A Handful of Dust (film)
| A Handful of Dust | |
|---|---|
 US Film poster | |
| Directed by | Charles Sturridge |
| Written by |
|
| Based on | A Handful of Dust 1934 novel by Evelyn Waugh |
| Produced by | Derek Granger |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Peter Hannan |
| Music by | George Fenton |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Premier Releasing |
Release date |
|
Running time | 118 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £2.7 million[1] |
| Box office | £1.5 million (UK/US) |
A Handful of Dust is a 1988 British film directed by Charles Sturridge, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Evelyn Waugh. It stars James Wilby and Kristin Scott Thomas.[2] Originally conceived as a television project, it was the first feature film financed by London Weekend Television.[1]
It was nominated at the 61st Academy Awards for Best Costume (Jane Robinson), losing to Dangerous Liaisons.[3] Judi Dench won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress.[4]
Plot
[edit]For English country gentleman, Tony Last, his ancestral home, Hetton Abbey, is his life. He is blissfully happy with his quiet existence there, and oblivious to the discontent of his wife Brenda. Brenda begins an affair with social climber John Beaver. Tony is oblivious. Brenda even manages to persuade him to rent a flat in London, unaware she uses it as a love nest with Beaver.
When the Lasts' eight-year-old son, John Andrew, is killed in a riding accident, Brenda informs Tony of her affair. She requests a divorce so she can marry Beaver. Tony is shattered, but initially agrees, offering to provide her with £500 a year. He spends an awkward weekend with a woman hired to provide fake divorce evidence. But Beaver and his grasping mother press Brenda to demand £2,000 per year. This amount would require Tony to sell Hetton. Fortunately, since the hired woman had taken her child to the weekend with her, he is able to prove adultery did not take place, and withdraws the divorce. He announces that he intends to travel for six months. On his return, Tony says, Brenda may have her divorce but without any financial support.
Without the settlement, Beaver loses interest in Brenda. She is reduced to poverty and Beaver leaves with his mother for California. Tony joins an explorer on an expedition in search of a supposed lost city in the Brazilian forest. The expedition fails and Tony is the last survivor. He is rescued by Mr. Todd, a settler who rules over a small community in an inaccessible part of the jungle. The illiterate Mr. Todd has a collection of the novels of Charles Dickens, which Tony reads to him. When Mr. Todd continues to demur in helping Tony return to civilization, Tony realises he is being held against his will. A search party finally reaches the settlement, but Todd has arranged for Tony to be drugged and hidden; he tells the party that Tony has died and gives them his watch to take home. When Tony awakes he learns that his hopes of rescue have gone and that he is condemned to read Dickens to his captor indefinitely. Back in England, Tony's death is accepted; Hetton passes to his cousins who erect a memorial to his memory, while Brenda resolves her situation by marrying Tony's friend Jock Grant-Menzies.
Filming
[edit]Although producer Derek Granger was convinced of Scott Thomas's rightness for the part of Brenda, Sturridge insisted that she do a screen-test, as she was unknown and most of her acting jobs had been in the medium of French.[5]
Carlton Towers stood in for Hetton. Its owner, the Duke of Norfolk, has a cameo role as a gardener in the scene where Mrs Rattery lands her plane on the lawn. His daughter Marsha Fitzalan and other members of the family also played small roles.[6] The Brazilian scenes were filmed in Venezuela.[7]
Cast
[edit]- James Wilby as Tony Last
- Jackson Kyle as John Last
- Kristin Scott Thomas as Brenda Last
- Rupert Graves as John Beaver
- Anjelica Huston as Mrs. Rattery
- Judi Dench as Mrs. Beaver
- Alec Guinness as Mr. Todd
- Pip Torrens as Jock
- Beatie Edney as Marjorie
- Stephen Fry as Reggie, Brenda's brother
Reception
[edit]Critical response
[edit]Derek Malcolm in The Guardian applauded the film's retention of Waugh's irony. He praised the cast generally but singled out Kristin Scott Thomas, calling her a "revelation".[8]
Sheila Johnston in The Independent was cool about the film: "it was probably inevitable that, under the dead hand of the English costume tradition, Evelyn Waugh's savage social satire should take on the indulgent patina of a period piece".[9]
In The Times, David Robinson struck a similar note: "A Handful of Dust is a lot funnier and more acid on the printed page than in Charles Sturridge's screen adaptation". He suggested several reasons for this: the filmmakers had emphasized the story's sentimental and romantic aspects; the novel was now "a period piece"; the leads had been cast with actors "whose style lacks a comic edge".[10]
Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd reviewed the film very positively for The Daily Telegraph, rating it higher than Sturridge's TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. His major complaint was that the shift in tone in the book's final Amazonian scenes was harder to accomplish on screen: "in the film the necessary change of gear seems to be missing".[11]
Richard Mayne in The Sunday Telegraph likewise felt that the realistic medium of cinema showed up "fanciful" plot twists like Tony's ultimate fate. Despite such reservations, he strongly rated Scott Thomas's performance: "she utterly incarnates Brenda Last's bored, itchy flirtatiousness... This is indeed a fatal attraction, and it holds the film together like a cold steel bolt".[7]
Iain Johnstone in The Sunday Times was also impressed by Scott Thomas ("a singular sensation") but less so by the film overall: "the low energy level of the piece is better suited to television... a little less respect for the novel might have gained a greater respect for the author's underlying theme".[12]
Philip French in The Observer gave credit to the film's technical aspects, but felt that on the whole Sturridge and Granger had "drained away much of the wit" from Waugh's novel: "A tough-minded tragi-comedy has been turned into a stately elegant exercise in nostalgia".[13]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised Anjelica Huston's portrayal of Mrs Rattery as the "single most stunning performance" but called the film "both too literal and devoid of real point."[14]
Sheila Benson wrote a highly positive review for The Los Angeles Times: "breathtakingly fine... a superlative job". Although lavish in praise for the whole cast, she singled out James Wilby in the demanding male lead: "As Waugh's betrayed romantic, Tony must grow enormously during the story's wild turnings, or the whole project dies. And Wilby lets no one down."[15]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars and observed, "This is a peculiar movie, but a provocative one. The performances imply more than the dialogue explains, and there are passages where we cannot quite believe how monstrously the characters are behaving... "A Handful of Dust" has more cruelty in it than a dozen violent Hollywood thrillers, and it is all expressed so quietly, almost politely."[16]
When the film appeared on VHS, Elkan Allan wrote a review for The Independent somewhat more positive than Johnston's: "Marvellous central performances by James Wilby and Kristin Scott Thomas... A delight tinged with sadness".[17]
Box Office
[edit]The film grossed £608,594 in the United Kingdom and $1,560,700 in the United States and Canada.[18][19]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Barker, Adam (10 August 1988). "Does Handful of Dust break holdback rule?". Screen Finance: 3.
- ^ "A Handful of Dust (1988) - Charles Sturridge | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "The 61st Academy Awards (1989) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. AMPAS. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
- ^ "BAFTA | Film | Actress in a Supporting Role in 1989". bafta.org. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ Granger, Derek (12 June 1988). "The finding of Brenda in a million". The Sunday Times Magazine. No. 8549.
- ^ Rose, Kenneth (27 March 1988). "Albany at Large". The Sunday Telegraph. No. 1401. p. 10.
- ^ a b Mayne, Richard (12 June 1988). "Prisoners of Waugh". The Sunday Telegraph. No. 1412. p. 17.
- ^ Malcolm, Derek (9 June 1988). "Gold in the dust". The Guardian. p. 25.
- ^ Johnston, Sheila (9 June 1988). "The dog beneath the skin". The Independent. No. 519. p. 17.
- ^ Robinson, David (9 June 1988). "Innocence is no defence". The Times. No. 63103. p. 20.
- ^ Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (9 June 1988). "Keeping to the spirit of Waugh". The Daily Telegraph. No. 41354. p. 10.
- ^ Johnstone, Iain (12 June 1988). "Social savagery without bite". The Sunday Times. No. 8549. p. 61.
- ^ French, Philip (12 June 1988). "Ashes to ashes". The Observer. p. 40.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (24 June 1988). "'Dust,' Evelyn Waugh's Dark Gothic Tale of the 1930's". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ Benson, Sheila (14 July 1988). "Finding a Gem in 'A Handful of Dust'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (22 July 1988). "A Handful Of Dust". Chicago Sun-Times.
- ^ Allan, Elkan (17 December 1988). "Video". The Independent. No. 683. p. 41.
- ^ "Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing" (PDF). British Film Institute. 2005. p. 23.
- ^ "A Handful of Dust". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 1 January 2021.