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Jane Austen in Manhattan (DVD)

Director James Ivory brings the intrigue and guile of rival theater companies to life in JANE AUSTEN IN MANHATTAN. At Sotheby's auction house in New York, a theater producer and an ambitious off-Broadway director buy an obscure childhood play written by Jane Austen. Robert Powell stars as Pierre, an avant-garde director who becomes engaged in a heated rivalry with his former mentor and lover, traditionalist director Lilianna Zorska (Anne Baxter). While competing to produce different versions of the Austen play, the two also compete for the loyalties of a young actress, Ariadne (Sean Young in her first screen role).The actual Jane Austen manuscript was sold at Sotheby's in London, and London Weekend Television became interested in producing the play--without reading it first. Merchant Ivory Productions, which had produced a film for LWT's THE SOUTH BANK SHOW two years earlier (HULLABALOO OVER GEORGIE AND BONNIE'S PICTURES), also became interested in filming the sight-unseen manuscript. However, after reading the work, screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala realized that the Austen play was not developed enough to be a film and instead used the acquisition of the text as the seed of an idea that ultimately became JANE AUSTEN IN MANHATTAN.DVD Features:Region (unknown)Keep CaseFull Frame - 1.33
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Director Kristian Levring, in this Dogme 95-inspired, 1920s period melodrama, provides a chilling look at the power of greed and sex. Seeking to make a quick fortune and to carry on an unconventional relationship, Sarah Morris (Janet McTeer, who cowrote the script) and her younger lover Hamish (J.J. Field) travel to the jungle to survey land for an English trading company. Instead of an exotic hideaway, the pair discovers a remote camp where the residents, after decades in the jungle, have become preoccupied with seizing control of the company fortune. Shrewish Mrs. Jones (Brenda Fricker) maintains tight control--doting on her sycophant nephew Norton (Philip Jackson), and constantly belittling the others, including her socially stunted son William (Tony Maudsley). Sarah and Hamish quickly find themselves in a Joseph Conrad-esque hell, and when Hamish falls ill and the company's money runs out, Sarah finds herself faced with a life-altering moral decision.Using minimal lighting, spare sets and costume design, and slow pacing, director Levring creates a claustrophobic atmosphere appropriate to the descent into madness and desperation faced by the characters. Superbly acted by the entire cast, Olympia Dukakis stands out as Erina, who, having grown up with the boorish William, has accepted her unrequited love for him and has settled for acting as his occasional sexual servant. Evoking films such as AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD, THE INTENDED provides biting commentary on the detrimental effects of colonialism and capitalism and an interesting sociological lesson in isolation and aggression.DVD Features:Region (unknown)Keep CaseFull Frame - 1.33Additional Release Material: Cast and Crew Interviews Original Theatrical TrailerInteractive Features: Interactive Menus Scene Access
Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005.
For personal use only.
All rights reserved.