The End of the Affair

Starring:Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, John Mills, Peter Cushing, Michael Goodliffe, Stephen Murray, Charles Goldner, Nora Swinburne, Frederick Leister, Mary Williams, O'Donovan Shiell, Elsie Wagstaff, Christopher Warbey, Nan Munro, Joyce Carey, Josephine Wilson, Victor Maddern, David Bird, Shela Ward, Edwin Ellis
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

Howards End is E.M. Forster's beautifully subtle story of the crisscrossing paths of the privileged and those they disdain--and of a remarkable pair of women who can see beyond class distinctions. Dramatic and tragic, but also surprisingly funny, this James Ivory film focuses on a pair of unmarried sisters (Emma Thompson, who won an Oscar, and Helena Bonham Carter) who befriend a poor young clerk (Sam West) and, without meaning to, ruin his life. Meanwhile, Thompson also makes the acquaintance of a dying neighbor (Vanessa Redgrave), who leaves her a family home in her will--which her husband (Anthony Hopkins) destroys. But, ironically, he meets and falls in love with Thompson, even as their paths once more intersect with the increasingly miserable young clerk. Nuanced acting, gorgeous but muted cinematography, and a beautifully economical script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, which also won an Oscar. --Marshall Fine

Description

Margaret and Helen Schlegel (Oscar® winner Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter) are sisters from a well-educated European family: intelligent, free-spirited, cultured, and highly emancipated by the standards of the time. A series of events brings them into a relationship with the Wilcox family: healthy, conservative, conventional, and very English, headed by the prosperous Henry (Anthony Hopkins) and his priggish son, Charles (James Wilby). Both families also come into contact with Leonard Bast (Samuel West) and his wife, a couple near the lowest tier of the rigid class system. Leonard's desire for cultural and intellectual status attracts the attention of Helen, who must come to terms with her unexpected feelings toward him. At the same time, Margaret must reconcile her independent spirit with her desire for companionship and a comfortable place in Edwardian society; her moral strength is eventually able to resolve the tangle of opposites. First published in 1910, E.M. Forster's Howards End remains one of the most important English novels of the twentieth century, and Merchant Ivory Productions' tour-de-force adaptation was one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 1990s.

Customer Reviews:

Another stellar production from Merchant-Ivory.......2007-05-12

I love most of Merchant-Ivory's productions, and this is one of their best. The stellar cast itself would compel one to view this excellent production. Anthony Hopkins plays the patriarch of the Wilcox clan, whose wife, played impeccably by the ever graceful Vanessa Redgrave owns Howards' End, the ethereal family homestead. Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter play the Shlegel sisters who are quite down to earth. Bonham Carter does an excellent job of portraying the wilful younger sister whose love for a working class man ultimately leads all three families to examine their values & principles, and most importantly, to look deep within their souls. A great movie about the class conflict in England as well as the passions that drive three different families.

Love the actors in this movie!.......2007-03-25

THis movie is great except for the ending. I am a hopeless romantic and always wish for a better ending.

5 Star Escapism.......2007-03-08

My wife and I both enjoyed this superbly acted, beautifully filmed period drama. As longtime PBS-TV Masterpiece Theatre fans, we were pre-disposed to enjoy this kind of production, but even so, this film adaptation of a classic E.M. Forster novel was particularly engrossing. Forster reflected his fatalistic take on a class-bound Edwardian society that was already crumbling as he wrote. To American eyes, the hopeless affair of Helen and Leonard and the marriage of social and financial convenience of Margaret and Henry seem both very outdated and very poignant. The romantic visions of Leonard, walking through fields of bluebells in his imagination while slaving away in a dingy London office, would seem laughable in an American setting but are perfectly suited to his time and place. This is essentially escapist fare, but for us is much preferable to the sex-and-violence saturated escapism of contemporary television and films. It's really a welcome escape from our culture's primary forms of escapism.

Possibly Merchant-Ivory's Finest Hours.......2007-02-24

A better cast could not have been assembled for this faithful adaptation of E. M. Forster's masterpiece, a stinging indictment of a society suffocated by its own class structure. What could have been a tedious social statement glistens with the beauty of Merchant-Ivory's production values and the actors' well-rounded characterizations. This film is so well executed that it sent me back to Forster's book, which is gem. Its motto remains timely, indeed necessary: "Only connect."

Great film, splendid bonus features, poor DVD.......2007-01-29

Other reviewers have already stated that this is a great film, so I have nothing to add here.
Most of the bonus features have been produced in 2005 and give valuable insight information. The double interview with Merchant and Ivory is sometimes funny to watch, both of them constantly interrupting each other - they were both very passionate about there work, even so many years later.
It says on the DVD cover that the film has been enhanced for widescreen TV sets. Well at least my copy of this 2 disc DVD is definitely NOT enhanced. And it is a sad thing to watch this beautiful film on a widescreen TV set, if it has just been mastered in 1:1,33. Why restore a film but not presenting it in the best possible way.
The film deserves 5 stars, but due to the poor DVD, I can not rate it higher than 3.

Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Movie Collection

Average customer rating:

Suchet is the penultimate Poirot
Best Poirot Box Set
A truly priceless piece of mystery and television!
Television at Its Very Best
Poirot in Bulk

Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Movie Collection
Starring: David Suchet , Philip Jackson (II) , Bruce Alexander , Ben Bazell , and Nigel Bellairs
Director: Ross Devenish , and Renny Rye
Manufacturer: Acorn Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Movie Collection, Set 2
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Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Classic Collection
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Poirot - The Complete Collection

ASIN: B00005BGSB
Release Date: 2001-06-12

Amazon.com

Deadlier than a nest of vipers and twistier than a mountain road--it's Poirot: The Movie Collection. Agatha Christie's supersleuth (played by David Suchet) is a proper, precise little man who cannot bring himself to eat hard-boiled eggs of different sizes, but it is exactly this obsession with detail that leads him to solve the five baffling cases presented in this boxed set. A lady's shoe buckle, a broken coffee cup, a poison dart pipe: these are the ingredients with which Christie brewed her classic mysteries, and the producers of these video adaptations pay an equal attention to detail in re-creating the stories on the small screen. Stunning aerial shots of England's coast and countryside are matched by elegant and elaborate costumes, particularly when it comes to ladies' headgear. Of course, nothing can outshine the fine performances of Suchet (who makes Poirot's fussy habits endearing and delivers wisecracks with unparalleled subtlety) and his supporting cast; Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser), Miss Lemon (Pauline Moran), and Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson) add comic relief and camaraderie to the proceedings.

The DVD transfers are generally crisp in both picture and sound quality. Special features include biographies of Suchet and Christie, Poirot trivia questions, and a filmography of all the Agatha Christie's Poirot episodes. --Larisa Lomacky Moore

Description

This is a collection of 5 feature-length episodes of the Poirot mysteries: The ABC Murders; Death in the Clouds; The Mysterious Affair at Styles; One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, and Peril at End House. "The ABC Murders" - This is the episode that star David Suchet calls his favorite. Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot is challenged by an alphabet-obsessed murderer who announces his next victims through a series of letters addressed to Poirot himself. "Death in the Clouds" - A ruthless blackmailer is killed on board an airborne plane filled with likely suspects. "Mysterious Affair at Styles" - The Cavendish household is wrought with tension due to the marriage of John Cavendish's widowed mother to a suspicious younger man. When the tension turns deadly, Poirot and Hasting unite to solve the case. "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" - Further adventures of Agatha Christie's brilliant Belgian sleuth. "Peril at End House" - A flying ace plays a pivotal role in a case in which Poirot and Hastings swim through a sea of red herrings to arrive at the truth.

Customer Reviews:

Suchet is the penultimate Poirot.......2006-11-12

Makes you hope no one else takes on the role since now it has been done to perfection. Love the music and the style. The fashions and the cars are great. The English atmosphere is adorable.

Best Poirot Box Set.......2005-01-12

I just love it. Agatha Christie was purely a genius. You can never guess who the murdurer is. It seems impossible at first, but all the clues just make sense after Poirot leads us through the whole thing.

A truly priceless piece of mystery and television!.......2004-03-16

First of all, an explanation on the lack of a full 5-star rating. Despite the content, this was not Acorn Media's finest product, picture-wise. Oh, the content is outstanding, but the picture throughout most of the episodes was a bit grainy and sometimes you could easily see lines on the screen. Again, not the best effor I've ever seen, but don't let that detract from your enjoyment of the content itself.

Simply the finest piece of work to come out of television in the history of the medium. Agatha Christie's work comes to life with the brilliant acting of David Suchet as the brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Equally superb acting from supporting cast members Philip Jackson as Chief Inspector Japp, and from Hugh Fraser as Captain Hastings. Also, look for Pauline Moran and a wonderfully charming Miss Lemmon. The episodes are well-translated from the original books, the parts acted out with humor, wit, charm, and historical integrity.

The DVDs themselves are also full of some great extra features, like biographies of the cast, lore from the world of Poirot (including quizzes), and a nice section on Agatha Christie herself. It is truly amazing to find something as totally wonderful and completely re-watchable as the Poirot series. The movies will have you begging for more. And don't worry, mystery fans, Acorn Media vastly cleaned up the quality of the picture i the second set. Still, a must-have for mystery lovers, for British television and movie lovers, and those that enjoy quality viewing on their own screens. Intrigue, puzzles, humor, and charm... it doesn't get much better than this!

