Dust

Starring:Joseph Fiennes, David Wenham, Adrian Lester, Anne Brochet, Nikolina Kujaca, Rosemary Murphy, Vlado Jovanovski, Salaetin Bilal, Vera Farmiga, Matt Ross, Meg Gibson, Tamer Ibrahim, Vladimir Jacev, Vladimir Gjorgjijoski, Zora Georgieva, Jordan Simonov, Josif Josifovski, Joe Mosso, Saundra McClain, Nick Sandow
Director: Milcho Manchevski
Studio: Lions Gate
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Product Description
At the turn of the last century, two brothers fall in love with the same woman. When she chooses the younger of the two, the embittered older brother travels overseas where he becomes a ruthless mercenary... but the revolution soon takes a personal twist with one brother hanging on the edge of life and death.

System Requirements:

Running Time 124 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE
Amazon.com
Mortality and graphic slaughter are central to Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski's first film since 1994's Before the Rain. In modern New York a young man, Edge (Adrian Lester), breaks into an apartment inhabited by old lady Angela (Rosemary Murphy), who then tells him a story at gunpoint. In Angela's surreally symbolic tale, set around 1905, there are two feuding brothers: gunfighter Luke (David Wenham) becomes a bounty hunter in Macedonia; Bible-quoting, vengeance-seeking Elijah (Joseph Fiennes) follows, and hell goes with him. Dust is part contemporary drama, part spaghetti Western homage--with the Ottoman Empire forces standing in for the Mexican army--and all meditation on the nature of cinematic myth-making. The performances are variable, but a plethora of movie references, particularly to various Sergio Leone films, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Wild Bunch, combine in a stylish and provocative fable that bears comparison with The Usual Suspects and Sex and Lucia. It also echoes Ararat (2002), in which a production crew makes a film about the 1915-18 Turkish genocide of the Armenians. Taken at face value the plot stretches credibility, but as a reflection on the nature of storytelling, Dust is an ingenious concoction. --Gary S. Dalkin

Average customer rating:

Awsome
Dust to Glory
Great DVD
Long Dusty Road
Dust to Glory is a great movie.

Dust to Glory
Starring: Steve McQueen , Robby Gordon , Chad McQueen , James Garner , and Ricky Johnson (III)
Director: Dana Brown (II) , and Rawn Hutchinson
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Accessories:

Enduroshot Energy Shots, Maximum Energy, Orange Velocity, 15 drinks [33 oz (975 ml)]

ASIN: B0009XT8C4
Release Date: 2005-08-23

Amazon.com

Don't be surprised if you feel a dry, tickling sensation in the back of your throat after watching the slam-bang racing documentary Dust to Glory. It's probably from the lingering sand and silt spewed from the knobby wheels of an array of machines that skitter from one end of the Baja Peninsula to the other. Using 90 cameras in a variety of formats, director Dana Brown captures the giddy danger of the race with truly visceral force. In 1967, a few California thrill-seekers had the Eureka spirit to take their homemade race cars for some whooping-up in the wide-open land just a few hours away. Since then, the Baja 1000 has turned into a party-fueled happening that's more akin to Burning Man than the Indy 500. It's billed as the world's longest nonstop race, running point-to-point for 1,000 miles through the Mexican desert from Tijuana to La Paz--pretty much the entire length of Baja.

Dana Brown is the son of Bruce Brown, whose 1966 film The Endless Summer sparked a surfing craze, and still holds up as an incomparable ode to the existential surfing lifestyle. Dust to Glory is by no means so profound and uses more of a Warren Miller thrill-marketing style (he of the annual throwaway extreme-skiing films). Cameras swoop down from helicopters, careen through silt, and are put into tracks over which vehicles pass at extreme speeds. In spite of the adrenaline rush, Dust to Glory is ultimately more about what people think about the higher implications of the competition. One veteran finisher describes it this way: "It's like having all 10,000 close calls of your life in one day. It makes regular life feel like slow-motion." --Ted Fry

Description

From the creators of Step Into Liquid comes this "amazing" (Variety), "absolutely exhilarating" (LA Weekly) film about the most notorious and dangerous race in the world: the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. Showcasing Mario Andretti, Robby Gordon, Johnny Campbell and J.N. Roberts, and packed with awesome helicopter footage, in-your-face POV shots and stories of raw courage, Dust to Glory follows a wild assortment of motorcycles, dune buggies, ATV quads and tricked-out trucks in a 32-hour dash across 1,000 miles of unforgiving terrain and delivers such pulse-pounding thrills that "you feel like you've been there" (LA Weekly)!

Customer Reviews:

Awsome.......2007-06-16

If you call yourself a fan of off-road racing, then this is a film that you need to have at the top of your DVD collection. With some of the most awsome footage that I personally have ever seen and an awsome narration by the director, the story of the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 takes on a whole new light. This is a must see.

Dust to Glory.......2007-06-09

Amazing video - edge of your seat excitement and great human interest stories. Even I enjoyed it - purchased for my husband - have lent ittoseveral motorcycle friends.

Great DVD .......2007-06-08

I watch this DVD at least once a month. It is very inspiring and enjoyable. It makes you feel like you were actually in the race. It provides for a great experience and one that I wish I could live for real. Hats off to the produces of this documentary. Very good DVD, 5 Stars.

Long Dusty Road.......2007-06-08

In the style of his father. Good movie.. About 20 minutes to long.

Dust to Glory is a great movie........2007-05-15

This is one of the best off road movies I have ever seen. This movie definately gets the insight of the Baja 1000 and tells the story through the riders and drivers point of view, along with other point of views. This is my favorite movie, by far.

Average customer rating:

IT'S THE STORY OF A YOUNG WRITER WHO WRITES ABOUT A YOUNG WRITER WHO...
Salma Hayek is delicious. The rest of the movie... not so much.
good movie, worth a watch
Wonderful movie!
A quirky movie, and I liked it!

Ask the Dust
Starring: Colin Farrell , Salma Hayek , Donald Sutherland , Eileen Atkins , and Idina Menzel
Director: Robert Towne
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FIHN5M
Release Date: 2006-07-25

Amazon.com

Adapted from the acclaimed 1939 novel by John Fante, Ask the Dust represents a 30-year labor of love for Robert Towne, the Oscar®-winning screenwriter of Chinatown. It's easy to see why Towne was drawn to Fante's classic tale of ill-fated romance in Depression-era Los Angeles: It's a tenacious, hard-scrabble valentine to Towne's beloved city, to the lonely craft of writing, and to the elusive whims of love. Towne must have been inspired by the challenge of capturing the inner life and outer environs of Fante's literary hero, struggling writer Aturo Bandini (played by Colin Farrell), as he arrives in L.A. circa 1932, sells occasional stories to legendary American Mercury editor H.L. Mencken (heard only in voice-overs provided by film critic Richard Schickel), lives in the seedy Alta Loma hotel in the dusty neighborhood of Bunker Hill (where a fellow resident is played by Donald Sutherland), and falls into a stormy relationship with Camilla (Salma Hayek), a Mexican waitress who shares Bandini's immigrant dreams for a better life in sunny California. There are good times and bad in this passionately combative romance (and Hayek has never been more sensuously appealing onscreen), and Towne has done a perfect job of capturing an arid combination of hope, depression, and artistic ambition, working in fruitful collaboration with celebrated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (The Black Stallion) on meticulously authentic Depression-era sets built on location (of all places) in South Africa. Ask the Dust never fully succeeds as an emotionally involving drama (the lives of writers are notoriously difficult to translate to film), but there's something undeniably seductive about this curious and great-looking film... and we're not just talking about Farrell and Hayek cavorting naked in the ocean. Even that memorable scene is infused with the threat of broken dreams, as if Towne were reminding us (and himself) that nothing good comes without sacrifice.--Jeff Shannon

