The Last September
by Deborah Warner
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: David Tennant, Keeley Hawes, Michael Gambon, Richard Roxburgh, Tom HickeyDirector: Deborah Warner
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-09-12
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of The Last September
Movie Review: The Ascendancy descends
Summary: 3 Stars
Although the British have famously enjoyed an eight-hundred year presence in Ireland, in the early twentieth century the feudal British-Irish lost land, home and position as the wave proclaiming the Republic of Ireland swept over and under them. Elizabeth Bowen's 1928 novel profiling the demise of Ireland's Ascendancy, caught the attention of producer Neil Jordan, director Deborah Warner and Fiona Shaw, who plays Marda Norton in the film The Last September. First released in Ireland in early 1999, the movie is rarely found on rental shelves, nine years later. Along with Ms. Shaw, the stellar cast includes England's Maggie Smith (Lady Naylor), Keeley Hawes (Lois Farquar), Michael Gambon (Sir Richard Naylor), Jane Birkin (Francie Montmorency), and Lambert Wilson (Hugo Montmorency).
Guesting at the Naylor's Cork home of Danielstown is a proper stiff-upper lip crowd who act British, but claim to be Irish. They seem oblivious to the mercurial republican violence swirling in the background. An IRA man kills a Black and Tan with barely a raised eyebrow from the Naylors and houseguests, one of whom is niece Lois, marvelously played by Hawes. The explosive violence smoldering in the IRA killer, played by Gary Lydon, arouses her and she initiates a tryst with him. "Oh, it was you that killed the Black and Tan, wasn't it?" she coyly inquires. A tragic British soldier (David Tennant) fawns over Lois and she encourages his entreaties by not discouraging them. When told by Lady Myra (Maggie Smith) that Lois will never be his, the soldier inquires why not. She replies, "You don't have any money, do you?"
Marda Norton (Fiona Shaw) dishes up considerable empathy for Lois's burgeoning sexuality and independence. "You so remind me of myself when I was young," she muses. Marda is camped at the Naylors Big House to find out if the dormant flame between her and the married Hugo Montmorency might be rekindled before she accepts a second-best marriage proposal. A "vamp" she calls herself.
The Last September remains fairly true to Bowen's work, but the novel's sense of impending doom gets somewhat lost in the film. Give cinematographer Slawomir Idziak high marks for fine framing of the Irish countryside.
Summary of The Last September
The Last September opens with a title card portentously announcing that what we are about to see is "the end of a world." Not, it turns out, too great an overstatement. In 1920 Ireland, a wealthy group of Anglo-Irish, the English-descended "tribe" who historically had overseen the country on behalf of its colonial rulers, seat ensconced in their luxurious estate. Just down the road, throughout small towns and villages, the British army is arrogantly terrorizing storeowners, and isolated IRA factions are responding by killing the occasional soldier. But at Sir Richard Naylor's palatial residence no such troubles need interfere. There the daily routine is still built around tennis matches, picnic parties, nature walks, and evenings spent on the lawn watching the stars. Young Lois (Keeley Hawes), niece of Sir Richard (Michael Gambon) and his wife (Maggie Smith), has lived there her entire life and has recently caught the fancy of a sweetly earnest military captain. But when a childhood friend of hers--in hiding after his murder of an army sergeant--takes refuge in a nearby abandoned mill, the thrill of danger and daring, of finally something different after all those maddeningly pleasant years, leads her down a different path. While The Last September is sometimes overly pretty in the British fashion, it benefits enormously from its excellent cast and novelist John Banville's smart, efficient script, which is alert to the nuances of conversations in which the most horrible threats are made and fears confided just below the polite chatter. --Bruce ReidArt House & International DVD Video
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