Television at Its Very Best.......2004-02-29

"Agatha Christie's Poirot," based on the English author's popular detective stories, is a superbly made series. The subtle plots, the direction, the acting, the settings and costumes, even the music that so perfectly evokes the atmosphere and mood of each story, are all of the finest quality. English character actor David Suchet is simply perfect as the slightly eccentric Belgian police inspector-turned-private detective Hercule Poirot, and each actor - from Hugh Fraser and Philip Jackson as Captain Hastings (Poirot's "Watson") and the likeably gruff Chief Inspector Japp, to the most minor players in the various episodes - gives a detailed, multi-dimensional portrayal.
The box set includes five full-length (103 minute) episodes. I must state right away that my two favorites are THE ABC MURDERS and THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES, but that the other three are every bit as fine. DEATH IN THE CLOUDS, set in France and England, concerns the murder of Madame Giselle, a ruthless moneylender and blackmailer, during an airplane flight from Paris to London. Japp concludes that the woman was killed by a poison dart found on the floor near her seat, but Poirot has other ideas - particularly when he finds himself suspected! The episode features an interesting relationship between Poirot and a young air stewardess who assists him in his investigation. There are also atmospheric shots of Monmartre and stylish art deco interior settings, plus a hilarious scene in which Poirot conducts an "experiment" aboard the plane, which shows Suchet's flair for comedy.
Suchet himself has called THE ABC MURDERS his personal favorite of the "Poirot" episodes, and I can understand why. It is a wonderful human drama about a lonely epileptic who is suspected of being a serial murderer. Is it possible for a person to commit a crime without being aware of it? This is the question the story asks. However, the denouement may surprise you. I must add that the scene in which Poirot visits the suspect in prison is a highlight, with riveting acting from Suchet and Donald Sumpter as the poor, accused man. ONE, TWO BUCKLE MY SHOE, which begins with the murder of Mr. Morley, a dentist, comments on the British class system. The opening sequence foreshadowing the shooting death of Morley is extremely eerie. At the end of the episode, having successfully found the common link between three murders, Poirot and Japp realize that it is "the little chaps" who are really important to the welfare of society. ("But," Poirot adds, "there are no little chaps, Chief Inspector...particularly not Poirot.")
In PERIL AT END HOUSE, a young heiress' life has been threatened by a series of strange accidents. Poirot takes the case in order to protect her...but is it really she who needs protecting? The English seaside setting of this episode is beautiful, as is the score, composed by Richard Hewson. THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES was the first of the Hercule Poirot stories and also the first "Poirot" episode. It is 1917, and Lieutenant Hastings has been discharged from the Army because of an injury. To recuperate he goes to the country estate of a friend, John Cavendish. John's mother has married a much younger man whom everyone else in the household dislikes. When she is murdered, Hastings joins forces with Hercule Poirot, a Belgian refugee living nearby, to uncover the truth. It is interesting to see the characters in an Edwardian (rather than a 1920's or 1930's) setting, and also to see how the masterly characterizations of Hugh Fraser, Philip Jackson, and (especially) David Suchet were perfectly in place even at this early stage in the series. As in the other episodes, all of the different elements in this one - direction, acting, sets, costumes, lighting, music, camera angles - come together to create an absorbing drama. There are several particularly memorable moments. One is the scene in which Poirot and Hastings are looking for clues in the deceased woman's room; though there is not much action here, the music and the camera shots make the scene riveting. In a later and most touching scene, Hastings proposes marriage to a young woman living in the house and is gently rejected. Soon after, Poirot, impatient to find the "last link in this most mysterious case," is building card houses to steady his mind, so that he might think clearly and logically. Then Hastings makes a remark that suggests the "last link" to Poirot, who suddenly jumps up and goes racing excitedly from the house. One knows here that he is about to "crack the case." And finally, there is the big "explanation scene," in which Poirot explains the surprising truth to all assembled. When STYLES ended, I found myself exclaiming, "Superb!" The same word could be used to describe the entire series. "Agatha Christie's Poirot" is television at its very best.

Poirot in Bulk.......2003-03-06

Both my sister and my mother have read almost every mystery that Agatha Christie ever wrote, but I never thought to start. Then I sat down one evening to watch television with them, and I was at once enchanted. It was an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot on A&E. The David Suchet Poirot films (both full length movies and short films) come from this series. I enjoyed that first show so much that I watched the series religiously until it went off the air.

I started reading some of Agatha Christie's mysteries this year, and I firmly believe that David Suchet is the best portrayal of Hercule Poirot that ever was. I have seen other notorious actors, such as Peter Ustinov and Tony Randall, play the part, but they do not achieve the full embodiment of the persona (both physical and psychological) that David Suchet does.

The five movies that come is this set - THE ABC MURDERS; DEATH IN THE CLOUDS; THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES; ONE, TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE, and PERIL AT END HOUSE - are all excellent films. They exhibit Agatha Christie's wide range of talent with their variety in plot. In THE ABC MURDERS, someone is killing off seemingly random people and leaving railroad guides behind. In DEATH IN THE CLOUDS, the murder is committed in an airplane with Poirot on it. The list goes on, and I don't want to spoil anything for those interested in this set.