Description

Colin Farrell is Arturo Bandini, a young would-be writer who comes to Depression-era Los Angeles to make a name for himself. While there, he meets beautiful barmaid Camilla (Salma Hayek), a Mexican immigrant who hopes for a better life by marrying a wealthy American. Both are trying to escape the stigma of their ethnicity in blue-blood California. The passion that arises between them is palpable - if they could only set aside their ambitions and submit to it. Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne (Chinatown) directs this outcasts' tale of desire in the desert, co-starring Donald Sutherland (Pride and Prejudice).

Customer Reviews:

IT'S THE STORY OF A YOUNG WRITER WHO WRITES ABOUT A YOUNG WRITER WHO..........2007-06-08

Writer-director Robert Towne is responsible for a few first-class screenplays of the last thirty years. For example, he wrote or co-wrote Roman Polanski's Chinatown, Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza and Jack Nicholson's The Two Jakes. Not bad, isn't it ?

I had read the novels of John Fante a few years ago and liked them a lot. Arturo Bandini, John Fante's literary double, is a character one doesn't forget easily and the description of the post WWI Los Angeles was particularly shabby. Now, in my opinion, Robert Towne's movie perfectly describes the mood of that period and the difficulties met by the Americans of the first generation to obtain the right and the opportunity to enjoy the American dream. ASK THE DUST is not a masterpiece but provides for the movie buff a kind of pleasure that starts to become more and more uncommon nowadays: the feeling to have been considered as an adult by the director.

A DVD it would be a shame to look down upon.

Salma Hayek is delicious. The rest of the movie... not so much........2007-05-27

Ask the Dust (Robert Towne, 2006)

While Ask the Dust is not the travesty I was expecting it to be, I can't say I was overly impressed with it, either. Colin Farrell's take on Arturo Bandini just never really clicked for me (more than once I wondered what Robert Downey, Jr., would've made of the role), though Salma Hayek does a fine job reminding me why I was so excited whenever a movie she was in showed up on the screen a decade or so ago. Donald Sutherland, on the other hand, is almost thoroughly wasted here; one wonders how many of his scenes ended up left on the cutting room floor, because I can't imagine an actor of his caliber taking a role so small and so incidental to the story. Other small oddities surface (why is it that the landlady, so dead set against Bandini having women in his room, never comes pounding on the door during his 4AM screaming fights with them?). One gets the feeling this should have been a much longer movie with a great deal more detail, but it's unlikely we'll ever get a chance to find out. ** ½

good movie, worth a watch.......2007-04-22

I think "Ask the Dust" succeeds as a film in that it gets the viewer emtoionally involved and suspends disbelief. The movie was not bad, and it was in fact great. The filming and sets were very authentic. But it was the acting that made the movie good. Salma Hayek proved that she is an artist by displaying her skill as an actress. She was fiesty and at times mean, but also vulnerable and loving. Colin Farrell also proved he is a good actor as he captured the character so well: he displayed fears and hopes at the same time. Those people that think the relationship was just abuse are wrong. They were two strong willed people that hadn't opened up to the right person until they found eachother. It was great to see them thawing throughout the movie and change from hard of heart people to the end when they admit their fears and the love they have for eachother. Salma and Colin are underrated as actors. Watch this movie to provoke thoughts about human weakness and strength and to see a social commentary asking what it means to be an American in the melting-pot U.S.

*****/***** Beautifully filmed, acted, etc...

Wonderful movie!.......2007-01-18

This has to be one of Colin Farrell's best performaces! He plays a 1st generation Italian in 1933. The director of this film made everything so authentic! Even down to how they walked back then. You'll see. :)
Really great movie! I enjoyed it more than the book! I'm very glad that I added it to my DVD collection!

A quirky movie, and I liked it!.......2007-01-10

This is a beautiful movie and may not be for everyone (read the reviews). Colin and Selma do a wonderful job ... and I thought Sutherland's alcoholic added depth to the movie.

Yes, there are disparities in the story, and people in real life (Italian, Mexican and other-wise) might not act like this, but then, spend a few years as a marriage/family counselor, and you'll probably be surprised at a lot of things about the way real people act.

A good love story...I recommend it.

Average customer rating:

an all-time favorite
A Shicken
Rust In The Dust ~ Anything But Divine
How the West was Hilarious
Lust in the Dust

Lust in the Dust
Starring: Tab Hunter , Divine , Lainie Kazan , Geoffrey Lewis , and Henry Silva
Director: Paul Bartel
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
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ASIN: B0000509C2
Release Date: 2001-03-26

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After forming a match made in trash-movie heaven in John Waters's Polyester, Tab Hunter and Divine reunited for this deliciously tasteless Western comedy, which borrows its title from the nickname for Duel in the Sun, the turgid Western that inspired director Paul Bartel's affectionate spoofery. With Hunter wearing two hats as hero and coproducer, the movie indulges its own outrageous excess while staying true to the dustiest traditions of the Western genre. It's just good enough to watch without shame, and rude enough to hide from more offendable members of the family.

Nothing's sacred in Chile Verde, the wild western town where lone gunman Abel Wood (Hunter) arrives after rescuing corpulent saloon singer Rosie Velez (Divine) from being defiled by Hard Case Williams (Geoffey Lewis) and his gang of misfit gunslingers. Saloon owner Marguerita Ventura (Lainie Kazan) gets hot 'n' heavy for Abel's wood, and passions flare up in a race for hidden treasure, the map to which is tattooed in two sections on Rosie's and Marguerita's ample posteriors. To reveal more would spoil the wretched hilarity; one needn't love Westerns to enjoy this pig-wallow of a comedy, but it helps if you know the legacy of screen villains like Henry Silva, who's riotous here while barely shifting his vile expression. No doubt, this is the wackiest Western that ever cooked under the "blistering, burning, blazing, scorching, roasting, toasting, baking, boiling, broiling, steaming, searing, sizzling, grilling, smoldering, very hot New Mexico sun." --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

an all-time favorite.......2007-06-17

I notice some seriously humor-impaired reviews here, but this is one of the movies I can watch over and over and never get tired of(Mad Mad Mad Mad World and anything by Laurel and Hardy are some others). Just fantastic-Cesar Romero and Lainie Kazan are great, as is the whole cast. IMHO the whole movie is about perfect.

A Shicken.......2007-05-24

A Hysterical Romp that you have to watch over and over to truly appreciate. Divine is just that and Lainie Kazan is a treat.

