A butler, Stevens (Sir Anthony Hopkins), who sacrificed body and soul to service in the years leading up to World War II realizes too late how misguided his loyalty was to his lordly employer.
Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the titular opposites.
In a Florence pensione circa 1900 with English guests, George and his dad offer their rooms with views to Lucy and her chaperone. Lucy and George get acquainted but Lucy returns to England. George and Lucy meet again but now she's engaged.
Director:
James Ivory
Stars:
Maggie Smith,
Helena Bonham Carter,
Denholm Elliott
C.S. Lewis (Sir Anthony Hopkins), a world-renowned Christian theologian, writer and professor, leads a passionless life until he meets spirited poet Joy Gresham (Debra Winger) from the U.S.
Director:
Richard Attenborough
Stars:
Anthony Hopkins,
Debra Winger,
Julian Fellowes
Twenty-eight-year-old Kansas University doctoral student Omar Razaghi (Omar Metwally) wins a grant to write a biography of Latin American writer Jules Gund. Omar must get through to three ... See full summary »
Director:
James Ivory
Stars:
Omar Metwally,
Anthony Hopkins,
Charlotte Gainsbourg
A tale of nineteenth-century New York high society in which a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin.
Director:
Martin Scorsese
Stars:
Daniel Day-Lewis,
Michelle Pfeiffer,
Winona Ryder
Set in 1930s Shanghai, where a blind American diplomat develops a curious relationship with a young Russian refugee who works odd -- and sometimes illicit -- jobs to support members of her dead husband's aristocratic family.
Director:
James Ivory
Stars:
Ralph Fiennes,
Natasha Richardson,
Vanessa Redgrave
The passionate Merchant Ivory drama tells the story of Françoise Gilot (Natascha McElhone), the only lover of Pablo Picasso (Sir Anthony Hopkins) who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty, and move on with her life.
Director:
James Ivory
Stars:
Anthony Hopkins,
Natascha McElhone,
Julianne Moore
Rule bound head butler Stevens' (Sir Anthony Hopkins') world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of housekeeper Miss Kenton (Dame Emma Thompson), who falls in love with him in pre-World War II Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.Written by
Keith Loh <loh@sfu.ca>
None of the filmmakers had any experience with the way a great English country house is run, nor the minutiae of a butler's life. Kazuo Ishiguro was the first to admit this, and had to learn about it in the course of writing his novel. Sir Anthony Hopkins was afraid of making all kinds of gaffes, and requested that an experienced butler be somehow attached to the unit. This was done, the advisor being Cyril Dickman, the retired Steward to Queen Elizabeth II, and he, in time, brought in others who were experienced in the exact way of doing things in a big house like Darlington Hall. There was an exact pecking order, with specific servants to handle specific assignments. From the butler and the housekeeper on down, there were under-butlers, footmen, house maids, under-housemaids, the cook, the scullery boys, the gardeners, grooms, and gamekeepers, even the servants of the servants. See more »
Goofs
(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?" See more »
Quotes
Miss Kenton:
Why? Why, Mr. Stevens, why do you always have to hide what you feel?
See more »
This is, in my opinion, the finest film in the Merchant Ivory canon. And to hail it as such is to grossly undersell it. It is not only that but also the best story of unrequited love in cinema history, and a masterpiece of understated emotion. It also boasts some of the finest performances ever put on film, most notably from the peerless Anthony Hopkins.
Then again, understatement is the key to this film. Writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Director James Ivory adapt Kazuo Ishiguro's poignant novel with such delicacy that it gets under ones skin in a deeply profound way difficult to express in a few words.