Amazon.com essential video

"This is a diary of hate," pounds out novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) on his typewriter as he recounts the lost love of his life in this spiritual memoir (based on Graham Greene's novel) with a startling twist. It's London 1946, and Maurice runs into his achingly dull school friend Henry (Stephen Rea with a perpetually gloomy hangdog expression). Their meeting is brittle, all small talk and chilly, mannered civility beautifully captured by director-screenwriter Neil Jordan (The Crying Game), and it only barely thaws when Henry suggests that his wife, Sarah (the luminous Julianne Moore), may be having an affair. Maurice's mind reels back to his passionate affair with Sarah during the war years, which she abruptly broke off two years ago. Gripped with a jealousy that hasn't abated, he hires a private detective (a mousy, marvelous Ian Hart) to shadow her movements. He prepares himself for the revelation of a rival but instead finds a deeper, more profound secret: "I tempted fate," she writes in her diary, "and fate accepted."

Jordan's cool remove captures the unease beneath formal manners but never warms into intimacy during the scenes between the lovers, even while Fiennes and Moore almost explode in repressed emotions, their faces cracking under their masks of civility and their resolve shaking through jittery body language. There's more thought than feeling behind this collision of passion and spirituality, but it's a sincere, richly realized portrait of ennui and rage against God energized by brief moments of shattering drama. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Obsessive obsession.......2007-03-09

To love that deeply that you constantly obsess about every aspect of your lover's life is maddening, literally. This couple appears to have a bond way beyond this earth. The heat generated by them almost melts the screen. This is a wonderful torrid love story.

Excellent Service.......2007-01-12

Item was shipped as soon as i placed order. I was updated often. Excellent service!

"Goodness has so little fictional value".......2006-09-15

I love films which unfold complexities slowly, that use color with deep intention, and don't rely on words to say everything that must be said.

The End of the Affair is a lovingly and carefully adapted film. To fit into time, I feel that you must allow a film like this to stand on its own. Many adjustments were made to the story, and what eventually emmerges is, to me, even more cohesive and personal.

One thing I particularly love about The End of the Affair, is the color pallette and sharp attention to clothing. I love Sarah's red suits, her green jacket, her hair (carefully suited to the time), and the way the colors stand out, but with subtlety, from every scene that she stands in until her character begins to fade.

This movie permanently affected my aesthetic sensibilities.

The *most* affecting aspect of the movie for me however, was being able to deeply relate to the character of Sarah, as I think many people can. Most of us have our superstitions, even when we work to keep them subdued, and certainly a seemingly "miraculous experience," or great trauma (they usually go together don't they?) can bring those things to the surface.

I thought that the Bendrix and Henry dynamic that played out in the film was fascinating. It created a contrast between two ways of living really: One figure, content to live on a straight line, climbing little by little with bits of satisfaction but no passion, and the other all passion and anger and intensity. Henry, in a way, created the passion Sarah felt for Maurice. He bottled her up and placed her on a shelf where she simmered, and I think the "vulgar sex scenes" as some called them, are extraordinarily necessary if you want to understand the emotions going on.

Then again, Sarah's religious devotion followed her commitment to Henry, which before the vow she seemed to have no intention of lessening, so you also see that she was more than the sensual person that she was with Maurice, she was also the practical wife. Neither was a role she was playing.

Every central character in this film, is a dichotomy, and more than that, they are wonderfully and spectacularly flawed, which certainly is the core of Graham Greene's insightful and philosophic writing.

This is a labrynth of a film, rich in unanswerable questions, and contains the most brilliant use of perspective that I have ever seen. If you, like me, like to watch a good film several times, I recommend listening to Neil Jordan's commentary along with at least one viewing, then watching it again.

-Stephanie

A Woman of Her Word.......2006-01-15

While this film did not hit me as hard (emotionally) as THE ENGLISH PATIENT, it sure gave me plenty to think about.

The cast and direction are first-rate. The story is well-told. It made me buy the novel and read it--and then wonder how much of the story really happened!

If you enjoy intelligent, challenging love stories told against historical backdrops, then check this movie out.
And be very careful what you ask God for.

Great acting!.......2005-09-24

After the film ended, I imagined viewing it again without the vulgar sex scenes and I thought that it could've been a great film. I am very impressed with Ralph Fiennes and Stephen Rea's performances. Brilliant!

