August 2006
	by Max (with Walt Oleksy)	view previous issues here

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THE DUCHESS OF DUKE STREET

The fascinating true story of Rosa Lewis’s rise from obscurity in the kitchens of pre-World War I London to uncrowned duchess of the culinary arts in her own hotel-restaurant concludes with series 2 just released by Acorn Media. The enormously popular 1979-1980 BBC Masterpiece Theater series’ final 16 episodes follow the indomitable heroine, played to perfection by Gemma Jones, through the horrors of World War I to the “anything goes” 1920s, and they roared in England just as they did in the U.S. John Hawkesworth created the series that is set mainly in Lewis’s venerable Cavendish Hotel and co-stars Christopher Cazenove as her main love interest. Written by Rosemary Anne Sisson who brought us UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS. See this by all means, but if you haven’t seen Series 1, rent or buy that first so you take in the full wonderful story from the start. My master and I love this series and it is great to have it finally on DVD. Series 2 is on 5 DVDs in a handsome boxed set that includes a biography of Rosa Lewis.

Max’s rating: All four paws up (look out below!)

THE LOST PRINCE
This is just one of three movies on DVD that I highly recommend this month that were written and directed by one of Britain’s most interesting contemporary playwrights, Stephen Poliakoff. It’s the most ambitious of the three and won the British television award for best drama. It tells the sad but also joyful true story of Prince John, youngest son of George V and Queen Mary, who suffered from epilepsy and a learning disability but nonetheless was a boy full of love who craved for his parents to love him. But doctors encouraged them to hide him from the world, declaring him to be an imbecile and an embarrassment to the royal family. Isolated from the outside world as it became torn into World War I, the boy prince is cared for and loved by a devoted nurse who tries and finally succeeds in convincing the monarchy that far from being an embarrassment, he is a jewel in their crown. Beautifully told, with authentic period sets and costumes (and cars, which my master loves), the excellent cast includes Miranda Richardson as the queen, Gina McKee as the nurse, and Michael Gambon, Bill Nighy, and Tom Hollander. Wonderful drama from BBC Home Video and WGBH Boston Video. The other two new Poliakoff movies also on DVD are FRIENDS AND CROCODILES and GIDEON’S DAUGHTER. The former follows a Great Gatsby character through his ups and downs fortunes, and the latter focuses on a daughter who tries to live up to and with her father’s worship of her. Both intriguing stories very well told. I conclude this tribute to Poliakoff by reporting that what I consider to be his greatest work, PERFECT STRANGERS, is finally to be released on DVD in this country next month. I’ll review it then.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and lots of tail wags

Also recommended this month:

BEFORE THE FALL

A German film well worth seeing, it is the story of a young man from the middle-class who becomes the best hope of those running an upper-class school to win them a much-coveted boxing championship. The hitch is, the school is an exclusive military academy created by Hitler as a training ground for future leaders. Max Riemelt plays the blond, handsome epitome of the Aryan race, but does he fall for the Nazi line? See the movie to learn that and other very interesting subplots. In German with English subtitles, from Olga Films and Seven Pictures, distributed by Picture This! Entertainment.

CLEAN

Maggie Cheung, Hong Kong superstar and winner of the Cannes Film Festival best actress award, stars in this strong drama of a drug-addicted mother struggling to rebuild her life and singing career after the death of her also drug-addicted rock star husband. Nick Nolte co-stars as her father-in-law and custodian of the young son she desperately seeks to reclaim. Excellent performances from director Oliver Assayas. From Palm Pictures.

DON’T MOVE

Penelope Cruz won an Italian best actress award in this story of a love affair between two people who never experienced real love before meeting. The man involved is a surgeon who becomes alienated from his wife. Director and co-writer of the film, Sergio Castellitto, also won the Italian best actor award for his performance. A fascinating story based on the best-selling novel by Margaret Mazzantini. From Wellspring.