Rust In The Dust ~ Anything But Divine.......2006-09-20

'Lust in the Dust' released in '84 is an irreverent parody on spaghetti westerns that just doesn't hit the target. I did enjoy Tab Hunter doing his best Clint Eastwood impersonation in the role of gunfighter/drifter Abel Wood and Gina Gallego was a lovely addition as working girl Ninfa, however that is the extent of anything positive I have to say about this film. I'm not a prude by any means and can on occasion enjoy low brow humour as well as the next guy but this movie couldn't ellicit as much as one laugh out of me.

Lesson for Today: Irreverent and crude doesn't necessarily translate into funny and entertaining. For Divine fans only.

How the West was Hilarious.......2006-07-03

This is one of the funniest Divine movies out there. It's tame compared to his other movies, but "Lust" is my favorite of all his movies. If you're looking for a good laugh, but this!

Lust in the Dust.......2006-05-09

This movie is great, it has had me laughing for over 20 years!!!!

American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl

Average customer rating:

Dust Bowl

American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl
Starring: Surviving the Dust Bowl
Manufacturer: Wgbh Boston
ProductGroup: DVD
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American Experience: The Hurricane of 38

ASIN: B000MZGN5Y
Release Date: 2007-04-24

Description

In 1931 the rains stopped and the "black blizzards" began. Powerful dust storms carrying millions of tons of stinging, blinding black dirt swept across the Southern Plains--the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, western Kansas, and the eastern portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Topsoil that had taken a thousand years per inch to build suddenly blew away in only minutes. One journalist traveling through the devastated region dubbed it the "Dust Bowl."

This American Experience film presents the remarkable story of the determined people who clung to their homes and way of life, enduring drought, dust, disease--even death--for nearly a decade. Less well-known than those who sought refuge in California, typified by the Joad family in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," the Dust Bowlers who stayed overcame an almost unbelievable series of calamities and disasters.

Customer Reviews:

Dust Bowl.......2007-05-01

With the title, "Surviving the Dust Bowl," I was pleased to learn that 3/4 of the residents in that region stayed, something I never knew. However, I would have liked for this work to speak more about how to survive in a disaster area, how to make ends meet, and how to keep one's sanity.

The work is diverse in terms of gender. Because many Native Americans live in that region, I wish they could have been brought up. Did they stay because reservations aren't mobile? It's never stated. The work is a bit Eurocentric. Still, seeing female and male Dust Bowl survivors cry about their ordeal tugged at my heart. One interviewee probably had Parkinson's Disease. I wish this could have been stated because viewers unfamiliar with the malady may have thought the memories were causing her to shake that way.

This work is very focused on visuals. Yes, moving images had been around for three decades before the disaster, but still when someone says, "Dirt whirled a mile up," you could see it. When another person says, "All the livestock died," they show it. To the contrary, the work says farmers had to change their techniques and they don't really spell out what they did wrong and how they tried to improve. The narrator says the disaster could and did happen again, but no further facts are given.

Usually, geographic mobility is seen as a good think, or at least, geographic immobility is portrayed as being bad. So this documentary does flip the script in trying to positively portrayed people who stayed in harsh conditions. Seeing this also reminded me of Farm Aid concerts and how risky agricultural life can be.

Heat and Dust / Autobiography of a Princess - The Merchant Ivory Collection

Average customer rating:

Women in Indian and British Society: Both victims,but both incredibly strong
A gentle farce that spares nobody
A Timeless Tale
Superb
Heat And Dust

Heat and Dust / Autobiography of a Princess - The Merchant Ivory Collection
Starring: Julie Christie , Greta Scacchi , Shashi Kapoor , Susan Fleetwood , and Christopher Cazenove
Director: James Ivory
Manufacturer: Merchant Ivory
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ASIN: B0000AQS6H
Release Date: 2003-11-11

Amazon.com

A persistent clash of cultures lies at the heart of Heat and Dust, the Merchant/Ivory team's most acclaimed drama prior to 1985's A Room with a View. The celebrated trio of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala were perfectly suited to this time-skipping story of thwarted romance, based on Jhabvala's novel, in which the colonial British find themselves perpetually at odds with the vibrant rhythms of India. In this most sensual of environments, two related British women, separated by six decades, discover that their independent spirits are not entirely welcomed within the confines of colonial etiquette. Olivia (Greta Scacchi) defies her stringent husband in the 1920s, while her great-niece Anne (Julie Christie) discovers, upon getting pregnant by an Indian local in the early '80s, that she and Olivia have more than a little in common. Jhabvala's feminism is subtle but forcefully dramatized, and under Ivory's sensitive direction, this tale of two women is a defiantly resonant tribute to love wherever one may find it. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Women in Indian and British Society: Both victims,but both incredibly strong.......2007-06-03

What Merchant Ivory has always done well is to bring style,panache and social consciousness to tell the stories of those who are subjugated to second class citizenry. HEAT AND DUST is one of their earliest lavish productions that tell the plight of women and their unfortunate precast roles in British and Indian Society. The characters are strong and resourceful in face of the unfairness and inconsequentiality that a patriarchal society has pushed upon them.

Acting greats Greta Scacchi (here an ingenue) and Julie Christie (then a seasoned actress) play two women related by blood whose stories are paralled though sixty years apart. Aunt Olivia (Scacchi),a 1920's British Newlywed and her very Stayed British husband (Christopher Casanove) arrive in India at the sundown of British Colonial Rule. Civil uprising is already brewing. Gandhi is a new force on the scene. Hindi and Muslim are vying for power as British Imperialism is soon to come to an end. With this as the historical backdrop, Olivia is a young woman who finds herself willing to snub all convention and risk a scandalous affair with a Prince (or Nawab, played by Shashi Kapoor).The parallel story takes place in 1982 with grandniece Anne (Christie) fascinated in tracing Olivia's steps based on Olivia's kept correspondence by Anne's grandmother. Anne also dicovers in herself the same "wildness" that her Aunt had, and all of this is fueled by the crazy "heat and dust" that casts it's mystical and magical spell on those it touches(or so all of the men say is the problem affecting these "silly creatures"-women)This film is not without some very tongue-in-cheek wit and humour. The Nawab's mother for instance is a stitch!

The film's subplots also include historically accurate portrayals of the women of both the old and the new India. They are also caught in the web of mysogyny and are forced to survive any way they can.

One expects lush interpretation,gorgeous costumes and great set design from Merchant Ivory. You get it all here and then some. This film is beautiful and first rate in all respects. Unfortunately, some will dismiss this film as a "chick flick" or simply a "period piece" (terms that are demeaning).Those with love of history and social issues will benefit and be enormously instructed and entertained.

Coupled with the films GANDHI and A PASSAGE TO INDIA as well as the Deepa Mehta trilogy EARTH, FIRE and WATER, HEAT AND DUST serves to complete a well balanced and indepth look at British Occupation in India and the plight of women. Another Merchant Ivory Productions that also highlight womens issues is THE BOSTONIANS.

