A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY. (1987) BASED ON THE NOVEL BY J.L. CARR. DIRECTED BY PAT O'CONNOR. STARRING COLIN FIRTH, KENNETH BRANAGH, NATASHA RICHARDSON, PATRICK MALAHIDE, RICHARD VERNON AND DAVID GARTH. 'THE JUDGEMENT' PAINTED BY MARGOT NOYES. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
This is a most extraordinary film. It's
a slow burner and, in a way, nothing much seems to happen in it but,
in another way, the things that do happen
are somehow of the most momentous import. Yes, that sounds a bit
grandiose but when you watch the film, or if you already have, you'll
know what I mean.
I don't
just love English films, I love films about England.
Coming from a woman who's painfully Irish, that might sound strange
but I've always had an affinity for all things English. I have quite
a respectable collection of books on English villages, old English
castles and mansions and English antiques, paintings and fancy
furniture from the Victorian era and the slightly later UPSTAIRS
DOWNSTAIRS times.
I also
watch COUNTRYFILE on
BBC2 every Sunday just to get my
weekly fix of the beautiful English countryside in all its verdant
glory. Grazing
sheep, grassy hillocks and the charmingly tousle-haired and boyish
Matt Baker in a stout pair of wellies. If that doesn't convince you that I'm an England-lover then
nothing will, haha.
Now I'm
adding the DVD of A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY to
my collection of 'great English stuff.' The
film is quintessentially English. Lawks-a-mussy, it couldn't be more
English if it tried, praise the Lord.
The wonderful
folks at the British Film Institute are releasing the film this month
(June 2016) in a Dual Format Edition of Blu-Ray and DVD. Naturally,
it comes complete with a whole host of extra features such as
interviews with Colin Firth and the director Pat O'Conor and an
illustrated booklet containing full film credits and new writing by
Jo Botting and Andy Miller. It's an absolute must-have for fans of
the film and the marvellous actors who star in it.
Colin Firth
plays a frightfully English chap called Tom Birkin. In the summer of
1920, he finds himself in the picturesque Yorkshire village of
Oxgodby to do a job of work. He's been commissioned with the task of
uncovering a medieval wall painting in the local church.
This he does
painstakingly, spending hours carefully scraping away at the wall to
gradually reveal the artistic mysteries beneath. He's a tad strapped for cash
so he beds down in the belfry of the church, of all places, even
though the local Reverend Keach and his missus live in a massive big
empty house and could easily put him up there if they wanted.
Well,
maybe Mrs. Keach would
like that, as there's an instant attraction between her and Birkin,
but the Reverend says he doesn't approve of the painting job and, who
knows, maybe he feels threatened by the young and handsome Mr.
Birkin...? (Well, young and handsome despite the
dodgy quiff and the scrappy moustache that doesn't seem to know
whether it's coming or going, haha.)
The Rev's
marriage is as loveless (and childless) as his big house is empty.
Furthermore, he seems crippled with self-loathing and insecurities,
possibly the kind that typically beset an ordinary Joe Soap who for
some reason has managed to bag himself a beautiful and intelligent
woman and doesn't quite know how the bloody hell he managed it. There's probably always going to be a certain amount of paranoid
suspicion and feelings of inadequacy inherent in a chap like that. Excuse my
assumptions and my amateur armchair pyscho-analysis...!
The unspoken
attraction between Birkin and Alice Keach is both powerful and
delicate, as delicate as the roses Alice cultivates though, on her
own admission, there's no-one to admire them but herself. Will the lonely pair act on their feelings or will they do the proper 'English' thing and
repress them because it's the right thing to do?
I
actually thought the film was going to turn into 'RYAN'S
DAUGHTER' on me at one point but The
Reviewers' Code prohibits me from spilling the beans, haha. And, by
the way, Birkin's relationship with Alice isn't the only thing he has
going for him in the scenic little village of Oxgodby.
His
blossoming friendship with Kenneth Branagh's visiting archaeologist
James Moon is lovely to watch. They fall into the friendship easily,
the way men do, chatting when they want to and being companionably
silent together when they don't. So different to the intensity and
the 'tell me your life story straightaway!' element
of womens' friendships with other women.
Both men are
veterans of World War One and we don't need a million flashbacks to
work out that it affected them adversely. Maybe an uncomplicated undemanding friendship like this is just what the pair
of them need...?
I love
the super-English Colonel Hebron and all the 'friends' Birkin is sort
of railroaded into making in the village. The
painting, when it's eventually uncovered, will take your breath away
and when the final scenes roll around, I promise you there won't be a
dry eye in the house.
The scenery is out of this
world. There's enough sublime English countryside on display to satisfy even me,
and I'm quite hard to please in
that regard.
The
Reverend's home is the perfect example of a big old English country
house and, if I lived in it, I'd fill it with books and leave all the
doors and windows open when it rained just so I could see it pouring
down on the trees and garden. Yes, I'm eccentric and unconventional
and I love my books and ramshackle old country houses to bits. I'm
always working on some way to combine the two...!
There's no
sightings of Colin Firth's no doubt muscular buttocks in this film
but don't hold that against it, haha. This is a wonderful cinematic
experience and the BFI Dual Format Edition, out now, is as good an
opportunity to avail of it as any.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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