The Last September
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Movie Reviews of The Last September
Movie Review: The Last September
Summary: 5 Stars
As I am an Anglo Irish man living for the past twenty years in Australia you will see why I loved this film so much. The original Elizabeth Bowen book was spare and beautiful. John Banville has written the script as she would have had she been with us. The photography is lyrical and the cast is so good there is not a moment when you think acting is taking place. Lovely and will be played over and over and handed on to my childrenMovie Review: very good movie
Summary: 5 Stars
the is a very good movie. i happen to be a fan of harry potter and seening 3 of my favitor people appear in the last september made the movie even better.Movie Review: "There are occasions when it is better to be ignorant."
Summary: 4 Stars
Atmospheric and beautifully photographed, The Last September, based on the 1929 novel by Elizabeth Bowen, takes place in Cork in 1920, at the beginning of the Irish Rebellion. Lord Richard Naylor (Michael Gambon) and his wife Myra (Maggie Smith), are the Anglo-Irish owners of a large estate which Richard's family has owned for generations. Richard's niece, Lois Farquar, age nineteen, lives with them, a bored young woman without goals, impatient to fall in love. With a stream of visitors coming to the estate, a British army unit is garrisoned nearby for protection, and the soldiers welcome the opportunity to participate in the aristocrats' garden parties and tennis matches.
Closing their eyes to the eventualities, the Naylors adhere to the idea that "It would be a great pity to have a war. There's been enough unpleasantness already." Gradually the "unpleasantness" draws closer, involving Lois, some of her childhood friends from the Irish community, and a British soldier who is courting her.
Slawomir Idziak's cinematography in this 1999 film creates a lush picture of the countryside and a mood of palpable tension. His close-ups of characters whose emotions are reflected in their faces, rather than by their words, emphasize the lack of communication between Irish and landlord, while whirling dancers and tennis players emphasize their deliberate naivete and frantic activity. Filming between cracks in a wall and through a spyglass and peekholes in the floor, Idziak's scenes are both revelatory and visually intriguing.
The film, directed by Deborah Warner, lacks warmth and a central focus, however. Though Lois (Keeley Hawes) is the main character, she is lost in the peripheral action and subplots involving aristocratic houseguests, a pallid lover, and a group of rebels whose activities are not always clear. The screenplay, written by novelist John Banville, never famous for natural dialogue, features remote characters who exclude the viewer from their thoughts.
Michael Gambon, as Sir Richard conveys some awareness of what is happening, but he seems incompatible with Myra (Maggie Smith), who plays her usual aristocratic role with panache. David Tennant, as Gerald Colthurst, Lois's suitor, so much resembles a deer in the headlights that is it difficult to imagine him either as an army captain or as Lois's suitor, while Gary Lydon, as the Irish rebel to whom Lois is supposedly attracted, is portrayed as a violent criminal with few redeeming qualities.
Those familiar with Bowen's novel will enjoy seeing rural Cork through Idziak's stunning photography. Those unfamiliar with the period, however, may have difficulty figuring out what is going on and why. (3.5 stars) Mary Whipple
Movie Review: This is the end, my beautiful friend, this is the end, my only friend
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a bit of a gem really if you are familiar with the British class system and have a modicum of knowledge of the struggles engulfing Britain around the turn of the twentieth century. In the film, the concern is primarily for the struggle for Irish independence but there are unspoken undertones of the struggles of women.
At first blush this is Doctor Who meets Harry Potter as the main players come on the scene. Seriously though, it is hard towatch this for a while given the proximity of the stars of the movie similar to that of the Potter movies. A bit of a distraction.
Maggie Smith has made this sort of role her own and in this I am strongly reminded of her portrayal in Private Function, a film which has many parallels here.
It is easy to mistake the setting for rural England, which to me is a deliberate perspective of the Director. There is a powerful impetus to assume that the central charcters are, in fact, English, but as the plot unfolds, the underlying sypathies are exposed as an identity, and a greater connection to the historical roots.
Of course, the romance involving an English officer (and thus gentleman) in direct contrast to the Fenian freedom fighter (Irish gentry) is very symbolic. The traditional roles are inverted and twisted but eventually, the officer is killed by his republican rival metaphorically representing the separation of the two lands and the division of the heart of the object of their affection.
The problem is, appreciation of the full scope of the film is limited to those who have read the book and who have a different perception of the story and those who have some rudimentary knowledge of history, politics and class. That is not to say that the regular viewer is left completely in the dark, but merely, that the richness of colour and tone is lost to that person.
For that reason I can only countenance four stars.
Movie Review: Beautiful acting, meandering screenplay
Summary: 4 Stars
The cast of this movie is absolutely stellar and each performance is finely judged. Keeley Hawes in particular surprises with the precision of her acting and is a delight to watch as she portrays the naif Lois without over-doing the jejune aspects of her character. So much is under-stated that if you are used to Hollywood shlock then it might appear as if nothing much is happening. Without a knowledge of the historical context, much of the content will be lost to the viewer because the poignancy of the movie comes from our knowledge that the affable family we are watching are about to be swept away on the tidal wave of Irish history. This knowledge creates the counter-point between the denial and naivete of the family and the inexorability of the events that are beginning to intrude on their lives.
At the same time, there is no sentimentality in this film. With the exception of Lois, everyone is trying to manipulate someone in some way, most usually in that oblique English manner that enables the manipulator to feel guiltless about the act. But as people start to die, realization slowly dawns on the protagonists that this is not the same order of events as excluding someone from a garden party or ensuring that a favored niece does not make an unwise marriage. By the end of the film the storm clouds have gathered and we, the audience, know that a hard rain is about to fall on all their lives.
The film does have a few flaws, notably the overly "artistic" camera work which is workmanlike for the most part but irritating at critical moments, as though the director couldn't quite trust the cast and needed to distract the audience just at those moments when attention would be most merited. Given that the cast performs flawlessly, this is an unfortunate directorial error. Aside from this weakness, however, it's a lovely movie and well worth watching more than once.