The Remains of the Day (1993)
Country: GB
Technical: col/scope 135m
Director: James Ivory
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox, Hugh Grant, Christopher Reeve
Synopsis:
A butler looks back over a period in the 1930s when his employer was attempting to orchestrate pro-German feeling from behind the political scenes, and when the housekeeper, Miss Kenton, held an unaccountable importance in his life.
Review:
The subtlest of British films about our national character, and it takes a Japanese, an American and two Indians to address it with such tact; namely, it deals with our national inability to confront matters head on, particularly where the emotions are involved, as well as our love of order, propriety and tradition. The mise-en-scène of a stately home's daily routine acts as perfect counterpoint to the repressed feelings of the characters, and the extraordinary comings and goings of personages 'of considerable importance' even more so. Hopkins's Stevens is a masterful creation, a man so formed by service and self-denial as to be emotionally stunted, but Thompson also offers a touchingly vulnerable portrayal. This is possibly Merchant-Ivory's masterpiece.
Country: GB
Technical: col/scope 135m
Director: James Ivory
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox, Hugh Grant, Christopher Reeve
Synopsis:
A butler looks back over a period in the 1930s when his employer was attempting to orchestrate pro-German feeling from behind the political scenes, and when the housekeeper, Miss Kenton, held an unaccountable importance in his life.
Review:
The subtlest of British films about our national character, and it takes a Japanese, an American and two Indians to address it with such tact; namely, it deals with our national inability to confront matters head on, particularly where the emotions are involved, as well as our love of order, propriety and tradition. The mise-en-scène of a stately home's daily routine acts as perfect counterpoint to the repressed feelings of the characters, and the extraordinary comings and goings of personages 'of considerable importance' even more so. Hopkins's Stevens is a masterful creation, a man so formed by service and self-denial as to be emotionally stunted, but Thompson also offers a touchingly vulnerable portrayal. This is possibly Merchant-Ivory's masterpiece.
Country: GB
Technical: col/scope 135m
Director: James Ivory
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox, Hugh Grant, Christopher Reeve
Synopsis:
A butler looks back over a period in the 1930s when his employer was attempting to orchestrate pro-German feeling from behind the political scenes, and when the housekeeper, Miss Kenton, held an unaccountable importance in his life.
Review:
The subtlest of British films about our national character, and it takes a Japanese, an American and two Indians to address it with such tact; namely, it deals with our national inability to confront matters head on, particularly where the emotions are involved, as well as our love of order, propriety and tradition. The mise-en-scène of a stately home's daily routine acts as perfect counterpoint to the repressed feelings of the characters, and the extraordinary comings and goings of personages 'of considerable importance' even more so. Hopkins's Stevens is a masterful creation, a man so formed by service and self-denial as to be emotionally stunted, but Thompson also offers a touchingly vulnerable portrayal. This is possibly Merchant-Ivory's masterpiece.