Average customer rating:

Quality of this DVD's clarity

Song Without End
Starring: Dirk Bogarde , Lyndon Brook , Capucine , Marcel Dalio , and Alexander Davion
Director: George Cukor , and Charles Vidor
Manufacturer: Castaway Nw UK
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ASIN: B000MV90EO
Release Date: 2007-04-10

Customer Reviews:

Quality of this DVD's clarity.......2007-05-18

We have recently bought this DVD from Amazon as the clarity of the picture is shocking, it is out of focus most of the time! The subtitles in English are absolutely incorrect and bizarre. At the same time we bought another classic DVD and it was perfect. Very disappointing! Perhaps we have received a bad copy. Is there anything that can be done about this.

Average customer rating:

Attention: this film requires you to think
AN AUTHENTIC WORK OF ART
The Demiurge Spake
Are you tough enough?
The healthy pain of the nostalgia !

The Sacrifice
Starring: Erland Josephson , Tommy Kjellqvist , Susan Fleetwood , Allan Edwall , and Guðrún Gísladóttir
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky , and Michal Leszczylowski
Manufacturer: Kino Video
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Nostalghia

ASIN: 6305744106
Release Date: 2000-03-07

Customer Reviews:

Attention: this film requires you to think.......2007-04-16

There is no simple answer, no simple review or "reading" of this film which can be proven to be correct. Indeed, this film requires you to think and provide your own answers. All great works of art are like this, I think.

Background information is very important in this case: Tarkovsky was dying of cancer while he shot this film. He completed the shooting, but did not live to see the final copy.

Be prepared to devote some time and energy in order to appreciate was this film has to offer.

AN AUTHENTIC WORK OF ART.......2006-02-13

In decades of movie going and collecting, there are only a few films that keep coming to mind at unexpected moments. For me, this is what great art does; that is, it becomes a part of one's experience and not just a momentary diversion.

THE SACRIFICE is a great film. It touches on the most fundamental questions of being a human in our post-modern world. And it does it with extraordinary grace and a sublime, haunting, beauty.

To miss the point of this film, as some reviewers have, or to call it sophomoric, as others do, is to admit one's own inability to consider that life itself may hold a greater meaning and that we are more than an accidental fluke in a cold, uncaring universe.

This film dares to use its considerable art to challenge us like a zen koan and a prayer. It is a meditation on what it means to be fully human and mortal and moral. It asks us to wonder at the unknown and it weeps that we are prisoners of our humanity -- and that we hold the fate of our planet in our hands.

All this sounds kind of pretentious, I know, but this magnificent yet simple film works on a higher level than most movies. It's not easily categorized. But on a big screen, I was hypnotized by the extraordinary cinematography and equally transported by the subtle ideas. It was a transcendent movie going experience that I didn't expect and one that has remained vivid as the years pass.

The Demiurge Spake.......2006-01-10

To all of those captious parties whistling in the dark: damnant quod non intellegunt

Are you tough enough?.......2005-08-23

I read a number of the reviews on this film and felt the need to respond to the dismissive ones.

Tarkovsky's films - for me The Sacrifice and Andrei Rublev are his crowning achievements (with Ivan's Childhood as the shortest and most accessible of his great films)- these films should be recognised as some of the most important works within any medium of art in the last century.

So, if you want to watch a film to escape, to entertain, to work as background music to re-runs of your own psychic heritage, it is NOT advisable to get this one out one tired evening.

Watching Tarko is hard work - principally aesthetic, emotional, spiritual and creative work for the individual viewer. All great art transforms our relationship with the world, and I would argue that this sort of transformation is never crucially an intellectual change. We may be confronted with ideas through Art but it is their broader resonance within our whole humanity that is the key to Art's power and importance.

I have seen The Sacrifice five times over the last 15 or so years. At the beginning of the film there is the question "what is your relationship with god?"

The film for me is the most personal, honest and often uncomfortable (nightmarish?) contemporary meditation on this single question. [For those fellow T-freaks out there the Director himself fronts up to this theme within the "Making of The Sacrifice" documentary - it is especially poignant in the knowledge of his approaching early death soon after the release of this film].

All I can say to viewers out there that think that Tarko is just another foreign film-maker dealing in dark, overly-intellectual and pretentious symbolic imagery for mass consumption by arts students, well... I dare you to be completely open to the film.

p.s. forget looking for the beginning, middle and end - that western over-obsession with narrative - the line of thought that tells the audience when to cry, clap or stand-up at the "end." Yes, forget for once a focus on events - instead, look, listen, taste, touch and smell that thing the English language calls Art.

Are you tough enough?