A gentle farce that spares nobody.......2007-01-11

If "A Passage to India" was the tragic version of the story, here is the corresponding farce. India at the dusk of British rule, between the World Wars; a young English woman, an Indian man, sex, scandal - but in Ruth Prawer Jhabavala's novel and the subsequent film (which she also wrote), the Indian guy is not an ingenuous, if naive, little doctor but a dubious, if charming, prince who runs a mafia-style organized-crime gang. Nobody is safe from Jhabvala's gently ironic perspective; nobody is a saint and nobody is a victim. The prince's chain-smoking mother is one jewel of a supporting role. For anyone who liked "A Passage to India" but found it too moraline-drenched, this is a truly funny and highly amusing version of the story.

A Timeless Tale.......2005-08-23

It is helpful to view a number of Merchant Ivory productions in chronalogical order. Many deal with the position of women in society and how their individual personalties and life experiences guide them in dealing with their situations. Heat and Dust may seem a bit dated to the modern movie-goer, but it still manages to spin a classic story with some generational and ethnic twists that keep the viewer engaged. Top notch casting and elegant photography make this "personal" film seem guite heroic.

Superb.......2003-07-24

I watched the movie almost twenty years back on Indian TV and was entranced by the romance of British India. I then ordered it on UK Amazon site, bought a code free DVD player, just to watch this movie. This is one of those rare instances when the movie is far better than the book. May be that has to do with the fact that the author was also the script writer. The cinematography is incomparable. The backbone of the story is the beautiful Greta Scachchi and her romance with an Indian prince.

Heat And Dust.......2003-02-04

This film should have an Oscar. Breathtaking and carefully crafted one of the best films I have seen. The film very cleverley shows the end of British as well as the end of Old mughal Nawabs in northern India. Though muslims by faith, the Nawabs or the Princes were far away from their faith and beliefs. It was an eye opener for me as well which explains the fact that such a great Mughal Empire just crumbled within a century.

Average customer rating:

Mesmerizing, Haunting Cinematic Tribute to Early 20th Century Gullah Culture
We Get What We Bring: Be a Guest at the Feast
Wonderful, exciting, historical and captivating
The Emperor is Buck Naked
Thick but good

Daughters of the Dust
Starring: Cora Lee Day , Alva Rogers , Barbarao , Trula Hoosier , and Umar Abdurrahamn
Director: Julie Dash
Manufacturer: Kino
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305729212
Release Date: 2000-06-27

Amazon.com

Working with a theme and history that's obviously dear to her heart, first-time writer-director Julie Dash's exquisitely alive film chronicles the last days of the Gullah, an Americanized West African people in danger of losing their identity. Dash makes up for some overly schematic dialogue and an occasionally pokey pace with some strong performances (particularly Cora Lee Day as the sternly matriarchal Nana) and an absolutely wonderful visual sense (kudos should also go to her ace cinematographer Arthur Jafa, whose dazzlingly sumptuous imagery surely inspired Jonathan Demme's later Beloved). A rapturously textured, wholly mesmerizing glimpse into the Gullah culture. --Andrew Wright

Customer Reviews:

Mesmerizing, Haunting Cinematic Tribute to Early 20th Century Gullah Culture.......2007-02-07

"Daughters of the Dust" is truly a cinematic feast for the eyes, and one that has to be savored slowly, metaphorically taking sips from it as if it was a bottle of some elegant vintage wine. Those expecting a fast-paced narrative drama will most surely be disappointed, since the film slowly takes us through the final days of a Gullah family's life on the Sea Islands of North Carolina and Georgia, shortly before most of the family treks north for a new, promised life bereft of time-honored Gullah traditions. Filmmaker - and screenwriter - Julie Dash has rendered a beguiling look at the Peazant's family past and present, as seen through the eyes of the matriarch Nana Peazant (Cora Lee Day in an extremely rich, intense performance, that's truly one of the best in an ensemble cast of fine performances.). There's ample attention paid to African folk wisdom and culture, demonstrating the rich cultural heritage of the Sea Islands' Gullah people, as the Peazant family ponders its future in one final family gathering. Cinematographer Arthur Jafa's camera has recorded this saga in visually sumptuous imagery that is sincerely respectful of Gullah traditions and affectionately pays homage to them. Dash's wonderful film must surely rank as one of the most intriguing cinematic debuts in American cinema, hopefully pointing the way to a new generation of Afro-American filmmakers and others interested in her unique, almost existentalist, means of cinematic storytelling (I might add too that I had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Dash discuss her film here in New York City a few days ago; it was a delightful, inspiring discussion which was both emotionally and intellectually quite rewarding. I might add too, that I had the pleasure of speaking with her afterwards, discovering that we are mutual admirers of the splendid fiction of Octavia Butler, whose unexpected passing last year has deprived both Afro-American literature and literary science fiction of one of their most thoughtful, eloquent voices.).

We Get What We Bring: Be a Guest at the Feast.......2006-08-10

We get what we bring. This principle is brilliantly illustrated in the responses here to "Daughters of Dust," Julie Dash's brilliant and ground-breaking independent film. To dismiss the film is easy, because it uses non-traditional story-telling techniques rather than the ones we are used to in mainstream cinema and popularly received independent films. To receive this film fully takes some time, willingness, effort, and suspension of our usual perception. But, if the viewer can do all that, what a gift Julia Dash and her tribute cast and crew has given us to unwrap.

I lived and worked in Africa for five years and for me, the film so well conveys the African spirit, basic cultural beliefs, sense of wonder (magic), and time that was then transported to the New World. I learned so many things by being with this film and watching the richly detailed accompanying documenting on its making.

Is this easy, pre-digested material? No. Can we afford to dismiss our passionate geniuses in any art form? No. Come to "Daughters of Dust" with a full heart, open mind, and a willingness to digest your own food--so lovingly cooked here.

Janet Riehl, author "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary"

Wonderful, exciting, historical and captivating.......2006-08-08

This film by independent filmmaker Julie Dash, shows a fictional portrayal of a family, dominated by their women, in the what would be considered to some as the Gullah South. The family prepares to leave their island place of origin to live on mainland America. As they embark on their departure, the narrator (an unborn child) traces the families story from slavery until the day. Truly an inspirational piece of work, used in many college film classes. This jewel of a film has been kept a secret due to the way cinema is disseminated and the trends in American marketing distribution of film. A must see for teachers of African American history, literature, and film.

The Emperor is Buck Naked.......2006-07-03

I was eagerly anticipating seeing this film, since it received so much praise. To say that I was bitterly disappointed is a sad understatement. Despite the fact that I'm interested in Gullah culture and African-American history in general, this film managed to put me to sleep after the first 15 minutes. No character development, no plot, no coherence (being a Jim Jarmusch fan, I can't even believe I'm writing this). I couldn't figure out the relation of half the characters to each other, or in some cases, even their names, because the dialect is almost unintelligible and there are no subtitles. It's as if you're dropped off in the middle of a strange family on an island, and during the time you stay there, they reveal nothing about themselves. Most student filmmakers could do better. I agree with the other review writer who stated this was one of the worst films they'd ever seen. Rent a Spike Lee film instead, or a PBS show about Gullahs.

