially the sourpusses.” She felt by doing this she could make happiness and love contagious and cause, in her words, “an epidemic of love.” What a beautiful goal. I hope that “Peace, Love and Misunderstanding” will cause an epidemic of love in the hearts of the audience…I think it can…except for the cynics. I feel so sorry for cynics. How much they miss out of life! I hope you will see the film and let me know what you think.

On June 4th I am hosting a special New York City premiere of the film to benefit The Women’s Media Center (WMC). As many of you know I co-founded the WMC almost 7 years ago with Gloria Steinem, and Robin Morgan to make women more visible in the media, on every level. It will be a really fun evening! More information about the event and the WMC can be found here: https://donate.womensmediacenter.com/page/contribute/join-jane-fonda-for-the-premiere-of-peace-love-and-misunderstanding

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16 Comments
  1. Nice to you you are back…the other day I saw again after many years “coming home” and “julia” and I realize how we missed you all these years.

  2. What a beautiful post. Your other movie, the French one has been released here so I can’t wait to watch it just like PL&M.

    And thanks was the good wishes last time. I’ve finished one exam and your positive energy gave me much confidence. Just three left (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). As soon as I’m done, I’m gonna go to the cinema and watch your film. 🙂

  3. Great news that Peace, Love & Misunderstanding has a release date! After interviewing Bruce Beresford about this film I have been eagerly waiting for it to be released — hopefully, it will be here in Australia very soon! So looking forward to it . . .

  4. i am tired of being a cynic…i have your blog on my bookmark…so, im working on it

  5. I can’t wait to see the movie! The beginning of summer is a perfect time for a feel good kind of movie, though I still love suspense and drama as well. Actually, I love any movie that makes me sit at the edge of my seat, that makes me laugh and cry at the same time, that makes me relax and enjoy, or makes me ponder the meaning well after the credits end. Okay, I simply love the movies! And some day I am determined to go to a movie premiere! “Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding” I am sure will be a great movie with a great cast. I love Catherine Keener (great in “Capote”)and Elizabeth Olsen (great in “Martha Marcy May Marlene” . . . talk about a dysfunctional character!) And of course you are the icing on the cake!
    You weren’t a hippee???? Here I had put you in the hippee category all of these years! That’s okay, I still like you! You were/are an activist and that’s all that really counts!

  6. We have eighteen:twentyone – The Word of God.
    eighteen:twentytwo – The Song of God.

    eighteen:twentyeight.
    (We have every number and every letter)
    (not for posting. amend to 3:28.)

  7. This looks great-I can’t wait. You look just as good as you did in “Coming Home”. I love Catherine Keener, too. Her movie: “Box of Moonlight” is one of my favorites.

  8. Jane Fonda I love listening to your insights and experiences about love and forgiveness. You are truly an inspiration to all women and I want to thank you for being you and for having the courage to speak up. Your voice and your insights are a true legacy for us all to be empowered by. With love and appreciation Stine joy.

  9. “Totally missed out on the Woodstock generation” is a very interesting comment which blows me away as I would have thought, regardless of where you were living, you were present / involved. Maybe I’m just confusing your early 70’s activism. Regardless, I am always learning something new from you / about you.
    By the way, any chance Bree (Klute) and Alex (The Morning After) are one in the same person? Love ya!

    • Bree and Alex not at all the same, no. Interesting question. hmm

  10. I forgot to tell you this. But I so agree about cynics. I’m by nature a very enthusiastic person and one cynic remark can cause a minor breakdown to me. Cynicism is like an epidemic and it kills the good spirit of others as well. It infects more and more people. People should have things to obsess over, to believe in. Cynicism to me is bitterness caused by loneliness and disappointment and it gets worse by more disappointments. It tells you a lot about how unhappy you are.

  11. Jane!

    Just watched the trailer for “Peace, Love and Misunderstandings.” It looks FANTASTIC…..can’t wait to see it. I LOVE your blogs and photos….enjoy them so very much. You are a great writer by the way!!! Love you, love you, love you!!!

    Dannie

  12. So glad I’ll be able to get my “Fonda Fix” on opening day (before I pedal off to my doom on Ride the Rockies this weekend). Nervous Nellie- never ready for this. Wish we could raise funds for WMC while I’m at it. Will tweet the mileage log from the road if you want to hitch a few stars to my wagon and collect pledges. On the hook for 442 miles, 6 mountain passes and over 22,000 ft gain between Gunnison & Ft. Collins. Coming along?

  13. Hello, Ms. Fonda.

    This will seem like a non sequitur, but since you brought up living in France during the 1960s, I would like to remind you that you visited New York City in February 1964 to promote “Sunday in New York.” Evidence of that particular trip you took leads me to two questions that I will get to very soon.

    You may recall seeing crowds in the vicinity of CBS Playhouse 50 for the Beatles’ first Ed Sullivan appearance. That television theater, which was renamed for Sullivan in 1968, was located very close to the studio that “What’s My Line?” used at the time. You were the mystery guest on that Sunday night.

    You Tube has a kinescope clip of your segment. I hope you can find it by typing your name and the show title in the You Tube search field. This window does not allow me to present it here. You Tube doesn’t have the opening segment in which the panelists introduce each other, but I have seen a DVD of that and noticed John Charles Daly saying the Sullivan / Beatle crowd gave him trouble arriving for work a short while earlier. In your segment, you tell Mr. Daly that you enjoy living in France and you can speak the language well enough to get by there. Dorothy Kilgallen thinks the mannish voice you use belongs to Melina Mercouri, who recently had lunch with the Queen of Greece, and that makes you laugh loudly.

    Alright then, two questions:

    # 1 — Your pals Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan never published anything about Dorothy Kilgallen in Ms. magazine. I have checked many back issues. Yet your friend from the Vietnam era, Mark Lane, can be heard on You Tube saying how tough a reporter Ms. Kilgallen was and how suspicious her death was. Does her employment by the Hearst Corporation, which late 1960s activists such as Ms. Morgan hated, explain why the women’s movement ignored her completely? I have evidence that Ms. Kilgallen did not agree with everything that the right – wing colleagues at her newspaper said.

    # 2 — This is delicate, and I don’t mean to make you upset … Did you know Dorothy Kilgallen had a brief interview with your mother when your mother was informing the press of the end of her marriage to your father? I have a Xerox of Kilgallen’s report as it appeared on the front page of the New York Journal American edition of December 30, 1949, but, as I said before, this window does not allow me to attach any images — URL’s or JPEG’s or whatever. This lets me type text, but it blocks me from doing anything else. Google does not lead you or anyone to the Xerox I have scanned.

    Thanks for reading so much, and I look forward to seeing your movie that was filmed in lovely Annapolis.

    Cordially,

    Kathryn Fauble

  14. Hi Jane

    Wonderful to know that you’re in a new movie I bet it is great.

    Stay well
    gina

  15. I saw the movie last night and loved it! It was fun to see the town of Woodstock in all it’s glory. Caught a quick glimpse of Lincoln, an amazing local man who was in the shot of your drum circle on the Village Green. Lincoln has since passed away and it was a gift to see him in your film. Thank you.

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