Griffin Dunne Crowns Himself 'King of Lapsed Love' as 'Practical Magic' Finds Its Audience

Griffin Dunne has a title for himself: "I seem to be the king of lapsed love!" The actor and director of "Practical Magic" says the 1998 Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman film, ignored on release, has finally found its audience — and this year it even scored a sequel.

"I don't know when it could have started. Maybe 10 years ago, the conversation about 'Practical Magic' started to pick up more steam, particularly around Halloween. I'd see memes with 'midnight margaritas' and when my friends' daughters found out I directed that movie, they'd go insane," Dunne recalls.

It is the second film of his to follow that arc. "It was the same deal with 'An American Werewolf in London.' It's lovely to see people appreciate it now, but it would have been sweeter to have it happen then too," he says.

Which forgotten films does Dunne want rediscovered?

He names two: "Addicted to Love" and "Lisa Picard Is Famous." The first puzzles him. "I'm amazed that only a handful of people have ever heard of a movie with Meg Ryan that was incredibly well reviewed at the time. I remember calling Warner Bros. and they didn't even have a copy!" he says. "It's only going to become more obscure now that Warner Bros. is going to be owned by Paramount. Who knows what's going to happen to all these movies?"

"Lisa" met worse luck. "'Lisa' came out during 9/11, so of course people didn't want to see a comedy about out-of-work actors. But it's the funniest movie I've ever made. I do hope both of them will be looked at again," he says.

What takes Dunne back to Poland?

Dunne, also known for Martin Scorsese's "After Hours," travels to Poland's TAURON American Film Festival to receive its biggest honor, the Indie Star Award. He knows the country well. In 1980 he went there to make "The Wall" and landed inside the Solidarity movement. Three weeks turned into three months.

"When martial law was declared, we were stuck there. I met Rosanna Arquette and Dianne Wiest, whom I cast in 'Practical Magic,' and I've been life-long friends with Tom Conti ever since," he says. "So many of our crew were arrested that people from the military had to stand in for them, and there were spies everywhere. It was insane, but it led to great friendships!"

What does the indie scene look like now?

Dunne is blunt about the changes. "It wasn't that difficult to find investors willing to bankroll original stories and ideas. Now, getting a distributor is very difficult, and even that doesn't guarantee a significant theater release," he says. As he puts it, "when times are good, you never know you're in the middle of them."

His deeper worry concerns mergers. "If one company essentially decides which stories are told, they won't include those who want to make exciting movies that are true to the times we live in," he says. "I fear that people won't have the guts to tell a story that's going to offend the red states in America. This guy in the office has drummed up a great deal of hostility towards Hollywood and 'the elites.'"

Still, some films give him a "blush of optimism" — including a documentary drawing crowds around the block whose trailer, he admits, he mistook for a horror film. He lives in the East Village and passes similar lines outside a bagel shop touted on TikTok. "Hopefully, going to the movies will be an extension of that. Cinema needs a younger audience," he says.

What has not changed?

Discouragement. "What hasn't changed since the advent of sound is being told by an agent or studio executive: 'Well, this is gonna be a tough one,'" Dunne says. "That should tell you you're probably on the right track." His advice: "You just have to put blinders on."

In recent years he has also turned to family stories — his memoir "The Friday Afternoon Club," covering the murder of his sister Dominique Dunne, and the documentary "Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold" about his aunt. "With the doc, I was incredibly pleased and terribly proud that it introduced her to an entirely new audience of younger readers. It kept her legacy alive," he says.

He recalls delaying his father's death announcement for a day and a half so the obituary would not be buried by Senator Edward Kennedy's. "There're still stories left in me," he laughs.