Notes on a Scandal
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Features
• AC-3
• Color
• Dolby
• Dubbed
• DVD-Video
• Subtitled
• Widescreen
• NTSC
In Theaters : 2006
DVD Release : 17 April, 2007 |
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Notes on a Scandal description
Gold stars to all for this taut psychological thriller based on Zoe Heller's novel that that gets more insidiously twisted as it unfolds. Oscar-nominated for her chilling performance, Dame Judi Dench gives a master class as schoolteacher Barbara Covett, a frumpy, friendless, and flinty spinster who lives with her cat. A formidable presence, Barbara is standoffish with colleagues and not one for students to trifle with (not that they'd dare). Cate Blanchett, also an Oscar nominee and winner of several critics society awards for her impassioned performance, costars as Sheba Hart, the new, overwhelmed art teacher who first becomes enthrall to Barbara after she steps in to help Sheba discipline unruly students. Barbara cultivates a friendship, and insinuates herself into Sheba's chaotic life, which includes her older husband (Bill Nighy), teenage daughter, and a son with Down's syndrome. Then, Barbara catches the reckless Sheba in a compromising position with a 15-year-old student (Andrew Simpson). Seizing her opportunity, the calculating Barbara does not turn her in. Rather, she wants to "help" her. "She's the one I've been waiting for," she writes in the journals she meticulously keeps, and which provide, in voiceover, her corrosive commentary. This all sounds very Fatal Attraction, but no boiling rabbits, please; we're British. Philip Glass's Oscar-nominated score accentuates the growing menace. Though there is little in these characters to admire, (one would think GLAAD would have something to say about the predatory turn Barbara's character takes), Notes on a Scandal is a compelling tour-de-force for its Grade-A cast. --Donald Liebenson Notes on a Scandal Extras 
Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench on their characters in the film |
Beyond Notes on a Scandal 
Book to Movie Adaptations | 
More Cate Blanchett Films | 
What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal: A Novel |
Stills from Notes on a Scandal |
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Notes on a Scandal Customer Reviews
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Intense and disturbing....
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My husband brought the DVD home with the warning that "Notes on a Scandal" was supposed to be an intense and disturbing film. Disturbing it was indeed, but not in the way I thought it would be. I assumed that a plot involving a teacher's "affair" with a teenage pupil would be overwhelmed by the unsavory aspect of that dangerous liaison. While events do turn upon the sordid, ill-fated dalliance, it is shown to be the unappealing result of mental aberration on the part of Cate Blanchett's character "Sheba." Sheba is drawn into the affair because she is basically undisciplined and used to living a free life, although she has tried to be a devoted mother to the best of her ability. But when boredom and unhappiness overwhelm her, she is bereft of resources.
The other dangerous relationship in the film is the emotional obsession that an older teacher, Babara Covett, magnificently played by Judi Dench, develops over Sheba. It reminded me of a saying of St Francis de Sales: "There are many virgins in hell, but there are no humble people in hell." With all the overemphasis on the physical, we forget that there are other sins besides those of the flesh, and that pride and covetousness can also lead a soul down the primrose path. Barbara's determination to monopolize Sheba's affections is in many ways as insidious and dangerous as any carnal misbehavior.
Barbara (Dench) is a dedicated teacher who with one word can restore order in a classroom. Her amazing competence and intellectual superiority lead her to despise the world. She is a misanthrope worthy of Scrooge, yet the witty and brilliant reflections as recorded in her secret diary are chillingly amusing. Unfortunately, she has a habit of forming inordinate attachments to other, younger women, attachments which she erroneously idealizes as being spiritual friendships. True friendship has little to do with it, however. Barbara resents Sheba's family and when Sheba puts her children first, only then does Barbara report Sheba's criminal actions.
"Notes on a Scandal" is a revealing glimpse into the souls of two women, each narcissistic and possessed by different brands of lust. Rarely has real love been so starkly contrasted with inordinate affections as in director Richard Eyre's modern yet timeless melodrama. |
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Notes on a Scandal dvd movie.
