This is the Quintessential period piece! The flow of it is so seamless, that like classical music or a beautiful piece of art - you never tire of it. It marks the end of the expansion of prosperity, change and invention of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, that for the first time in history, brought into existence a large, educated middle class. It is the span of this society and it's events that were both passed on to us as a nation, and have had a greater influence on our modern day than any other period. As they were the beginning of the modern era. By the 1930's we come to the end of the rigid class system that had evolved during these periods. This story is in fact all about the servants and is seen from their perspective. Regular working class people, their lives and loves - they are it's real champions. I believe it to be the finest film ever made on the subject, and one of the finest films period.
Easy on both the eyes and the mind, it is effortless to watch. And one of only 3 films that I find myself returning to over and over again, more than any others. Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson who have so many great performances, do their best work here. Here in cinema is a display of excellence in the ordinary, and a celebration of both understatement, and unrequited love. We are only observers here in the sense that there is nothing to figure out, and what we observe is the perfect Servant. One who applies himself wholeheartedly to his craft, and finds contentment in doing his job well. A rarity in both life and cinema. I find it very telling that perhaps the finest English film was a collaboration of men from two former colonies - India and the U.S., a Japanese author, a Celt in the male lead, and a screenwriter from Germany married to an Indian, who has spent most of her life in India and America. These are the people that school us in the culture that birthed our own, and so much of modern western civilization. None of them are English.
The perfect fit that I think James Ivory often reaches for is achieved here. It is a movie without sex, violence, or bad language, which are often added from a lack of strength, not as proof of it. This movie is a tribute to everything good that is England. Merchant and Ivory couldn't have done better.
http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/true-faith/
Easy on both the eyes and the mind, it is effortless to watch. And one of only 3 films that I find myself returning to over and over again, more than any others. Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson who have so many great performances, do their best work here. Here in cinema is a display of excellence in the ordinary, and a celebration of both understatement, and unrequited love. We are only observers here in the sense that there is nothing to figure out, and what we observe is the perfect Servant. One who applies himself wholeheartedly to his craft, and finds contentment in doing his job well. A rarity in both life and cinema. I find it very telling that perhaps the finest English film was a collaboration of men from two former colonies - India and the U.S., a Japanese author, a Celt in the male lead, and a screenwriter from Germany married to an Indian, who has spent most of her life in India and America. These are the people that school us in the culture that birthed our own, and so much of modern western civilization. None of them are English.
The perfect fit that I think James Ivory often reaches for is achieved here. It is a movie without sex, violence, or bad language, which are often added from a lack of strength, not as proof of it. This movie is a tribute to everything good that is England. Merchant and Ivory couldn't have done better.
http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/true-faith/