A Handful of Dust (1988)

Director:

Charles Sturridge

Writers:

Tim Sullivan (writer)
Derek Granger (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

24 June 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

The wife's affair and a death in the family hasten the demise of an upper-class English marriage.

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel | Independent Film

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

James Wilby	...	Tony Last
Kristin Scott Thomas	...	Brenda Last
Rupert Graves	...	John Beaver
Anjelica Huston	...	Mrs. Rattery
Judi Dench	...	Mrs. Beaver
Alec Guinness	...	Mr. Todd
Richard Beale	...	Ben
Jackson Kyle	...	John Andrew
Norman Lumsden	...	Ambrose
Jeanne Watts	...	Nanny
Kate Percival	...	Miss Ripon
Richard Leech	...	Doctor
Roger Milner	...	Vicar
Tristram Jellinek	...	Richard Last
Pip Torrens	...	Jock
Beatie Edney	...	Marjorie
Stephen Fry	...	Reggie
Graham Crowden	...	Mr. Graceful
John Quentin	...	Brenda's Solicitor
Timothy Bateson	...	MacDougal
Moyra Fraser	...	Mrs. Northcote
Marsha Fitzalan	...	Polly Cockpurse
Annabel Brooks	...	Daisy
Tamsin Olivier	...	Veronica
Maureen Bennett	...	Marjorie's Maid
Hugh Simon	...	Travel Agent
Alan Hay	...	Club Porter
Matthew Ryan	...	Club Page
Cathryn Harrison	...	Milly
Alice Dawnay	...	Winnie
John Junkin	...	Blenkinsop
Peggy Aitchison	...	Waitress (as Peggy Atchison)
Christopher Godwin	...	Dr. Messinger
Jeannette Baillie	...	Rosa
Julian Infante	...	Indian Spokesman
Wiliam Gonzalez	...	Indian Singer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Giles Bickford	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Charles Sturridge

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Derek Granger		writer
Charles Sturridge		writer
Tim Sullivan		writer
Evelyn Waugh		novel

Produced by
Nick Elliott	....	executive producer
Derek Granger	....	producer
Jeffrey Taylor	....	executive producer
Kent Walwin	....	executive producer
David Wimbury	....	associate producer

Original Music by
George Fenton

Cinematography by
Peter Hannan

Film Editing by
Peter Coulson

Casting by
Celestia Fox

Production Design by
Eileen Diss
Chris Townsend

Costume Design by
Jane Robinson

Makeup Department
Patricia Kirkman	....	hair stylist
Sally Sutton	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Matthew Binns	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tony Aherne	....	assistant director
Peter Kohn	....	assistant director
Melvin Lind	....	assistant director

Art Department
Simon Basketter	....	property creator
Richard Hornsby	....	assistant art director
Stephenie McMillan	....	set dresser
Brian Read	....	prop buyer

Sound Department
John Ireland	....	sound editor
Robin O'Donoghue	....	sound re-recording mixer
Peter Sutton	....	sound mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Murray Close	....	still photographer
Brian Martin	....	best boy
Reg Parsons	....	gaffer
Bob Smith	....	camera operator
Stefan Stankowski	....	first assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jenny Hawkins	....	wardrobe assistant
Michael Jeffery	....	wardrobe supervisor
Joy Kleiner	....	associate costume designer

Editorial Department
Angelica Landry	....	assistant editor

Music Department
George Fenton	....	conductor
George Fenton	....	orchestrator
Gerry O'Riordan	....	assistant music engineer
John Warren	....	additional orchestrator
John Warren	....	composer: additional music (uncredited)

Other crew
Chris Allies	....	title designer
Christopher Knowles	....	location manager
Lynda Levy	....	unit publicist
Bob Nadkarni	....	location research
Ene Watts	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Compact Yellowbill
• Handful of Dust
• London Weekend Television (LWT)
• Stagescreen Ltd.