Thick but good.......2005-11-16

This would be the second non-abstract movie I've seen without a plot. The other one was Morvern Callar, and I must say this one beats that one out by a long shot because this one actually had symbolism and intended meaning. The loose plot-like structure is about a bunch of African-Americans in 1902 who had lived in isolation on an island for years and were getting ready to go back to Africa, only now they had to deal with issues of the African diaspora and displacement and what it means to their identity.

Very rich visuals are about one of the only things that can really keep your attention going in this film, but if you sit down and force yourself to pay attention you can get a lot out of the dialog as well. It just requires an extra amount of effort to pay off, but once you expend that effort you might just get something out of it.

A little more difficult is the fact that at least four different distinct languages are spoken in this film, with only one moment done with subtitles. The languages I caught besides English were German, French, and Arabic (?) but there may very well have been much more (I think there was a little Spanish and some Latin as well).

I can't really speak much about the technical qualities of the film other than the fact that the symbolism and imagery are amazing and the script is tedious. It's really hard to focus on more than that, unfortunately.

--PolarisDiB

Average customer rating:

Ethereal Matters
Family magic
An Existential Tweener Fantasy--"The Dust Factory" Is Overly Sentimental And Ultimately Cloying
Too Slow
Danger-Philosophical-Requires Functioning Viewer Brain Cells

The Dust Factory
Starring: Armin Mueller-Stahl , Hayden Panettiere , Ryan Kelley , Kim Myers , and George De La Pena
Director: Eric Small (IV)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007GP6ZG
Release Date: 2005-03-22

Description

Hayden Panettiere (Ice Princess) and Ryan Kelley (Mean Creek) are "attractively earnest"(Variety) teenagers who find budding romance in a magical realm somewhere between Heaven and Earth. An "original and imaginative"(Dallas Observer) fantasy about conquering your fears, The Dust Factory co-stars screen veteran Armin Mueller-Stahl (Shine) as the boy's sage grandfather. After suffering accidents, Ryan (Kelley) and Melanie (Panettiere) meet in an enchanting new world called the Dust Factory, where amazing things happen. People walk on water and disappear in the mist, and Ryan's grandfather, who has Alzheimer's, is now lucid. With magic everywhere, will Ryan and Melanie ever find the courage to leave this wondrous sanctuary and return home?

Customer Reviews:

Ethereal Matters.......2007-06-12

I find this film somewhat similar to, "Dream a Little Dream." The main characters in both films are suspended between perception & reality, and are given the opportunity to see life from a new perspective & correct past mistakes.

Family magic.......2007-01-09

Our whole family loved this movie - daughter age 11 and son age 16 tell me they feel so strong and uplifted after watching.

An Existential Tweener Fantasy--"The Dust Factory" Is Overly Sentimental And Ultimately Cloying.......2006-12-04

I can certainly understand why some people have connected with "The Dust Factory." At least it attempts something intriguing. This is an existential fantasy that explores a world of "limbo," a place between life and death. It's a rather fantastical world, too--what with the circus standing as the surreal exit from this idyllic place. As a film geared toward younger viewers, I suppose there are some interesting ideas and visuals to recommend the film. However, for me, the execution was cutesy and cloying. I didn't expect a film about life and death to contain such contrived "preciousness."

Ryan Kelley plays a teenager who has remained mute since the death of his father. It's one of those classic movie cliches--this boy must be fixed. One day, he plunges off a bridge and appears to be drowning. He is transported to The Dust Factory. In this world, he meets his Grandfather (who in the real world was disconnected with Alzheimer's). Of course, here his Grandfather is fully capable and loaded with charm and wisdom. He also meets a young girl played by Hayden Panettiere. She is impossibly cute and upbeat, so obviously lives in denial about her real circumstances. They form a tentative romance and together contemplate never leaving this world.

With some heavy-handed metaphors, the exit to The Dust Factory is a trapeze act. If you are successful, you move to another realm. If not, you're reduced to dust and return to the physical world. The circus ringleader is a vague reference to death--at one point, Kelley even plays hockey with "death" to win Panetierre's freedom (not quite the chess game from "The Seventh Seal"--but similar in conception).

I was never particularly captivated by the fantasies within "The Dust Factory," but that wasn't my biggest issue. I just found the whole thing emotionally manipulative--sweet and sugary. Many find that this film doesn't talk down to kids--I don't know, maybe I was a rather sophisticated kid (or maybe just emotionally stunted). The romance is cutesy cute, the lessons obvious, and the cliches abundant. A good idea, but it just didn't work for me. KGHarris, 12/06.

Too Slow.......2006-11-13

I was very disappointed in this movie. I thought it was slow moving and found myself contunually calling up the display to see how much longer it lasted. The Grandfather has such a heavy accent that I missed a lot of what he was saying but didn't want to drag out the movie by playing it back. I have seen many fantasies in my time but this one left me cold. Didn't like! I was sure glad I had gotten it from the library and not bought it.

Danger-Philosophical-Requires Functioning Viewer Brain Cells.......2006-09-04

Contrary to popular belief, films do not have to be dumbed-down for children. Much of the pleasure they get comes from puzzling out complex plot developments and recognizing subtle details. And there is actually a small sub-genre of children's films (mostly independents) that challenge young viewers to use their imaginations and film viewing skills.

"The Dust Closet" joins "An Angel for May" and "Restless Spirits" as the best recent examples of this type of film. These films have a hidden depth to their story and storytelling technique that will interest even the most sophisticated viewer-provided that they retain at least some of their childhood capacity for wonder. The weak vote count probably reflects viewers unable or unwilling to deal with a film that requires some mental energy and a few functioning brain cells.

Ryan Flynn (Ryan Kelley) is a teenager who has refused to speak since being traumatized when he saw his father killed at a train crossing. Ryan's father died when Ryan was nine years old, but not before he passed on a passion for astronomy to his son. But now Ryan is having trouble connecting with astronomy, symbolized by his inability to find the man in the moon his father drew for him. Like an impressionist painting, the moonscape becomes meaningless when viewed close up through his new telescope.

Ryan's family takes care of his grandfather (Mueller-Stahl), but Ryan barely knows him because he has had Alzheimer's for a number of years. Ryan hangs out with his best friend Rocky (Michael Angarano), and they communicate fine nonverbally. Rocky does not question Ryan's silence-he just accepts it. Things dramatically change one day when Ryan falls off a bridge and into a lake while roller-blading. When he surfaces Rocky is gone and everything is a little off-kilter. His grandfather is completely recovered and living alone it their house, which was his originally. They have meaningful conversations and his grandfather tries to pass on advice on how to get the most out of life. Ryan meets a pretty girl his own age named Melanie (Hayden Panettiere) who can ice skate on the surface of the lake-even though to Ryan it is summer and the lake is not frozen.

The story is basically told from Ryan's point of view and we learn along with him that this new reality is a place called "The Dust Factory". The film is an allegory (the expression by symbolic means of generalizations about human existence) about the process of living; much like "Groundhog Day". The idea is that most of us just go through the motions of living (each day is just a repeat of the day before). The themes are basically the same, the importance of having the courage to live life to the fullest and to get the most out of each day.

