Directed by Philip Haas, this movie was released in 1995 and it's based on a book by A.S. Byatt that was published two years before. It tells the story of William Adamson a poor naturalist who marries in the 1800s into the Alabaster family, a family of British aristocrats that has taken him in after a shipwreck.
It stars Mark Rylance as William Adamson, Kristin Scott Thomas as Matty Crompton, Patsy Kesit as Eugenia Alabaster Adamson and Douglas Henshall as Edgar Alabaster, elder brother of Eugenia.
Angels and Insects is a very interesting film, done with extreme care. The setting is spectacular, and the atrezzo and dresses are extremely beautiful. The worst thing is the hairstyles, but I asume that's how women did their hair, so...
The main character, William Adamson is a sweet little man, who understands where he comes from without letting the discrimination of the aristocrats disturb him. He's a good man who marries Eugenia Alabaster without malice or second intentions, but because he loves her. His interest relay heavily on the study of insects and, together with Matty Crompton, tutor to Eugenias younger sisters, he starts writing a book on red ants.
Matty Crompton is an intelligent woman, more true to William's heart than Eugenia, who's atraction resides heavily on her beauty. Towards the middle of the movie, William starts discovering his interest for Matty.
The sexual pulls of the different characters are one of the main points in this movie. It doesn't shun of that topic, but it embraces and it shows the conflicts that sex provoques in that society.
Other than that there doesn't happen much in the movie. It's rather long and there isn't much action, but the beauty of the images and the well used music makes each scene flow in such a way, that you're not bored any single moment. It relays heavily on the script and consistence of the acting, which is great.
The flow of time is also very well achieved. Usually a movie based on a very long book that tells a story that developes through a long period of time, doesn't really give the sensation of pass of time, or it makes such great jumps, that the viewer gets lost. Maybe it's because the movie is set in a country house, or that the time isn't really important, but while watching this movie the time seems frozen, markt only by Eugenias pregnancies.
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| ANGELS & INSECTS TRAILER |
Angels & Insects is one of those movies that want only to show an age, and a way of life that's lost to us now. The conflict appears late, but the movie isn't boring at all. The acting is exceptional, the script consistent, the dialogues meaningful and the setting, dresses and make up, very beautiful.
Angels & Insects is one of those movies that want only to show an age, and a way of life that's lost to us now.
ReplyDelete"That's lost to us now"? I . . . don't understand this comment. Are you saying that the loss of the upper class Victorian society is something to be mourned? Or that it has simply disappeared, as has other past societies?
I'm sorry if my translation went over badly, I did this originally in spanish and then translated it. What I meant was that Victorian society has dissappeard. Period. Full stop. And that movies like this one give you a glimpse of what was there and what we'll never see or live - unless someone builds a time-mashine, but that's unlikely.
DeleteOf course modern society is a far cry from what VIctorian age was and I would hate being a woman in that age, but I still find the customs interesting and the maners something to be admired. Modern society has lost a lot of that polished education, and I think loosing that is a real pitty. But that's only my humble oppinion. - sorry if there where a lot of mistakes in the answer and thank you for your comment.