I didn't realise it was another Merchant Ivory (confused by seeing the name Mike Nichols as a producer) so it's blessed with the same lineup as Howards End, from Hopkins and Thompson through to Jhabvala-Pierce-Roberts-Robbins-Marcus. Butler Hopkins is ignorant of his master James Fox's views on pacifying Hitler, and completely unable to express himself emotionally (something at which Hopkins excels). But with him too, right at the end, y'know, Thompson is unable to be honest with him. Talking of the end , maybe it should have ended with the two of them, not the pigeon trapped in the room, which is clearly symbolic in some way.
Um. James Fox, Peter Vaughan, Christopher Reeve, Hugh Grant, Ben Chaplin, Peter Cellier, Michael Lonsdale, Rupert Vansittart, Pip Torrens.
The Japanese also observe strict social etiquette, thus it's perhaps not a surprise that the source novel is by Kazuo Ishiguro, who also wrote what became the intriguing-looking Never Let Me Go (Mulligan, Garfield, Hawkins) and the recent Kurosawa remake Living.
It's a very beautiful film, but somehow doesn't quite connect the same way that Howards End does. The exterior of the house is Dyrham House near Avon
No comments:
Post a Comment