"Groundhog Day" illustrated this by having one day keep repeating itself for the main character . "The Dust Factory" does it by creating a symbolic place between life and death. This place is populated by all those in a coma state, their bodies are alive but their conscious mind is no longer functioning. These people are allegorical and meant to symbolize those who are not living a full life. The circus ring is the point where people finally decide whether to get on with living or to get on with dying (a line borrowed from "Shawshank Redemption").

Either choice is a valid alternative depending mostly on what stage you are at in your life (the grandfather chooses death-the teenagers choose to live for a while longer). The wrong thing is being stuck there in limbo, afraid to risk it in the circus ring. Such people are called dawdlers and symbolize the day-to-day existence of many people. But "The Dust Factory" is also a place where people can pull back and take an objective and distanced look at their lives; seeing things from this perspective allows them to recognize things (like the man in the moon) they were too close to see before (can't see the forest for the trees). Those who come back have no conscious memory of the place (they have been dreaming while in a coma) but subconsciously retain things they have learned; like the Grandfather's advice to not forget that you are on a quest for paradise, and that a fear of dying or hurting keeps you from letting go of security and really living. It takes some work to sort this film out and it probably should be viewed several times because it withholds a lot of its pleasure from the first viewing. The cast does a first-rate job. Panettiere is unexpectedly effective. In her prior film work, her extreme self-assurance overwhelms the character she is playing and works against her performances. Here she plays someone who uses a cocky attitude to hide her fear and insecurity. This multi- dimensionality connects with viewers who then relate to the protectiveness Ryan develops toward Melanie.

The movie goes out on a painfully sappy duet "Someone Like You," performed by Panettiere and Kelley (she can sing-he cannot). My advice would be to hit the off button very early in the closing credits.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Average customer rating:

I have wanted to see this movie since it came out earlier
boring
welcome back from oblivion
At last a unique film is restored
An Ignored Modern Classic

Dust Devil - The Final Cut

Manufacturer: Subversive Cinema
ProductGroup: DVD
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Dark Waters
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Masters of Horror - Imprint
Feast (Unrated) [HD DVD]
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ASIN: B000HEWGTW
Release Date: 2006-09-26

Amazon.com

As noted by Richard Stanley fans, Dust Devil, the feature following his box-office hit Hardware, failed to find release, and when it did, a terrible edit drastically altered the story. Subversive Sinema has now released the director-approved final cut of Dust Devil, in a box set that also contains Dust Devil's working edit, the film's Sergio Leone-like soundtrack, and three riveting Stanley documentaries: The Secret Glory, Voice of the Moon, and The White Darkness. Dust Devil, a horror story based on the myth of a Namibian serial killer, looks more like a Western. Filmed on location in Africa where the murders allegedly took place, Chelsea Field plays Wendy Robinson, a woman, who under duress of leaving her husband, heads out to the desert to accidentally encounter the Dust Devil (Robert John Burke), a mercy killer who slays depressed women to save them from the dark side. According to locals, the Dust Devil is a demon, enabling Stanley's abiding interest in world folk religions to weigh heavily in on the plot, especially when the town's witch doctor visits the beyond to unlock mysteries, or when the Dust Devil displays a box containing his victims' fingers. The documentaries, however, are most exciting. The White Darkness unravels political and social aspects of Haitian Voudon, including the history of American Imperialism in Haiti, as told by skilled priest and priestess, Altes Paul and Edelle. Voice of the Moon shows footage of Afghani rebels in the late '80s, sans narrator, instead beautifully accompanied by native music and poetry, adding Herzogian emotional effect. The Secret Glory pieces together the story of Otto Rahn, an SS officer who thought he'd located the Holy Grail. In all three films, the authenticity of the subjects reign, making it more difficult to buy the magic's fictionalized version in Dust Devil. Dust Devil, though, with its cheesier horror moments, provides a dose of humor to a fairly serious package. --Trinie Dalton

Customer Reviews:

I have wanted to see this movie since it came out earlier.......2007-05-23

I wanted to see this movie but never got the chance to see it in the theaters. I was very glad to see it released out on DVD that I had to purchase it for myself. All I heard when it was released was you have to see this movie to believe it. I was very happy that I did purchase it. I have no "experience" with the director or his other movies. I am the type of person that doesn't really care who directs it or wrote the movie's story. If it a good story, I like it. What I will say about the movie is that it does start out very strange and the story unfolds very odd, but I did like it and it made sense when the movie was finished. It was a very good story I thought and being an "odd movie", made it all the more interesting. I am very glad that I did add it to my DVD horror collection. I do highly recommend this movie all to horror fans.

boring .......2007-03-12

what flick did these folks watch? I read so many good things about this,but what i saw was an overlong snooze fest.i feel ripped off by the 25 bucks I tossed away,so be damn sure you really want it. the extras are way better than the main feature,i gotta stop now,im getting sleepy just thinking about this thing again.

welcome back from oblivion.......2007-01-29

This release says a lot about the amazing times we live in with regard to the huge variety of re-releases of movies, music, what have you, that have been unfairly buried and never got a chance back in the day to reach the audiences they deserved. It's heartening that this film is getting a second chance and has received this level of care and treatment. I enjoyed Stanley's earlier Hardware but didn't think it particularly great and so I never really sought out the earlier versions of Dust Devil; not having seen the truncated previously released edit, I can't directly compare with this new version but I have absolutely no trouble imagining that it was badly butchered. (By the way, this is a much much better movie than Hardware.)

Dust Devil is not in any way a perfectly realized film and Stanley describes himself in a DVD interview various ways where censorship, the budget, shooting schedule problems, and other factors, kept this from being quite what he originally intended, even now with this newly reconstructed 2006 version. But I give this 5 stars anyway because, for all its shortcomings, this film looks and feels like very few others and such a strong personality goes a long way for me in a time where most films feel completely test marketed to death and bled of all difference and idiosyncracies. Stanley mentions that he was trying to recreate in the dust devil figure imagery from a dream he had, and I admit to being a sucker personally for any movie that tries obsessively to replicate dream or nightmare logic or feel. The film studio types who looked at this material and saw a movie that was just not going to connect with the audience they were after and who wound up hacking it to pieces were probably right (unfortunately) about the limited number of people who will appreciate this. This is not going to appeal broadly to the masses of mainstream horror fans: it is too leisurely paced, too lyrical in tone, too interested in the cultural background of the Namibian/South African location, too interested in exploring the emotional quandry of loneliness and despair that the devil finds in his victims. And, bluntly put, there's just not enough violent death here to keep the average bloodthirsty genre fan happy I expect, and some of the horror make up/effects are also a bit substandard. But for any horror devotees who gravitate to more personal and unusual films without needing a high body count (and who understand how a slower pace can work in your favor), you should absolutely watch this (especially if you are also an italian western fan, the aesthetic of which informs this film). Stanley has a fantastic eye and the film is a real visual stunner with many shots that stay in your head long after: genre fans who truly appreciate attention to framing, lighting, and camera moves should respond to Stanley's great work here.

