The Way We Live Now dvd movie.|
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List Price: $29.98 Our Price: $22.99 You Save: $6.99 Features • Closed-captioned • Subtitled • NTSC In Theaters : 2001 DVD Release : 30 April, 2002 |
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The Way We Live Now description First screened on BBC in 2001, The Way We Live Now will surprise those who know Anthony Trollope through the subtleties of his Barsetshire novels. This story of ambition centers around Augustus Melmotte, an Austrian Jewish financier who takes the London money markets and social scene by storm in his efforts to become an "English country gentleman." His rise and fall is followed with remorseless logic by Trollope, and David Yates's direction keeps this in focus against a wealth of subplots and character interaction. The cast is a strong one, with David Suchet's Melmotte gripping in his recklessness, climaxing in the theatrical magnificence of his departure in disgrace from the House of Commons. Shirley Henderson is magnetic as his put-upon daughter Marie, courted by the cream-of-society bachelors for her dowry rather than her person. Cheryl Campbell gives a good account of the feckless Lady Carbury, writing vacuous novels to support her family, with Matthew MacFadyen relishing the part of her rakish son, Felix. Paloma Baeza is sympathetic as her daughter, Hetta, whose on-off relationship with entrepreneur Paul Montague, ably taken by Cillian Murphy, provides the main love interest. Douglas Hodge impresses as the loyal and sincere but insipid Roger Carbury. The series consists of four generous episodes, each lasting 75 minutes. This is an absorbing production of what isn't the most subtle of Victorian novels, but which surely remains among the most relevant. --Richard Whitehouse |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | See the Film/Read the Book! |
| These seemingly endless period dramas churned out by the BBC and others are valuable in that they can be viewed as a kind of visual "Cliff's Notes" for us busy folk who can't find the time to read the original novels. Bottom line is this: you should read the book no matter what, especially if it's by Anthony Trollope, one of English literature's most consistently great writers. If you watch the movie first, you MAY be interested enough in the story and characters to read the book later. In fact, I'd say that is good criteria for judging the quality of one of these period movies: if, after viewing the film, you are stimulated enough to rush out and read the book, then the film must be good--providing it's a faithful adaptation.
This one is. It's a six-hour presentation, but even that is not really long enough to accurately deliver the full impact of Trollope's masterpiece. The young couple who end up together are the most likable characters; the rest, with the exception of the spurned Jewish banker, are all vain, pompous, avaricious and spiteful. They are cynical caricatures, if you will, but that was Trollope's intent as a satirist. |
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