Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26075 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-09-12
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Customer Reviews

Superb cast in a stunning film.
Deborah Warner's first foray into film is marked with the hallmarks of her celebrated theatre work: quiet intelligence, truth and gentle humour - not to mention a cast of the greatest actors alive: Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon and the unparalleled Fiona Shaw, Warner's long-term theatre collaborator.
This period of Irish history, and this group of aristocratic people, the Anglo Irish, are new to most film-goers, and the story of their lives and the decline of the "old ways" marks this out as a less syrupy, though still sumptuously watchable "Brideshead Revisited".
It really is a feast for every sense and well worth seeking out: a magnificent film in every way.

A film of atmospheres and emotions, not actions
The Last September tells of a young lady's journey through adolesence against the backdrop of the aftermath of the Irish Civil War.

It tells of a family, the Naylors, who "try hard not to notice" that the prevailaged, Protestant world of which they are part is being swept away. Louis, the daughter of the house is more concerned with falling in love, but when she does so, the relationship is terminated by her mother, who considers her beau not to be of the right background - his suburban Middlesex home being an unsuitable match for glamorous County Cork. Across the beatiful lawns of their house we see distant, shadowy figures running Rebublican errands and outwitting the British soldiers stationed nearby.

The Naylors, and Louis in particular, are placed in an awkward dilemma: their livelyhood depends upon a certain amount of goodwill from their Republican neighbours and tennants, but everyone presumes them to be in league with the British. The consequenses of this conflict of interests touches every aspect of the Naylors' lives.

This is director Debora Warner's first venture into cinema: it is a brave choice for a first-timer. Elizabeth Bowen's book is one of atmospheres and emotions rather than a linear plot, and Warner use lengthy shots of deserted clockwork gramophones and rope-swings spinning from trees to illustrate the pungent passages of prose for whch Bowen was famous (Seamus Heanney refered to them as Bowen 747s). But these cinematic interludes, though beatufully shot, can never fulfil the purpose of descriptive prose.

However, the cast is suberb and Maggie Smith is wonderful as the aparently absent-minded mother, Lady Naylor. It is the cast that save this film and it is worth seeing for their performances alone. But this is not an ideal book to turn into a film and the introduction of a violent sexual episode (not present in Bowen's novel) illustrates Warner's insecurity about producing a film in which nothing really happens; but that is precisely the point of the novel.

For lovers of Bowen's work and those interested in the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy , this is a must-see. For others, give it a go - the cinematography is captivating - but don't be surprised if it leaves you none the wiser about the extraordinary atmosphere and period in which it is set.

This is the end, my beautiful friend, This is the end, my only friend.
This is a bit of a gem really if you are familiar with the British class system and have a modicum of knowledge of the struggles engulfing Britain around the turn of the twentieth century. In the film, the concern is primarily for the struggle for Irish independence but there are unspoken undertones of the struggles of women.

At first blush this is Doctor Who meets Harry Potter as the main players come on the scene. Seriously though, it is hard towatch this for a while given the proximity of the stars of the movie similar to that of the Potter movies. A bit of a distraction.

Maggie Smith has made this sort of role her own and in this I am strongly reminded of her portrayal in Private Function, a film which has many parallels here.

It is easy to mistake the setting for rural England, which to me is a deliberate perspective of the Director. There is a powerful impetus to assume that the central charcters are, in fact, English, but as the plot unfolds, the underlying sypathies are exposed as an identity, and a greater connection to the historical roots.

Of course, the romance involving an English officer (and thus gentleman) in direct contrast to the Fenian freedom fighter (Irish gentry) is very symbolic. The traditional roles are inverted and twisted but eventually, the officer is killed by his republican rival metaphorically representing the separation of the two lands and the division of the heart of the object of their affection.

The problem is, appreciation of the full scope of the film is limited to those who have read the book and who have a different perception of the story and those who have some rudimentary knowledge of history, politics and class. That is not to say that the regular viewer is left completely in the dark, but merely, that the richness of colour and tone is lost to that person.

For that reason I can only countenance four stars.