Hopefully, the rediscovery of this film will help to give Stanley a shot at another big narrative film soon and hopefully, he gets the chance to do it as he wants this time.

At last a unique film is restored.......2007-01-19

The film making career of director Richard Stanley has to be one of the Film Industry's most wasted opportunities. Why hasn't this talented director made more films? His two complete films Dust Devil and Hardware are both visions of uniqueness and originality. It is both the Industry and the Film Goer who have lost out big time to the fact that Stanley has only made these two films and was ignominiously fired from a third - the most recent remake of The Island Of Dr Moreau.

Dust Devil was originally released in a severely edited version by its producers and distributors and with no marketing to speak of, quickly left cinemas and went straight onto video. Stanley has restored an approximately 20 mins of footage and the running time of the film is now 108 mins. The restoration is crucial because the initial release saw all the supernatural elements of the film removed, so as to make it a pure serial killer type film. Fully restored to a version as close to Stanley's original vision as is possible, given the passage of time, Dust Devil can finally take its long overdue accolade as a great film in its own right, within the genre of Horror film making.

Set in Namibia, at the time of that country's independence from South Africa, Dust Devil follows the exploits of a murderous, hitchhiking nomad (played by Robert John Burke) who after butchering and dismembering his victims, retains their fingers. This nomad subsequently is revealed to be more than human, and in fact is a 'Dust Devil' from African folklore - a shape shifting demon who preys on the lonely, despondent and vulnerable, and collects their souls to buy his way into an afterlife.
A depressed housewife (well played by Chelsea Field) flees her husband in South Africa and drives into Namibia's desolate badlands, hoping to lose herself in this bleak but beautiful wilderness. However, she is drawn to the Dust Devil and soon finds that there are far worse things than depression and failed marriage to have to cope with.
Hunting this killer, is an ageing South African policeman, superbly played by Zakes Mokae (The Serpent And The Rainbow, A Dry White Season). Before long this policeman learns the nature of his quarry and living somewhat on the edge himself, following the death of his wife and child, realises that he too is a potential victim.
The films narrator is John Matshikiza who plays a Namibian shaman. He it is who advised Mokae's policeman as to the nature of the quarry that he is attempting to hunt down...
Boasting a stupendous score by Simon Boswell, the film is also visually stunning with its Namibian desert locations and real life ghost towns.
All the cast acquit themselves well as the story with its theme of desolation plays out to its grim conclusion. The walls separating reality and otherworldliness are blurred in this film, and the visions experienced by the film's principals seem to meld into real life. Destitute individuals, dying towns, and a barren and stunningly beautiful landscape combine to give a visual feast of a film which lingers long in the memory after having been viewed.

This is a five disc DVD and apart from the main version of the film, there is 115 min rough cut that features sequences that Stanley considered too far gone to actually include in this final cut of the film. Well worth a look though.
Additionally there are two documentaries on another two of these DVDs. one is The Voice Of The Moon which is Stanley's documentary that he filmed while in Afghanistan with the Mujahadin rebels during the 1980s.
The other documentary is The Secret Glory which again made by Stanley, features the story of the quest of Otto Rahn (an SS officer) to locate the Holy Grail.
The last disc though is Simon Boswell's full and magnificent score for Dust Devil.
The main disc of the film though is in 5.1 sound which coupled with these extra DVDs and CD, makes this Region 1 release by far the superior version to go for as compared to the Region 2 DVD which is a single disc and in surround sound only (why?).

For Stanley fans this is an incredible opportunity to see Dust Devil almost fully restored and at last in a format that it deserves. Newcomers to Richard Stanley's work are also strongly recommended to use this set as a starting point in viewing this outrageously underrated director's work. Thankfully though, Stanley is starting to get the recognition that is so long overdue for him, and we may see him make another film in the near future at long last too.

An Ignored Modern Classic.......2007-01-19

Imagine Sergio Leone, Dario Argento and Michaelangeo Antonioni working on a feature film together, and you'd end up with "Dust Devil." This movie is part western, part horror film, part existential exploration.

The remarkable thing is, the director, Richard Stanley, pulls this unique mix off! Despite many hardships in the making of the film! His loss of money, and production problems, meant less gory effects, less splashy action sequences--accidents which enormously benefitted the "final" version.

Stumbling across this thick box in a bookstore (of all places), I was intrigued by the five disk set. It including three documentaries, the "final" version of a feature, and the "workprint." I had seen "Hardware", the first feature by Richard Stanley, and thought it was okay--not great, but entertaining.

I just finished watching the feature. It utilizes brilliantly the haunting, desolate landscape of Namibia. The storyline has been summarized in other reviews. It is a fascinating mix of horror film, suspense film, but mostly it feels like an art film about desolation and loneliness, an existential exploration of our relationships. There is the broken relationship between the lead female across, who at the beginning of the film leaves her husband (who abuses her). There is the relationship between the Black detective and his white counterparts, containing nicely understated racial tension. There is the relationship, also, between white and Blacks. Topping it off is the relationship between magic and reality. For that matter, there is the relationship between the "dust devil" himself, who is not what he first seems, and his victims.

I've watched the extended documentary about Otto Rahn, who was recruited into the SS because Himmler thought Rahn had a bead on the Holy Grail--fascinating! I have not yet seen the other documentaries. However, I watched the interviews conducted with Richard Stanley about both the Holy Grail documentary and on making "Dust Devil"--both were fascinating interviews in their own right.

This DVD set is an excellent deal!

By the way, the video and audio quality are Criterion level.

Average customer rating:

No subtitles??
Beautifully Filmed But For Me A Waste of Time
If "Requiem for a Dream" were a period peice film ...
"So much for infidelity."
A film in a place of its own.

A Handful of Dust
Starring: James Wilby , Kristin Scott Thomas , Rupert Graves , Anjelica Huston , and Judi Dench
Director: Charles Sturridge
Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001ADB64
Release Date: 2004-11-16

Amazon.com

Adapted from Evelyn Waugh's Jazz Age satire, A Handful of Dust is a brutal story of a failed marriage with shattering consquences. James Wilby stars as a country gentleman, Tony Last, who loves rattling around his expansive estate, Hetton Abbey. Tony's wife, Brenda (Kristin Scott Thomas), however, pines for London's excitement and commences an affair in the city with penniless aristocrat John Beaver (Rupert Graves). The fallout of Brenda's betrayal includes a family tragedy and creative divorce settlement ultimately undone when fed-up Tony goes on a naturalist trek through Brazil and becomes the hostage of a mad, illiterate explorer (Alec Guinness). One might wonder whether it's more appropriate to laugh or tremble at these events, and director Charles Sturridge's handsome, graceful production ingeniously accomodates the story's streaks of dark comedy and horror. With brief, memorable supporting roles for Anjelica Huston and Stephen Fry. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

No subtitles??.......2005-03-23

Beautiful scenery and good acting, but this DVD does not hav e subtitles as the initials CC would indicate. These British actors are hard to understand, especially the leading lady.