The healthy pain of the nostalgia !.......2004-09-14

The word and the silence. The last opus of Tarkovsky . In Sacrifice , argument and form , technique and style are joined so perfectly that challenge all kind of viewers. Its intimate fascination is quiet and in contrast with the easy cinema , superficial so fashion , demands a contemplative attitude , to be understood justly .
The first shots with the dying tree symbolizes the painful spiritual state of the contemporanean civilization . Tarkovsky applies in this moment what you might be call the little stage of the world , with characters who are at the same time real and symbolic . Adelaide is an unsatisfied woman married in a convenience marriage . Victor is the disenchant scientist with clear echoes of Stalker -1979- (the previous film to Nostalgia) and Martha , the blossom girl lost in her own narcissism.
When the atomic attack occurs , Tarkovsky sets his characters in the edge of the knife . Hysteria and terror oppose to desperation . Alexander breaks his inner barriers and he is opened to the trascendence . These are two times of biblical references .
Finally you have to keep your word and the holocaust will come . Bitter metaphor : Tarkovsky seems to revel us there is no place for the trascendentalism in the present world.
But the last sequence is loaded with a deep sense of redemption . The child recovers the language and stood in front of the dying tree he begins to irrigate it with the inquiring statement : In the ancient times the verb was , and with the Bach music ( Mattheus Passion ) the camera climbs the tree and links with Leonard painting , the true icon od adoration and offering .
Tarkovsky is back in this way to his goal and the method of all his artistic and religious cosmovision.
Andrei Tarkovsky ( born April 4 1932) this superb and talented filmmaker, died In Paris ( December 29 1986 ) and the film was dedicated to his son Aliosha.
This film won the posthumous Ecumenic Prize in Cannes .

Average customer rating:

Another stellar production from Merchant-Ivory
Love the actors in this movie!
5 Star Escapism
Possibly Merchant-Ivory's Finest Hours
Great film, splendid bonus features, poor DVD

Howards End
Starring: Vanessa Redgrave , Helena Bonham Carter , Joseph Bennett (III) , Emma Thompson , and Prunella Scales
Director: James Ivory
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0767817680
Release Date: 1999-04-06

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

Another stellar production from Merchant-Ivory.......2007-05-12

Love the actors in this movie!.......2007-03-25

THis movie is great except for the ending. I am a hopeless romantic and always wish for a better ending.

5 Star Escapism.......2007-03-08

Possibly Merchant-Ivory's Finest Hours.......2007-02-24

Great film, splendid bonus features, poor DVD.......2007-01-29

Average customer rating:

Profoundly moving
The End of the Affair
A masterpiece!
Strong Sarah, weak Bendrix
An interesting film

The End of the Affair
Starring: Deborah Kerr , Van Johnson , John Mills , Peter Cushing , and Michael Goodliffe
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: 0767849973
Release Date: 2000-05-16

Amazon.com

For its first minutes, The End of the Affair looks like it's going to be a standard "two tortured souls who know they shouldn't be having an affair but are going to keep on doing it anyway" movie. Fortunately, it gets more interesting than that. Van Johnson plays Maurice Bendrix, an American author in wartime England. While attending a cocktail party of noble civil servant Henry Miles (Peter Cushing), he accidentally catches a glimpse of Henry's wife, Sarah (Deborah Kerr), kissing another man. Fascinated, he arranges to meet her, and the two start an affair. Maurice, unable to get Sarah's previous infidelity out of his mind, gets clingy and suspicious; Sarah tells him they can't meet anymore and goes back to Henry, and that's that. Or is it? Maurice is unable to let go of Sarah, and as he investigates he finds out there was far more to the end of their affair than he thought. Kerr has by far the most difficult job of the film, playing several layers of deception as the coolly efficient civil servant's wife with more than one unexpected passion hiding just below the surface. Peter Cushing also does quietly good work, touchingly playing what could have been a thankless Wronged Husband role. Indeed, most of the usual standards are fleshed out in surprising ways in this strange and earnest little movie. Like its heroine, The End of the Affair takes a grim surface story and gradually reveals the unexpected passions underneath. (Based on the novel by Graham Greene and remade in 1999 with Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes.) --Ali Davis

Customer Reviews:

Profoundly moving.......2007-05-18

I pulled this DVD from the library shelf on the strength of the two leading actors: Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson. I had never heard of it but figured it would be an entertaining lightweight romance. When I got it home and saw that it was from a story by Graham Greene I knew I was in for more than fluff. It is a profoundly beautiful story that touches on themes of passion, loyalty, and faith in God.

Deborah Kerr possesses everything it takes to give life to the character of Sarah, so physically beautiful and with the depth of feeling this woman must have had to endure the conflict between her passion for her lover,, her loyalty to her husband and her spiritual beliefs. Van Johnson rises to the occasion to portray a man whose simple love for this woman inspires her deep conficts.

This is a wonderful movie, with themes that are truly worth considering.

The End of the Affair.......2007-02-25

Deborah Kerr an excellent performance, heart felt emotions of the timeing of this movie explored! Van Johnson a deep pull from his own life's expereice was performed in this movie. Very enjoyable from start to end!

A masterpiece!.......2004-09-25

If you like classic movies that are depressing and melodramatic (not necessarily a bad word), then boy are you in the right place! I LOVE this film! It showcases Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson at their finest. This is a far cry from the musicals for which Johnson is usually recognized. The cinematography is exceptional as well and really captures the essence of London during World War II.

