The Remains of the Day (1993)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

James Ivory

Writers (WGA):

Kazuo Ishiguro (novel)
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (screenplay)

Release Date:

5 November 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A butler who sacrificed body and soul to service in the years post World War II realizes too late how misguided his loyalty has been.

Plot Keywords:

Butler | Loyalty | Housekeeper | Britain | Nazi

Awards:

Nominated for 8 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

John Haycraft	...	Auctioneer
Christopher Reeve	...	Jack Lewis
Anthony Hopkins	...	James Stevens
Emma Thompson	...	Miss Kenton
Caroline Hunt	...	Landlady
James Fox	...	Lord Darlington
Peter Vaughan	...	William Stevens
Paula Jacobs	...	Mrs. Mortimer, the cook
Ben Chaplin	...	Charlie, Head Footman
Steve Dibben	...	George, Second Footman
Abigail Hopkins	...	Housemaid (as Abigail Harrison)
Patrick Godfrey	...	Spencer
Peter Cellier	...	Sir Leonard Bax
Peter Halliday	...	Canon Tufnell
Hugh Grant	...	Reginald Cardinal
Terence Bayler	...	Trimmer
Jeffrey Wickham	...	Viscount Bigge (as Jeffry Wickham)
Hugh Sweetman	...	Scullery boy
Michael Lonsdale	...	Dupont D'Ivry
Brigitte Kahn	...	Baroness
John Savident	...	Doctor Meredith
Tony Aitken	...	Postmaster
Emma Lewis	...	Elsa
Joanna Joseph	...	Irma
Rupert Vansittart	...	Sir Geoffrey Wren
Tim Pigott-Smith	...	Thomas Benn
Christopher Brown	...	Wren's friend
Lena Headey	...	Lizzie
Paul Copley	...	Harry Smith
Ian Redford	...	Publican
Jo Kendall	...	Publican's wife
Steven Beard	...	Andrews
Pip Torrens	...	Doctor Richard Carlisle
Frank Shelley	...	Prime Minister
Peter Eyre	...	Lord Halifax
Jestyn Phillips	...	Foreign Office official
Wolf Kahler	...	German ambassador
Frank Höltje	...	German Embassy official
Andreas Töns	...	German Embassy official
Roger McKern	...	Police constable
Angela Newmarch	...	Waitress

Directed by
James Ivory

Writing credits (WGA)
Kazuo Ishiguro		(novel)
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala		(screenplay)

Produced by
Paul Bradley	....	executive producer
John Calley	....	producer
Ismail Merchant	....	producer
Mike Nichols	....	producer
Donald Rosenfeld	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Richard Robbins

Cinematography by
Tony Pierce-Roberts		(photography)

Film Editing by
Andrew Marcus

Casting by
Celestia Fox

Production Design by
Luciana Arrighi

Art Direction by
John Ralph

Set Decoration by
Ian Whittaker

Costume Design by
Jenny Beavan
John Bright

Makeup Department
Christine Beveridge	....	chief makeup artist
Carol Hemming	....	chief hair stylist
Paolo Mantini	....	hair stylist
Norma Webb	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Joyce Herlihy	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Bernard Bellew	....	third assistant director
Simon Moseley	....	second assistant director
Christopher Newman	....	first assistant director (as Chris Newman)

Art Department
Simone Assanand	....	art department assistant
Chris Browning	....	stand-by props
Sveva Costa Sanservino	....	art department assistant
Mark Fruin	....	stand-by props
John Hedges	....	construction manager
Sophia Müller	....	art department assistant (as Sophia Müeller)
Jill Quertier	....	production buyer
Dennis Simmonds	....	dressing props
Arthur Wicks	....	property master
Chris Seddon	....	drapes master (uncredited)

Sound Department
Aaron Anawalt	....	on-set sound assistant
Brian Blamey	....	foley editor
Geoff R. Brown	....	assistant sound editor
Derek Holding	....	dialogue editor
Dominic Lester	....	assistant sound re-recordist
Colin Miller	....	sound editor
Robin O'Donoghue	....	sound re-recordist
David Stephenson	....	sound recordist
Colin Wood	....	boom operator
Russ Woolnough	....	assistant sound editor

Special Effects by
Karin Hanson	....	special effects hair (uncredited)
Garth Inns	....	special effects supervisor (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Martin Body	....	rostrum cameraman (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Peter Batten	....	clapper loader
Damienne Caron	....	camera apprentice
Tommy Finch	....	gaffer
Rawdon Hayne	....	focus puller
Malcolm Huse	....	camera grip
Rod Marley	....	camera trainee (as Roderick Marley)
Roger Pearce	....	camera operator: second unit
Derrick Santini	....	still photographer
Les Weighell	....	best boy

