Back in May, I watched all five episodes of the BBC miniseries, "Parade's End." This is based on the series of novels by Ford Madox Ford, based in part on his experiences in the First World War. It seems so odd to me that this year is the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of the war, because we seem to continue to read books and watch movies about the war.
Well, I loved it. The cinematography was wonderful, as was the music. I thought Adeline Clements was sublime, as were the supporting actors, including Rufus Sewell as the mad vicar. I recommend it to you for that alone. It had a wonderful cast: Janet McTeer, Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, Roger Allam, Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall.
I know that the screenplay was by Tom Stoppard and having enjoyed his plays very much, I found myself wondering if that was part of why I loved it. The villain of the piece (Sylvia) was given some absolutely wonderful lines and I found myself thinking it was hard to dislike her entirely when she had such interesting things to say!
I thought Janet McTeer's performance as Sylvia's mother was note-perfect and I enjoyed watching her. I loved everybody else, too. Loved it!
I have not read the novels, but I learned something about them by going to the Wikipedia entry. There's a scene in which Sylvia throws a plate at Christopher, complaining that he is correcting the Encyclopedia Britannica. She further complains that no jury would convict her if she killed her husband; I can't remember what her specific complaint is, but it seems to be that it is horrible to be married to such a pedantic person. In the novel, I learned from Wikipedia, Christopher reads the Encyclopedia Britannica to restore his lost memory as he recovers from shell shock.
I would say that it reminded me of the Makioka Sisters, the novel by Tanizaki Junichiro, but lately I've been thinking that everything reminds me of the Makioka Sisters, so I'll skip that. (In the Makioka Sisters, different daughters react differently to the decline in their family's fortunes in the context of Westernization and militarization - here Christopher Tietjens and his elder brother have slightly different takes on responding to the ending of a way of life on landed estates after the First World War. It seemed to me that the heart of the piece was the tension between Christopher's values and those of the world around him which were rapidly undergoing a huge shift.)
A friend gave me a copy of Parade's End and I've just finished watching it a second time. In my second viewing, Benedict Cumberbatch's performance seemed wonderful.
Well, I loved it. The cinematography was wonderful, as was the music. I thought Adeline Clements was sublime, as were the supporting actors, including Rufus Sewell as the mad vicar. I recommend it to you for that alone. It had a wonderful cast: Janet McTeer, Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, Roger Allam, Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall.
I know that the screenplay was by Tom Stoppard and having enjoyed his plays very much, I found myself wondering if that was part of why I loved it. The villain of the piece (Sylvia) was given some absolutely wonderful lines and I found myself thinking it was hard to dislike her entirely when she had such interesting things to say!
I thought Janet McTeer's performance as Sylvia's mother was note-perfect and I enjoyed watching her. I loved everybody else, too. Loved it!
I have not read the novels, but I learned something about them by going to the Wikipedia entry. There's a scene in which Sylvia throws a plate at Christopher, complaining that he is correcting the Encyclopedia Britannica. She further complains that no jury would convict her if she killed her husband; I can't remember what her specific complaint is, but it seems to be that it is horrible to be married to such a pedantic person. In the novel, I learned from Wikipedia, Christopher reads the Encyclopedia Britannica to restore his lost memory as he recovers from shell shock.
I would say that it reminded me of the Makioka Sisters, the novel by Tanizaki Junichiro, but lately I've been thinking that everything reminds me of the Makioka Sisters, so I'll skip that. (In the Makioka Sisters, different daughters react differently to the decline in their family's fortunes in the context of Westernization and militarization - here Christopher Tietjens and his elder brother have slightly different takes on responding to the ending of a way of life on landed estates after the First World War. It seemed to me that the heart of the piece was the tension between Christopher's values and those of the world around him which were rapidly undergoing a huge shift.)
A friend gave me a copy of Parade's End and I've just finished watching it a second time. In my second viewing, Benedict Cumberbatch's performance seemed wonderful.
No comments:
Post a Comment