Strong Sarah, weak Bendrix.......2004-04-16

I recently watched this film, about a year after I'd seen the 1999 version. Of course, both films have their own shortcomings and merits, but here is my opinions on the earlier version. Deborah Kerr's performance was good, and she beautifully portrayed a woman torn between her unsatiable passions and her search for truth and God. However, Van Johnson's role as Bendrix was totally ineffective; when he was crying, I felt like the few tears he produced were too forced and unfelt. His performance cannot compare to the brilliant acting of Ralph Fiennes in the later version, but I preferred Deborah Kerr's Sarah to Julianne Moore's. Kerr lent authenticity to her role, something that I think Moore failed to accomplish. (As a side note, even though she is a talented actress, I abhorred the plethora of Moore's flesh in the 1999 version. We don't have to see borderline soft porn to understand that Bendrix and Sarah are having an illicit affair. Please.)

Overall, 1955's version is well worth a watch, just imagine Ralph Fiennes as Bendrix instead of Van Johnson. Had they gotten a better actor in 1955, like Cary Grant or Gregory Peck, this film version would have been much more convincing and entertaining. But as is, it's a farily decent wartime love story.

An interesting film.......2002-01-23

I always say it, it's no use comparing books to films, nor comparing nineteen forties or fifties movies with current releases, for many reasons, not only because of limitations due to the Production Code, which reigned supreme in those decades. This is a fine, interesting movie, with a top performance by that grand lady of the 50's, Deborah Kerr, who excelled in this kind of roles (one can remember "From Here to Eternity" and "Bonjour Tristesse", among others). Also, very good performances by the supporting-all-english-cast, most notably Peter Cushing and John Mills, and good acting by previous-boy-next-door Van Johnson, much in the way of his role in "The Last Time I Saw Paris" with Liz Taylor, but even better. I saw this movie for the first time when I was a kid and couldn't fully understand many of its implications, anyway loving it. In spite of the restrictions imposed by the aforementioned P. Code to the sexual aspects of the main characters relationship, it's pretty adult material in regard to their inner conflicts and contradictions. Serious viewing. Recommended.

The End of the Affair Double Feature (1955/1999)

Average customer rating:

A Great Dramatic Interpretation
Sadly Beautiful
Romanticism or Satire

The End of the Affair Double Feature (1955/1999)
Starring: Deborah Kerr , Van Johnson , John Mills , Peter Cushing , and Michael Goodliffe
Director: Edward Dmytryk , and Neil Jordan
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Classics | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( E ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00004STRC
Release Date: 2000-05-16

Amazon.com

The End of the Affair (1999)
"This is a diary of hate," pounds out novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) on his typewriter as he recounts the lost love of his life in this spiritual memoir (based on Graham Greene's novel) with a startling twist. It's London 1946, and Maurice runs into his achingly dull school friend Henry (Stephen Rea with a perpetually gloomy hangdog expression). Their meeting is brittle, all small talk and chilly, mannered civility beautifully captured by director-screenwriter Neil Jordan (The Crying Game), and it only barely thaws when Henry suggests that his wife Sarah (the luminous Julianne Moore) may be having an affair. Maurice's mind reels back to his passionate affair with Sarah during the war years, which she abruptly broke off two years ago, and gripped with a jealousy that hasn't abated he hires a private detective (a mousy, marvelous Ian Hart) to shadow her movements. He prepares himself for the revelation of a rival, but instead finds a deeper, more profound secret: "I tempted fate," she writes in her diary, "and fate accepted."

The End of the Affair (1955)
For its first minutes, The End of the Affair looks like it's going to be a standard "two tortured souls who know they shouldn't be having an affair but are going to keep on doing it anyway" movie. Fortunately, it gets more interesting than that. Van Johnson plays Maurice Bendrix, an American author in wartime England. While attending a cocktail party of noble civil servant Henry Miles (Peter Cushing), he accidentally catches a glimpse of Henry's wife, Sarah (Deborah Kerr), kissing another man. Fascinated, he arranges to meet her, and the two start an affair. Maurice, unable to get Sarah's previous infidelity out of his mind, gets clingy and suspicious; Sarah tells him they can't meet anymore and goes back to Henry, and that's that. Or is it? Maurice is unable to let go of Sarah, and as he investigates he finds out there was far more to the end of their affair than he thought. Kerr has by far the most difficult job of the film, playing several layers of deception as the coolly efficient civil servant's wife with more than one unexpected passion hiding just below the surface. Peter Cushing also does quietly good work, touchingly playing what could have been a thankless Wronged Husband role. Indeed, most of the usual standards are fleshed out in surprising ways in this strange and earnest little movie. Like its heroine, The End of the Affair takes a grim surface story and gradually reveals the unexpected passions underneath. (Based on the novel by Graham Greene and remade in 1999 with Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes.) --Ali Davis

