Another Country

Another Country is a very telling portrait of life at one of England's top private schools in the 1930s. On the surface, everything looks perfect. Privileged youth frolics in a variety of beautiful locations, whilst receiving the best education money could buy. It all looks idyllic, but of course, there is a dark underbelly of violence and prejudice that provokes a life changing decision for the main character, Guy Bennett, played very elegantly by Rupert Everett. Colin Firth's character provides a nice Communist commentary on the appalling elitism of English society and he and Everett both turn in exceptional performances. This movie clearly launched both of their careers.

Although the natural beauty of the locations would have made it hard for anyone to make an ugly picture, this film is so exquisitely shot and scored, that it is almost painful at times. Sure there are some bad moments (Rupert Everett's terrible make up for his scenes as the aged Bennett springs to mind and there is a certain clichéd quality to some of the scenes) but on the whole, the good far outweighs the bad.

This film is both visually and dramatically impressive. From the outset, we are treated to lavish cinematography of Eton College and its grounds and the surrounding countryside. This is contrasted with the drab scenes of Moscow from where Guy Bennet recounts his story. Everything is bathed in a golden glow, backed up by the sound of boyish voices singing hymns (the title itself comes from popular school hymn 'I vow to Thee my Country'; which was sung at the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997).

This contrasts starkly with the brutality of the school's disciplinary system, where one boy is so ashamed of being caught in a homosexual act that he hangs himself in the school chapel. Those who question the school's code become outcasts, such as Bennet and Judd, unless they are 'useful' in some way - ie when Judd is needed to prevent an unpopular boy becoming head of house.

One important fact I noticed is that you hardly ever see a master in the school, and you never see the boys in lessons: this shows Eton not as merely a school, but as a microcosm of society with its own specific hierarchy.

There is interesting character development: Bennett, initially a philanderer who takes nothing seriously, eventually realises that he is a confirmed homosexual and begins to understand Judd's vision of a perfect society possible through communism ('not heaven on earth, but earth on earth - a just earth')Similarly Judd realises that sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice one's principles for the greater good.

There is a lot about this film that is hackneyed - the bullying, sadistic prefects, the angelic boys with floppy fringes singing chapel anthems, the stock rebellious phrases etc, (and I won't even mention Guy Bennet's ludicrous old-man makeup)but overall it is a beautiful piece of cinematography with some good acting from the young Mr Everett and Mr Firth.

I was living in France when this film was first released. I had seen the stage play and thoroughly enjoyed it. The film was so good I actually saw it twice over it's opening weekend.

The bulk of the action is set in an English boarding school in the 1930s. This is marvelously portrayed - school bullies, inter house rivalries, the cadet force, cricket - and there is some marvelous interaction between Rupert Everett and Colin Firth. The latter's impassioned defence of Stalin is understated comedy at its finest.

This is a film of great subtlety and beauty, well acted, and underpinned by a haunting soundtrack.

Forget the prologue which preludes the long flashback which is the core of the movie.First scene:in a room,two boys make love while,in the main courtyard of the posh school (Eton?),a ceremony commemorates the dead soldier of WW1,with pump and circumstance:the two bedrocks of the family, Army and Religion taking in hand the third one:School.Behind these walls,inside these venerable buildings,mortal hatred ,intolerance and repression are looming.Outside,the splendid landscapes are unchanging,particularly this quiet river which comes back as a leitmotiv.And most of the students wants to keep the world as it is,because they know they are part of the privileged few.Their studies are a mere rehearsal of their life-to-be. Becoming a prefect,what a feat! Being called "god" what a honor! Being able to push the others out of your way,that makes you a man!

Two young men refuse the rules of the game:the first one ,Tommy (a good Colin Firth),the most loyal character of a rather obnoxious. gathering.He sticks to his ideals,and he will die for them.He believes in Marx and in Stalin(we're in the thirties ) ;he would never betray anybody,and the audience sides with him most of the time. The second one ,Guy,(Rupert Everett at his best)is a gay,in love with a younger pal.He,too,rebels against this rigid institutions,but he's more complex:actually he tries to become a prefect and then a god,because he has kept his ambitions and he would easily opt for a compromise solution.He could but he will not..Homosexuality,when it's secret is no problem for the bourgeois society.Guy's character will mute and finally he realizes that he cannot live in the shadow.That's his downfall.

No commies,no gays can be part of the crème de la crème.The posh school reputation,once the non-straight ones(in the general sense of the word)are eradicated,can sleep the sleep of the just.