Beautifully Filmed But For Me A Waste of Time.......2005-01-27

I recently saw Brideshead Revisted which I found completely wonderful. It was perhaps one of the most enjoyable and captivating films I've ever immersed myself in.

So, hungry for more Evenlyn Waugh (whose books I read in a college course that was based exclusively on his work), I found "A Handful Of Dust" at my library and figured I'd give it a try. Since the same author wrote it and the film was made by the same film people as Brideshead I was filled with anticipation.

My wife and I watched the first hour or so one night and while it had some good moments, and was certainly beautifully filmed, we were left cold by it. But we figured maybe after that the movie would develop.

So we decided to continue it the following night. Big mistake!

I only wish I could get back the time I wasted on it. While I don't expect "Happy endings" in a film (Brideshead certainly didn't have a "Happy ending") the ending in this story left me in disbelief.

Since I didn't read this particular book by Waugh and didn't know its ending, I was completely unprepared when the credits started rolling that the movie ended as it did. I was amazed by the stupidity of all I had just witnessed.

I thought the story would have been much more interesting to see if Tony would "toughen up" a little, transform and grow from the circumstances of his "captivity" rather than just look like a pathetic fool.

Perhaps the only redeeming aspect of the movie was watching Brenda get what she deserved, still it wasn't enough to justify watching this film.

This film was basically a "series of unfortunate events", with myself feeling most unfortunate of all.

My wife to her credit fell asleep during the last part of the film and used the time more wisely than I did.

Compared with a film like Brideshead Revisited, where the characters really developed throughout the story and took on a tremendous amount of depth, This story, was full of one dimensional characters. Dressing these characters up with beautiful costumes and scenery, well written music and excellent cinematography still didn't save the story from being like a bad "twilight zone" episode.

If you look up my reviews, you will see that I don't go out of my way to give bad reviews, but I was so annoyed by the time I wasted I felt I need to share this. Of course I have just wasted more time in connection with this film by now writing this review, but I felt maybe I could spare someone else the wasted time.

If "Requiem for a Dream" were a period peice film ..........2005-01-20

I will admit, I was not a fan of this film during the first fifteen minutes when it nearly went into the "Period Film Sleeping Bag" category, but after you get through this first hump (which is to wean out the naysayers) this is a very disturbing and thoughtful film. In fact, I loved it. It took me awhile to think about it after the first viewing, but I was very impressed. Not only did this film break the boundaries of the dreaded "Period Piece Snore-fest", but also the standard of some films dating after 1988. When I watch films from the 80s, I normally do not see this caliber of writing and intensity. While it may have been around, most films were not ready to dive headfirst into it yet, but apparently Charles Sturridge has no fear. Instead, he gives us a biting story about social decline and satire, while all the while luring us deeper into this very depressive world. Amazing actors, an extremely powerful story, and an ending that will knock your socks off, A Handful of Dust was an unexpected, yet much needed, surprise.

Feeling like a combination of Requiem for a Dream and Angels & Insects, this period piece film offers more than just torrid love affairs and snobbery, it gives us this brief, yet powerful, glimpse into a world turned upside down by the squandering of a woman. I don't mean to sound sexist, but Sturridge does paint a picture where Kristin Scott Thomas' portrayal of Brenda does not paint a pretty picture of the perfect marriage. When Tony is left time and time again with John Andrew while Brenda is off gallivanting around London with John Beaver, our emotions are not placed within Brenda's arms, we care about Tony and his reaction if he were to ever discover the truth. Unlike other period piece films, we sympathize with the husband in this case, and ultimately open so wide to him that when the dramatic, and bizarre, ending occurs, we are left flabbergasted. It almost doesn't compute, but then you think about it and realize that Sturridge is a brilliant director using techniques well beyond his time.

Kristin Scott Thomas does a great job with the material that she is given. Her puppy-dog eyes seem to flutter and keep James Wilby's Tony at bay. I think that is what fascinated me about her character was that she portrayed this feeling of innocence, yet she was in complete control of the situation. That is why I think Rupert Graves' character was the most underappreciated of them all. While some will see him as the villain of his film, I saw him as just a random person that happened to fall in love with a woman that reciprocated back, and happened to see the advantages of falling in love with her. He wanted to get rich quick, and this was his answer. Thomas could have stopped at any time and went back into the arms of Tony, but she chose not to, even with all of her innocence. Guinness surprised the daylights out of me with his role in this film, well, I guess he always does. Then there was Wilby, the most multi-layered character of the film. He showed us all the true love does exist, and that good husbands do as well. He did nothing wrong during the course of this film, yet somehow felt life hit him the most. The events that happen during this film continually to the ending happened directly to him, not really to anyone else. That surprised me. Here was a man that had all the money in the world, a gorgeous house, and a family, but found that luck was never on his side. Together, these three powerful plays hurdle through a tough film to give some genuine thought-provoking performances.

Then there was Sturridge who did his homework secretly in the darkness of his own basement to help bring this film to the silver screen. Most of Hollywood would have probably changed the story to bring about some final satisfaction. This is not the case with Sturridge who keeps the mood and themes of the film in constant view of us. We consider these people high society, with their hunting moments and huge houses, but the reality of it is that they face the same troubles that we, the normal person, do daily. They may have money, but they are human, and that is what Sturridge keeps with us during the course of the 118 minutes. He captures your attention with the characters, throws in some Twilight Zone scenes, and allows your imagination to work overtime. Anytime that a director pulls your mind into a film, the battle is already half won. This was my kind of film.

Overall, I was very impressed. This film broke me of my feeling that all period piece films were bad and dull, and had me drooling for more. While I know that not all will be like this, I cannot wait to see what other directors will dive headfirst into this untapped pool. The cinematography was pure 80s, the actors did their parts, and Sturridge brilliantly colored the themes and satires. I was surprised (and still shocked) by this film and cannot wait to show it to others ... now that is the true test of a great film.

Grade: ***** out of *****

"So much for infidelity.".......2004-07-02

Brenda (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Tony Last (James Wilby) live at Hetton--the magnificent ancestral home of the Last family. Tony dotes on their only child--a son--James Andrew. Life at Hetton is fairly predictable, and Brenda is clearly bored by it all, and yet she doesn't display her boredom except to bemoan the demands of another hideous local event and the tedious rounds of weekend guests who descend upon them regularly. One weekend, Tony invites a young man named John Beaver (Rupert Graves). Beaver's arrival is so innocuous that Tony even forgets that he's been invited, and so the task of entertaining Beaver falls to Brenda.

Brenda, up to this point, has acted like the perfect wife and mother, moving automatically from one role to another, but the arrival of Beaver sparks some dormant desire. With a cold deliberation, Brenda manipulates Tony into allowing her to take a flat in London. Under the pretense that she's studying economics, Brenda begins to indulge in an affair with the shallow Mr. Beaver. Everyone knows about it, but Tony remains blissfully unaware until a tragedy forces Brenda's affair to the surface.

Tony Last is indeed the 'last' of his kind. He represents tradition and gentility that will be swept away by up and coming demands of the more avaricious aspects of society. Beaver is a hanger-on. His mo