Cold Comfort Farm (1995)

A recently orphaned young woman goes to live with eccentric relatives in Sussex, where she sets about improving their gloomy lives.

Director:

John Schlesinger

Writers:

Malcolm Bradbury (screenplay), Stella Gibbons (novel)

Stars:

Eileen Atkins, Kate Beckinsale, Sheila Burrell

2 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eileen Atkins	...	Judith Starkadder
Kate Beckinsale	...	Flora Poste
Sheila Burrell	...	Ada Doom
Stephen Fry	...	Mybug
Freddie Jones	...	Adam Lambsbreath
Joanna Lumley	...	Mrs. Mary Smiling
Ian McKellen	...	Amos Starkadder
Miriam Margolyes	...	Mrs. Beetle
Rufus Sewell	...	Seth Starkadder
Ivan Kaye	...	Reuben Starkadder
Jeremy Peters	...	Urk
Maria Miles	...	Elfine Starkadder
Christopher Bowen	...	Charles Fairford
Louise Rea	...	Meriam Beetle
Sophie Revell	...	Rennet

Storyline

In England in the early 1930s, twenty-year-old Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale), recently orphaned, and left with only one hundred pounds sterling a year, goes to stay with distant relatives on Cold Comfort Farm. Everyone on the gloomy farm is completely around the twist, but Flora tries to sort everything out.

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Plot Keywords:

female protagonist | female led relationship | f rated | farm | 1930s | 

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Taglines:

She discovered a new branch of her family tree... the one with all the nuts.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for brief sensuality and language

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 May 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cold Comfort Farm

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$66,427, 12 May 1996

Gross USA:

$5,682,429

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,682,429

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Films, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Thames International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale) states at one point, "I want to write a novel as good as Persuasion." Rupert Penry-Jones (Dick Hawk-Monitor) played the quintessential Captain Wentworth in Persuasion (2007).

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Goofs

The candlestick on breakfast table during the first breakfast scene changes places depending upon the shot.

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Quotes

Flora Poste: Jane Austen and I have so much in common - neither of us can endure mess.

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Crazy Credits

The copyright at the end of this movie is listed as "MCMXV", which translates to 1915. The movie was copyrighted in 1995, so the numerals should read "MCMXCV".

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: Twister/Captives/Boys/Dead Man/Cold Comfort Farm (1996)

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Soundtracks

Red Sails in the Sunset
Composed by Jimmy Kennedy (as Kennedy) / Will Grosz (as Williams)
Published by EMI Music/Redwood Music
Arrangement by Robert Lockhart

User Reviews

Read the book

Most movie versions of books are disappointing because a good book is always a far richer experience, but this one doesn't shame its source. In fact it's an amusing romp, largely because all the actors are letter perfect -- not easy with a broadly satiric story like this one. Flora Poste's romantic notions actually produce positive results with the loutish Starkadders, such as matching the etiolated Elfine with her true love and sending the smoldering Seth off to become an American film star, while Flora herself ends the movie linked to her own very suitable suitor. Dialogue and motion picture scenery cannot reproduce the exquisitely sly writing of Stella Gibbons, however, so if you liked this movie, by all means read the 1932 book. It's a classic parody of rustic melodrama.