JANE EYRE

A fine BBC-TV miniseries version of the Charlotte Brontë classic with Sorcha Cusack as Jane and Michael Jayston as Mr. Rochester. You know the story, so I don’t have to repeat it.  I’ll just say it tells more of the story than earlier feature-length films including the 1944 one with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, so they really can’t be compared. Devotees of the Brontë story note this miniseries as the version most faithful to the novel.

All five episodes on a 2-disc set from Acorn Media.    Go here for an enjoyable fan site on the production.

ARISTOCRATS

Not to be confused with a movie of a similar title that is a long session of stand-up comics telling a long dirty joke, this is the BBC drama based on a miniseries about some aristocratic sisters in 18th century Georgian England.Based on the lives of the real-life Lennox sisters, grand-daughters of King Charles II, it is a good romantic story in the Jane Austen vein that authentically recreates the period. From Acorn Media.

RYNA

A rare import from Switzerland, this tells the story of a teenage girl, Ryna, living in a poor Romanian town on the Danube’s Delta border with Switzerland. Doroteea Petre plays Ryna wonderfully, trying to be a loving daughter to a father who wished she had been born a boy. Happily, she morphs from being a tomboy to a young woman who might just find the right’s man’s love. An excellent character study and look at modern life in an eastern Europe rural community. From several companies including Strada Films, it is distributed by Lifesize Entertainment.

GILLES’ WIFE

An international prize-winning Belgian film, this is the story of a devoted wife faced with the suspicion that her husband is having an affair with her younger sister. Emmanuelle Devos gives a very strong performance as the wife in a movie other critics have called “ethereally beautiful” and “beautifully observed… ambitious and rewarding.” The Los Angeles Times says it is “Suffused with a painterly tenderness and cruelty, exquisitely photographed.“ Extras on the DVD include commentary from director Frederic Fonteyne and an in-depth “making of” feature. From Koch Lorber Films.

THE IRISH R.M., COMPLETE SERIES

The delightful adventures of Major Sinclair Yeates, a retired British army officer serving as Resident Magistrate in turn-of-the-century and early 1920s West Ireland. Peter Bowles stars. All 18 episodes of the amusing family drama seen on PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre are now in a collector’s boxed set of 6 DVDs. You know the stories are good because they were written by the wonderful story-teller, Rosemary Anne Sisson. From Acorn Media.

McCALLUM
More mayhem from BBC-TV, starring popular John Hannah as a forensic pathologist at a London East End hospital leading a team that tries to discover how and why some people have been “done in.” Nine engrossing mysteries on 5 DVDs from Koch Vision.

REBUS, SET 1
Ken Stott plays gruff, hard-drinking Inspector John Rebus from the Edgar-winning Ian Rankin crime novels set in modern-day Edinburgh. With the help of a young female sidekick, Rebus heads the sleuthing under the sometimes jealous eye of their boss, played by Jennifer Black, his former flame. Two engrossing mysteries are in this 2-DVD set from Acorn Media.

WGBH Boston Video released two excellent DVDocumentaries this month: MacARTHUR, the life of the great although controversial American General Douglas MacArthur; and a boxed set about recent devastating natural disasters: HURRICANE! KATRINA, GILBERT, AND CAMILLE. Two more sets of outstanding documentary DVDs from Questar:5000 YEARS OF MAGNIFICENT WONDERS, 11 hours on 6 discs about Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Secrets of the Holy Land, and World Wonders Beyond Time (Stonehenge and Angkor Wat among others). And BIGGEST, FASTEST, STRONGEST, 9 hours on 6 discs from the Nature TV series including Big Cats, Echo of the Elephants, Tall Blondes (giraffes), Chimpanzees, Leopards and Lions, and the San Diego Zoo. Nature photography and observation doesn’t come any better than this set.

ROALD DAHL’S THE BFG

The initials stand for Big Friendly Giant who snatches a girl from her orphanage bed and whisks her to Giant Country in this whimsical story by the quirky author of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Don’t worry, parents, BFG doesn’t eat little boys and girls, he prefers foul-smelling cucumber-like veggies, and spends his nights supplying his young friends with good dreams. From A&E Home Video.

See you next month at the same fire hydrant.