Customer Reviews:

A Great Dramatic Interpretation.......2000-09-30

Staying mostly true to the original near autobiographical book by Graham Greene, the director of the highly effective "The Crying Game", has produced another winner. The story of the writer Maurice Bendrix's affair with a best friend's wife is woven about the later events of his attempts to establish who his previous lover is now seeing. The main characters are strongly cast with Ralph Fiennes as Maurice and Julianne Moore as his lover. Scene setting, pace and photography are exceptional to convey the time about World War II in London. Preserving the interweaving of the srands from the book, has established a work that is constantly interesting yet still understandable. Changing one character, presumably to make the plot simpler, has lost one of Greene's messages from the book. Otherwise the other themes are there, with all the angst that Greene obviously felt in his own life and the real twist that comes at the end. With the added features of commentary by Julianne Moore and especially by the director, we can appreciate more fully the beauty of the film and the book itself. This is a great story, filmed beautifully, that will reward repeat viewing. Picture and sound quality are great.

Sadly Beautiful.......2000-09-29

Jordan's rendetion of the End of the Affair captures more of the temptous nature of Moore's character and the complexity this woman encases. Moore amazingly pulls it off while Fiennes role reprises that of the last few roles he has done... ie English Patient, Onegin, and Wuthering Heights. Fiennes plays these charactes adeptly but brings nothing new or individualistic to the role. The story wrought full of emotion sometimes bogs itself down and is slow prodding. Masterfully done, it's a maddening story but the characters emote so beautifully that you can't help but deeply appreciate it as is. The DVD version offers little else in the way of extras and the 1955 version offered little that I enjoyed.

Romanticism or Satire.......2000-09-28

This film certainly ranks highly as one of my all time favorite romantic stories. The pace is precise and builds a story that is quite involving and moving as well. The recent version is certainly presented in a much more captivating style in terms of cinematography. If you missed this film in the theatres, this is a must-have.

Charlie Rose with Richard Clarke; Ralph Fiennes (November 30, 1999)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Richard Clarke; Ralph Fiennes (November 30, 1999)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Charlie Rose with Ian McEwan; Ralph Fiennes (August 25, 2005)
Charlie Rose with Ralph Fiennes; Arne Glimcher, Lucas Samaras, Chuck Close & Kiki Smith (December 28, 2000)
Charlie Rose with James Ivory, Ralph Fiennes & Natasha Richardson; Niles Eldredge (December 30, 2005)
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Charlie Rose with Alan Parker, Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet & Laura Linney; Ralph Fiennes & David Cronenberg (February 17, 2003)

ASIN: B000IU328O
Release Date: 2006-09-18

Description

A conversation with National Security Council advisor, Richard Clarke. As the nation's foremost counterterrorism official, Clarke outlines the threats of Osama bin Laden, biological weapons, and cyber terrorism that our nation may face in the future. Later, actor Ralph Fiennes talks about his performance in the film The End of the Affair, which is based on Graham Greene's eponymous novel. He discusses working with the actress Julianne Moore, the religious undertones of the film, and what may be next for his acting career.

Average customer rating:

Obsessive obsession
Excellent Service
"Goodness has so little fictional value"
A Woman of Her Word
Great acting!

The End of the Affair [Region 2]
Starring: Ralph Fiennes , Stephen Rea , Julianne Moore , Heather-Jay Jones , and James Bolam
Director: Neil Jordan
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( E ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Onegin
The English Patient (Miramax Collector's Edition)
Oscar & Lucinda
Sunshine
Wuthering Heights (1992)

ASIN: B000050ZKG

Amazon.com essential review

"This is a diary of hate," pounds out novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) on his typewriter as he recounts the lost love of his life in this spiritual memoir (based on Graham Greene's novel) with a startling twist. It's London 1946, and Maurice runs into his achingly dull school friend Henry (Stephen Rea with a perpetually gloomy hangdog expression). Their meeting is brittle, all small talk and chilly, mannered civility beautifully captured by director-screenwriter Neil Jordan (The Crying Game), and it only barely thaws when Henry suggests that his wife Sarah (the luminous Julianne Moore) may be having an affair. Maurice's mind reels back to his passionate affair with Sarah during the war years, which she abruptly broke off two years ago, and gripped with a jealousy that hasn't abated he hires a private detective (a mousy, marvelous Ian Hart) to shadow her movements. He prepares himself for the revelation of a rival, but instead finds a deeper, more profound secret: "I tempted fate," she writes in her diary, "and fate accepted."

Customer Reviews:

Obsessive obsession.......2007-03-09

Excellent Service.......2007-01-12

Item was shipped as soon as i placed order. I was updated often. Excellent service!

"Goodness has so little fictional value".......2006-09-15

A Woman of Her Word.......2006-01-15

Great acting!.......2005-09-24

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