The plot opens in the 1950's as meticulous and emotionally repressed butler Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) reviews a lifetime of service in Darlington Hall. The story flashes back to the 1930's where Stevens formed a close friendship with housekeeper Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson). This relationship grew slowly over several years and ultimately the pair developed romantic feelings for one another, although neither admitted it. Whilst all this was happening, Steven's employer Lord Darlington (Edward Fox) gradually became a misguided Nazi sympathiser in pre-war Europe. Unfortunately, loyalty to his master caused Stevens to reject the delicate advances of Miss Kenton. History took its inevitable course, and Darlington's involvement in appeasement contributed to the outbreak of World War II. Now Stevens realises he made a mistake and wants to make amends.
To describe Anthony Hopkins as brilliant is completely redundant. His turn here goes way beyond mere acting, and it was criminal he was denied the Oscar at the 1994 Academy awards. Stevens absurdly repressed personality gently takes the audience from laughter to tears in the most emotionally devastating finale I have ever seen. Hopkin's mesmerising performance is matched by a career-best turn from Emma Thompson. The supporting cast is uniformly superb, including a pre-Four Weddings Hugh Grant and Christopher Reeve in one of his last roles before the accident that paralysed him.
Needless to say, the cinematography, music, editing and art direction are immaculate. The understated beauty of the English countryside that was so important to the book translates brilliantly to film here.
This is a lovely, melancholic film, which effortlessly embraces complex themes such as misguided loyalty, dignity, pride, wasted lives, and unrequited love. It would be all too much to bear if it weren't for the film's genuine good-humoured understanding of English culture (all the more remarkable for having been initially penned by a Japanese author). In fact, humour is an important element in the film. There are many laugh-out-loud moments, which make the tragic part of the story all the more real and poignant. All in all, The Remains of the Day is a milestone film an unforgettable tragedy of a man who pays the terrible price of denying his own feelings.
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This is, in my opinion, the finest film in the Merchant Ivory canon. And to hail it as such is to grossly undersell it. It is not only that but also the best story of unrequited love in cinema history, and a masterpiece of understated emotion. It also boasts some of the finest performances ever put on film, most notably from the peerless Anthony Hopkins.
Then again, understatement is the key to this film. Writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Director James Ivory adapt Kazuo Ishiguro's poignant novel with such delicacy that it gets under ones skin in a deeply profound way difficult to express in a few words.
The plot opens in the 1950's as meticulous and emotionally repressed butler Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) reviews a lifetime of service in Darlington Hall. The story flashes back to the 1930's where Stevens formed a close friendship with housekeeper Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson). This relationship grew slowly over several years and ultimately the pair developed romantic feelings for one another, although neither admitted it. Whilst all this was happening, Steven's employer Lord Darlington (Edward Fox) gradually became a misguided Nazi sympathiser in pre-war Europe. Unfortunately, loyalty to his master caused Stevens to reject the delicate advances of Miss Kenton. History took its inevitable course, and Darlington's involvement in appeasement contributed to the outbreak of World War II. Now Stevens realises he made a mistake and wants to make amends.
To describe Anthony Hopkins as brilliant is completely redundant. His turn here goes way beyond mere acting, and it was criminal he was denied the Oscar at the 1994 Academy awards. Stevens absurdly repressed personality gently takes the audience from laughter to tears in the most emotionally devastating finale I have ever seen. Hopkin's mesmerising performance is matched by a career-best turn from Emma Thompson. The supporting cast is uniformly superb, including a pre-Four Weddings Hugh Grant and Christopher Reeve in one of his last roles before the accident that paralysed him.
Needless to say, the cinematography, music, editing and art direction are immaculate. The understated beauty of the English countryside that was so important to the book translates brilliantly to film here.
This is a lovely, melancholic film, which effortlessly embraces complex themes such as misguided loyalty, dignity, pride, wasted lives, and unrequited love. It would be all too much to bear if it weren't for the film's genuine good-humoured understanding of English culture (all the more remarkable for having been initially penned by a Japanese author). In fact, humour is an important element in the film. There are many laugh-out-loud moments, which make the tragic part of the story all the more real and poignant. All in all, The Remains of the Day is a milestone film an unforgettable tragedy of a man who pays the terrible price of denying his own feelings.