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jill Avery	....	wardrobe assistant
Victoria Harwood	....	wardrobe assistant
Sue Honeybourne	....	wardrobe mistress
Adrian Simmons	....	wardrobe assistant (as Adrian Simmonds)

Editorial Department
Simon Cozens	....	second assistant editor
Michelle Gorchow	....	associate editor
Kerry Kohler	....	assistant editor
Craig Mooney	....	apprentice editor

Music Department
Geoff Alexander	....	music coordinator
Harry Rabinowitz	....	conductor
Bill Sommerville-Large	....	music recording engineer
Robert Stewart	....	music arranger: orchestral arrangements

Transportation Department
Cengiz Asiliskender	....	unit driver
Brian Baverstock	....	unit driver (as Bryan Baverstock)
David Bennett	....	unit driver
John Bower	....	unit driver

Other crew
Elizabeth Aldrich	....	choreographer
Bobby Blues	....	production accountant (as Bob Blues)
Cyril Dickman	....	technical advisor
Diana Dill	....	script supervisor
Lorraine Fennell	....	production coordinator
David Field	....	stand-in
Joe Friedman	....	location scout
Peter Giblin	....	runner: director
Robert Hamilton	....	assistant technical advisor
Jacky Holding	....	production accountant
William James	....	crowd marshall
Sunil Kirparam	....	production accountant
Fay Efrosini Lellios	....	project creative assistant
Annie Livings	....	stand-in
Kathryn Martin	....	assistant to producer
Christian McWilliams	....	location manager
Colin Plenty	....	location assistant

Thanks
The Duke of Beaufort	....	thanks
The Earl of Devon	....	thanks
The Lord Methuen	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Merchant Ivory Productions (as A Mike Nichols John Calley Merchant Ivory Production)
• Columbia Pictures Corporation (presents) (as Columbia Pictures)

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1993) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1994) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2001) (USA) (DVD) (widescreen)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (????) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Films de España (????) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar (Brazil) (DVD)
• LK-TEL Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• LK-TEL (????) (Argentina) (VHS)

Special Effects

• Effects Associates

Other Companies

• Anglia Catering  catering
• Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd.  thanks
• Cosprop  costumes
• Garrard, The Crown Jewellers  thanks
• Lee Lighting  grip and lighting equipment
• Peerless Camera Company  titles and opticals
• Sapex Scripts  post-production script services
• Twickenham Film Studios  sound re-recording
• Windmill Lane Recording Studios  music recorded at

Runtime:

134 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | French | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby SR (35 mm prints) | SDDS (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:PG | South Korea:15 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Chile:TE | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:6 | Ireland:G | Netherlands:AL | Norway:A | Peru:PT | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Badminton House, Gloucestershire, England, UK

Company:

Merchant Ivory Productions

Trivia:

It was while shooting Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990) in Kansas City that actor Remak Ramsay, who was reading "The Remains of the Day" while playing a part in the film, gave the book to James Ivory to read thinking that its subject and setting might intrigue Ivory.

Goofs:

Continuity: (or possibly just character error) At the very beginning Miss Kenton mentions a conference "back in 1936". At the very end of the film, Lewis asks, "Isn't this the same room where we all attended that banquet back in 1935?"

Quotes:

Lewis: You are, all of you, amateurs. And international affairs should never be run by gentlemen amateurs. Do you have any idea of what sort of place the world is becoming all around you? The days when you could just act out of your noble instincts, are over. Europe has become the arena of realpolitik, the politics of reality. If you like: real politics. What you need is not gentlemen politicians, but real ones. You need professionals to run your affairs, or you're headed for disaster!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Good Eats: The Remains of the Bird (#3.5)" (2000)

Soundtrack:

Roll Along Prairie Moon

Diamond in the Rough

Very deliberate but marvelous study of a lifetime butler in an English noble household. The film does a wonderful parallel examination of the man's life set against the tumult of the 1930s that effectively did away with the British Empire and made him and others like him, as people curiously obsolete.

An extremely rare example of sanity when dealing with the subject of War. Most films as we know too well, concentrate on the futility and bottom line cost in humanity, which is to be expected since generally speaking, an artist will always present this point of view. However in most cases, it's an incomplete and wildly immature handling of the topic. This film addresses if you can believe it, the folly of avoiding War thru appeasement, and hammers home what might have been avoided if the British had called Hitler to the carpet early on, instead of playing chess with him. This is the backdrop; the main story is that of the butler, Stevens, an ostensibly simple character played with unimaginable complexity, by Hopkins. The fascinating examination of one man's sense of duty, a devotion that transcends all other obligations and aspirations in his life has never been so poignantly or expertly presented to an audience. Everything about the film, the supporting cast in particular is a rousing triumph. I cannot overly recommend this.