Distributors

• Premier Releasing (1988) (UK) (theatrical)
• Arrow Film Distributors (1996) (UK) (VHS)
• Castle Home Video (1988) (UK) (VHS)
• Mundial Filmes (Brazil) (VHS)
• New KSM (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• New Line Cinema
• Odyssey Video (2003) (UK) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• VCL Communications

Other Companies

• Lee Lighting  grip and lighting equipment
• Sapex Scripts  post-production script services

Also Known As:

Runtime:

USA:118 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Sweden:Btl | USA:PG (certificate #28951) | West Germany:6 | UK:PG | Australia:PG | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Highclere Castle, Highclere, Hampshire, England, UK

Company:

Compact Yellowbill

Trivia:

The Duke of Norfolk let his home be used and appeared as the gardener touching his forelock respectfully to Mrs. Ratterby (Anjelica Huston).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Benchwarmers (2006)

Soundtrack:

King Of Love My Shepherd Is

Fair adaptation, but a watered-down result

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER

Evelyn Waugh was one of the most stylish writers of his generation and the deceptively simple prose of his early mordant satires ('Decline and Fall', 'Vile Bodies') stands up very well today. 'A Handful of Dust,' written during the break-up of his first marriage to Evelyn Gardiner ('She-Evelyn') is more personal and less comic, and more concerned with the consequences of the characters' lack of personal morality. This film version by Charles Sturridge, who was earlier jointly responsible for a fine TV version of 'Brideshead Revisited,' is a worthy attempt to do justice to the novel, but perhaps he need not have bothered.

The film follows the novel as published in England – a US edition had a different, happy ending - though for space reasons some incidents are omitted (eg the drunken night at the sleazy 'Old Hundredth' club). Tony Last (James Wilby) is a pleasant young dim Tory gentleman, the proud owner of Hetton Abbey, a pile of Victorian Gothic bombast, and the attentive but slightly baffled husband of Lady Brenda (Kristen Scott-Thomas), elegant, aristocratic, and bored to death after seven years of country life. They have a cute six-year old son, John Andrew (Jackson Kyle), who seems to relate better to his nanny and riding instructor than to his parents, who are equally awkward with him. A young man called John Beaver (Rupert Graves) invites himself to stay, and Brenda, despite Beaver's vacuity, decides to have an affair with him, renting a small flat in Mayfair from Beaver's mother (Judi Dench) for the purpose.

Then an accident occurs which prompts Brenda to reveal her affair to Tony (almost everyone else in their circle knows of it already) and leave him. Tony, having met an explorer named Messinger, sets off with him to Guyana, South America, in search of a lost city, but the expedition falls apart and Tony is rescued by Todd (Alec Guinness), a part-white man living with the Indians. Todd wants someone to read him Dickens, and Tony finds himself a prisoner.

The re-creation of life at Hetton; mists over the park, the huge, overdecorated house (Carlton Towers, Yorkshire, is a perfect match for the fictional Hetton Abbey), the attentive servants, the elegant meals, house parties, Sunday morning at church, the ritual of foxhunting etc, is all beautifully done. We see why Brenda is bored (even if Anjelica Huston's character does drop in by plane), but it is not so easy to see why Brenda takes after Beaver. Jock (a wooden Pip Torrens), young MP, friend of the family and an old boyfriend of Brenda's, seems a much more likely choice, obsessed as he is with the politics of pig-farming. Kristen Scott-Thomas is fine in the role of Brenda but the script lets her down a little. As Tony, James Wilby projects just the right air of amiable, good-natured dimness. We feel sorry for him even as his unlikely fate assumes an air of inevitability. A youthful Rupert Graves gives us a callow and colourless Beaver, egged on by his ambitious mother.

The change of scene from England to Guyana is somewhat abrupt, though signalled in the script, and it's almost as if we are watching a different movie. This is not necessarily the filmmaker's fault as Waugh backed an earlier short story of his 'The Man Who Loved Dickens' into the first two-thirds of the novel, which is a kind of prequel to the short story. Yet the events of the whole novel bear close correspondence to Waugh's own experiences, his marriage break-up mentioned above, and a journalistic trip he made to Guyana as a kind of therapy. Unlike the unlucky Tony, Waugh returned from the jungle to tell this, and several other mordant tales.

Here the film-makers were not able to give visual expression to Waugh's mood. Perhaps different music might have helped – the theme for 'Brideshead' was perfect. For the most part the actors were well-cast, but they were pinned down by the close adherence of the scriptwriters to the novel's dialogue.