Sometimes compared with Lindsay Anderson's "If"(1970),its atmosphere is drastically different though :there's no dreamlike sequences here,no madness.It rather recalls "der junge Torless" (Schloendorff,1966)and it might have influenced James Ivory's "Maurice" (1986). An overlooked important movie.

For English of a certain age - and possibly for those from other countries - the phrase 'the third man' and the triumvirate of Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Donald McLean (until the eventual flight to Moscow of Philby, it was simply Burgess and McLean) have a certain resonance.

In later years the trio expanded to include a knight of the realm who eventually rose to become the Queen of England's art expert - something of an about-turn for a traitor - and is also said to have included one John Cairncross as 'the fifth man', although that is still in dispute.

Over the years, of course, and with changing geopolitical obsessions and problems the Cambridge spies attract less interest if only because Islamic State/Isil/IS/Isis and various other offshoots of Al Qaeda have been passed the mantle of 'the enemy' and, well, it was all 55 years ago. We have new 'spies' and their stories to get excited about.

All four (or five) spies have an interesting story to tell and to this day it is difficult to establish quite why the products of England's privileged class should have decided to bite the hand which fed them. Blunt, certainly, will have wanted to undo his past, if only because the social position he attained as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures was one which the old queen enjoyed a great deal. Philby seems, since his childhood in India where until the age of five he spoke both English and Urdu fluently and daily played with the children of his parents servants, to have suffered from a kind of split personality - I don't mean that in any medical sense - and had no difficulty hobnobbing with wealthy colleagues down in the club before meeting his controller and sending other colleagues to certain death. He was said to have been a real charmer so perhaps he was simply a sociopath who could not empathise.

Anther Country is about Guy Burgess, also like Blunt homosexual, and if you don't know much about him, the film's rather too neat explanation of why he became a traitor seems a tad glib. But in fact Burgess was nothing if not superficial. He seems to have been the least ideologically inspired of the Cambridge Four and, being a huge drinker, was a constant source of concern to the others and his Soviet controllers that he would while drunk give the game away.

He and McLean were the first to break cover and head for Soviet Russia when it seemed likely that McLean, a diplomat in Britain's Washington embassy, was about to be unmasked. It has often been suggested that Burgess need not have fled: no one was onto him and his treachery was only discovered once he had hightailed it to Moscow.

Some even suggest that he fully expected to return to Britain, though what he thought might be made of his actions back in London only the Lord knows. Certainly, he didn't take to Moscow life and (according to Wikipedia) had all his clothes tailored in London's Savile Row and shipped to him in Moscow.

The other notable aspect of Another Country is its portrayal of life at an English public school (the name, helpfully for Americans we give some of our private schools). The film takes place in the Thirties so I can't comment on whether aspects of such a school are exaggerated. But I attended a Roman Catholic public school (as a boarder) for five years in the Sixties and I can confirm that many of the absurdities prevailed, as did the rigid hierarchy of boys. We were still being caned for the silliest of reasons - though we called it being beaten - though in the more enlightened Sixties this could no longer be done by prefects.

The film takes place in the summer term when the air was sufficient balmy for the boys to take midnight walks or meet for midnight trysts. I remember many pleasant afternoons lying in the sunshine under a tree, doing nothing but gazing through the leaves into a blue sky. But I also remember the sheer misery of having to bathe and shower in cold water - not for any character building but because the school was too tight-fisted to get the hot water system modernised and repaired. I remember the goddam awful pigswill which we were served up as 'food', and the almost frightening speed with which violence could erupt for no very good reason. Oh, and I also remember all the talk of 'minnows' and boys that someone 'fancied' though not of it, thank God came my way.

So I suspect Another Country holds a certain attraction for its portrayal of the kind of life lived at such a school, although a portrayal now long outdated - corporal punishment is no longer legal at any school. The story is rather slight, the boys rather too articulate, speaking as they do as characters might in a play or a film. Or perhaps as I am now well beyond the age they were, I simply can't remember how young folk talk and talked.

The explanation as to what decided Guy Burgess/Bennett to choose the dark side and betray his country - because he had been cheated out of the bauble he craved more than any other - was, perhaps, a touch to pat. There again the real Guy Burgess was such a loose cannon who didn't seem to believe much for very long anyway, perhaps it really was like that. The film is, perhaps, best viewed as a well-made period piece.