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"wonderful performances"
"the film is beautiful to view"
"The film is beautiful and powerful, much as a play by Shakespeare, and
when tragedy strikes, it is on the same mammoth scale" |
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The Remains Of The Day
with Anthony Hopkins, Emma
Thompson, Christopher Reeve and James Fox |
A perfect English butler sacrifices everything he
cares for in the name of duty and serving his master. Based on the novel
by Ishiguro Kazuo.
Review
The Remains of the Day is one of Merchant-Ivory's
most thought-provoking movies. Anthony Hopkins is a model of restraint and
propriety as Stevens, the butler who "knows his place"; Emma Thompson is
the animated and sympathetic Miss Kenton, the housekeeper whose attraction
to Stevens is doomed to disappointment. As Nazi appeaser Lord Darlington,
James Fox clings to the notion of a gentleman's agreement in the ruthless
political climate before World War Two. Hugh Grant is his journalist
nephew all too aware of reality, while Christopher Reeves gives a spirited
portrayal of an American senator, whose purchase of Darlington Hall 20
years on sends Stevens on a journey to right the mistake he made out of
loyalty. As a period drama with an ever-relevant message, this 1993 film
is absorbing viewing all the way.
On the DVD: the letterbox widescreen format reproduces the
2.35:1 aspect ratio with absolute clarity. Subtitles are in French and
German, with audio subtitles also in English, Italian and Spanish, and
with 28 separate chapter selections. The "making-of" featurette and
retrospective documentary complement each other with their "during and
after" perspectives, while "Blind Loyalty, Hollow Honour" is an
interesting short on the question of appeasement and war.
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