H.E. Bates has never really been a popular author in the cinema- there have been far more adaptations of his works on television- but in 1995 there appeared both "A Month by the Lake" and "The Feast of July", the first feature films based on his writings since "Dulcima" and "The Triple Echo" in the early seventies. The reason why these two films both came out at that time is doubtless the temporary revival of interest in his works provoked by "The Darling Buds of May", the highly popular television adaptation of his "Larkin Family" series of comic novels.
"A Month by the Lake", based on a story from Bates' collection "The Grapes of Paradise", is set in the Italy of the 1930s; to be precise, by Lake Como in April 1937, the very month in which Edward Fox, one of its stars, was born. Rather unusually in a youth-obsessed cinema, its theme is the growth of love between two middle-aged people, both British guests at an elegant lakeside hotel. Miss Bentley is a spinster who, on the first day of her month's holiday, meets Major Wilshaw, a retired Army officer. This is not, however, a straightforward romance. Even in middle age the path of love does not always run smoothly, and complications arise in the shape of two other characters. Miss Beaumont, an American nanny working for a rich Italian family, flirts shamelessly with the Major. Vittorio, a handsome young Italian, flirts equally shamelessly with both Miss Bentley and Miss Beaumont. (Vittorio, incidentally, is the only major character whose Christian name we discover. The others, in keeping with Anglo-Saxon conventions of this era, address each other by their titles and surnames alone. Perhaps Italians were more relaxed about such matters).
This film is considerably better than the film version of "The Feast of July", which turns a fine novel into a dull piece of rustic gloom and misery, but it does have its faults. The action tends to drag at times, particularly in the first half. The character of the Major changes rather abruptly; at first he seems like a rude, petulant man, especially after Miss Bentley beats him at tennis, and then suddenly becomes charming towards her. It is something of a convention in comedies such as "I Love Trouble" and "You've Got Mail" that all love affairs begin with hatred at first sight, but "A Month by the Lake" is a drama, a genre which has generally demanded a greater degree of psychological realism than has romantic comedy.
Nevertheless, it is also a film which has its virtues. It may fall within the "heritage cinema" category but, despite the beauties of the scenery, it is not as visually lavish as some examples of the genre. It not only visually but also emotionally subtle. This type of cinema often demands a rather different style of acting technique than does contemporary drama for the reason that earlier generations, particularly but not only in Britain, often valued emotional self-control (the so-called "stiff upper lip") as a virtue, far more than most people would today. To display strong emotions, especially in public, was seen as a sign of weakness.
To play "heritage cinema" well, therefore, demands the ability to display emotional states though subtle behavioural or verbal nuances rather than through overt histrionics. Uma Thurman, as Miss Beaumont, seems more at home here than she did in her earlier venture into historical drama, "Dangerous Liaisons". Roger Ebert points out that her character's surname means "beautiful mountain", but unlike Ebert I do not think that this is a reference to Thurman's physical height. Bates, after all, died in 1974, never knowing that his story would be filmed or that such a tall actress would be chosen to play the character. I think that he chose the name to emphasise that Miss Beaumont, beneath a surface playfulness, is inwardly cold and icy, and this is something which Thurman suggests well.
Miss Bentley and Wilshaw, by contrast, hide strong emotions beneath an outward reticence. Like most British film actors of their generation (they were born within a few months of each other in 1937) Edward Fox and Vanessa Redgrave are both practised stars of historical drama- Redgrave, for example, starred in "Agatha" and Fox in "The Shooting Party"- , both possess the gift of being able to express emotion and mood subtly, and both make full use of that gift here. The result is a quiet, understated film, but nevertheless a very good one. 7/10
"A Month by the Lake", based on a story from Bates' collection "The Grapes of Paradise", is set in the Italy of the 1930s; to be precise, by Lake Como in April 1937, the very month in which Edward Fox, one of its stars, was born. Rather unusually in a youth-obsessed cinema, its theme is the growth of love between two middle-aged people, both British guests at an elegant lakeside hotel. Miss Bentley is a spinster who, on the first day of her month's holiday, meets Major Wilshaw, a retired Army officer. This is not, however, a straightforward romance. Even in middle age the path of love does not always run smoothly, and complications arise in the shape of two other characters. Miss Beaumont, an American nanny working for a rich Italian family, flirts shamelessly with the Major. Vittorio, a handsome young Italian, flirts equally shamelessly with both Miss Bentley and Miss Beaumont. (Vittorio, incidentally, is the only major character whose Christian name we discover. The others, in keeping with Anglo-Saxon conventions of this era, address each other by their titles and surnames alone. Perhaps Italians were more relaxed about such matters).
This film is considerably better than the film version of "The Feast of July", which turns a fine novel into a dull piece of rustic gloom and misery, but it does have its faults. The action tends to drag at times, particularly in the first half. The character of the Major changes rather abruptly; at first he seems like a rude, petulant man, especially after Miss Bentley beats him at tennis, and then suddenly becomes charming towards her. It is something of a convention in comedies such as "I Love Trouble" and "You've Got Mail" that all love affairs begin with hatred at first sight, but "A Month by the Lake" is a drama, a genre which has generally demanded a greater degree of psychological realism than has romantic comedy.
Nevertheless, it is also a film which has its virtues. It may fall within the "heritage cinema" category but, despite the beauties of the scenery, it is not as visually lavish as some examples of the genre. It not only visually but also emotionally subtle. This type of cinema often demands a rather different style of acting technique than does contemporary drama for the reason that earlier generations, particularly but not only in Britain, often valued emotional self-control (the so-called "stiff upper lip") as a virtue, far more than most people would today. To display strong emotions, especially in public, was seen as a sign of weakness.
To play "heritage cinema" well, therefore, demands the ability to display emotional states though subtle behavioural or verbal nuances rather than through overt histrionics. Uma Thurman, as Miss Beaumont, seems more at home here than she did in her earlier venture into historical drama, "Dangerous Liaisons". Roger Ebert points out that her character's surname means "beautiful mountain", but unlike Ebert I do not think that this is a reference to Thurman's physical height. Bates, after all, died in 1974, never knowing that his story would be filmed or that such a tall actress would be chosen to play the character. I think that he chose the name to emphasise that Miss Beaumont, beneath a surface playfulness, is inwardly cold and icy, and this is something which Thurman suggests well.
Miss Bentley and Wilshaw, by contrast, hide strong emotions beneath an outward reticence. Like most British film actors of their generation (they were born within a few months of each other in 1937) Edward Fox and Vanessa Redgrave are both practised stars of historical drama- Redgrave, for example, starred in "Agatha" and Fox in "The Shooting Party"- , both possess the gift of being able to express emotion and mood subtly, and both make full use of that gift here. The result is a quiet, understated film, but nevertheless a very good one. 7/10