This classic movie was released in 1993, fifteen years before I started this blog, so I've never reviewed it here. But after re-watching it last evening, I feel the trailer should be saved in TYWKIWDBI as a heads-up for any readers who may not have been paying attention to movies 30 years ago.
The movie is a Merchant-Ivory production, presenting an extended and often sympathetic character study of one man's obsessive devotion to his life's work - serving the grand house where he is employed, and serving his master (however defective), at a cost of his family life and his personal life.
The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, Screenplay, Costume, Music, and Art Direction), and Hopkins won the BAFTA that year. But be aware that this is not a "fun" movie, with a happy Hollywood ending. Its power lies in the absolutely superb acting of Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
I read the book not long ago. It was worth slogging through the slowly developing story to get to the heart of the characters. I put Kazuo Ishiguro on my list of authors whose work I want to explore.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Ishiguro
DeleteAnon, thank you for prompting me to look him up. I didn't realize the book upon which the movie was based won the Booker Prize. Also didn't know he wrote Never Let Me Go, which was made into an outstanding movie. And also this -
https://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2022/11/living.html
Thank you, too. I'm a fan of Bill Nighy (he's outstanding as Johnny Worricker) so I put "Living" on a hold from my library.
DeleteOne of my favorites!
ReplyDeleteA hallmark of the best Ishiguro (including Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go) is fragility. There is beauty, there is a life worth living, but it hangs by a thread, or just out of reach. There are parallel worlds - well-meaning people caught in one world, longing for another. And the film adaptations of both these novels capture that so very well.
ReplyDelete