The Last September
UK/Ireland/France 1999
Reviewed by Kevin Maher
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
A private estate in Cork, Ireland, 1920. Sir Richard and Lady Myra Naylor welcome their English visitors, Hugo and Francie Montmorency. Sir Richard's niece Lois is dancing flirtatiously in the garden with Captain Gerald Colthurst, an English soldier. That night Sir Richard laments the worsening Irish political situation. The next day the group welcome another visitor, Marda Norton, and organise a tennis party. Meanwhile Peter Connolly, a local Republican, kidnaps and shoots dead an English sergeant.
Hugo, Marda and Lois go for a walk to a ruined mill. Here Lois discovers Peter Connolly's hiding place. Hugo declares his affections for Marda while Lois secretly brings food to Peter. Peter attempts to rape Lois but he flees when Gerald arrives. Gerald later announces to Lady Myra his intention to marry Lois, but she protests his unsuitability. Undeterred, Lois returns to the mill to see Peter who forces himself on her but is once again disturbed by Gerald. This time he kills Gerald. Hugo and Francie leave the next morning. Marda then leaves for London, taking Lois with her.
Review
"We're Irish!" says Marda to the clearly bemused English Captain Colthurst, "We look like you and we speak like you, but we're not like you!" It's a thematic motif (a national identity crisis among the Anglo-Irish ascendancy in the 20s) that writer John Banville crudely hammers home throughout his uneven adaptation of Elizabeth Bowen's subtle novel. Later Lois is erroneously told to go back to England, while Sir Richard explains to the still bemused Colthurst that both the IRA and the Naylors are proudly Irish. Here Banville unfortunately displays a political didacticism that's absent from Bowen's novel. What is allusive and simmering under the surface in Bowen becomes explicit in his screenplay.
Hence we have the appearance of the film's Irish rebel, Peter Connolly. In the novel, Connolly's unseen presence casts a menacing shadow over the high-society dances and tennis parties Bowen's characters attend. In elevating Connolly to a major dramatic character in his own right, Banville and debut feature director Deborah Warner, an established theatre director, have unfortunately fallen back on stock IRA-movie clichés. As played by Gary Lydon, Peter can trace his lineage to earlier on-screen IRA figures portrayed by actors such as Dirk Bogarde in The Gentle Gunman (1952), Stephen Rea in Angel and even Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own. In other words, he is taciturn, dashingly attractive (in an animalistic way), and can display sudden flashes of psychopathic menace. His intrusion into the central romance of Lois and Gerald is not only less than convincing, but also destructive to the story's dramatic momentum - Lois goes to the mill, almost gets raped, comes back, goes to the mill again, almost gets raped again and comes back again.
Lumbered with this stilted narrative (the screenplay is long on stagy declamatory speeches, but short on action), Warner has instead concentrated on the film's visual style. With the aid of regular Krzysztof Kieslowski cinematographer Slawomir Idziak, she has created a richly detailed portrait of decay. Lugubrious autumnal yellows and browns merge with the putrid green wallpaper (often peeling away) covering the interior of the Naylors' home. Meanwhile the same lime-green light falls through half-open shades, as if to hint at an encroaching Irish nationalism. And it's with impressive visual panache that Warner reveals several key moments through the sepia-tinted iris of Lois' spyglass. Clearly bound to Lois' sexual desire, it allows her to observe Peter with impunity, then falls on her own lips and then her body during her first sexual encounter.
Lois herself is played with coquettish enthusiasm by Hawes. The rest of the cast get by with often sketchily underwritten roles (David Tennant's bemused English officer is an especially unforgiving part). Add an eerie tintinnabulating soundtrack from other Kieslowski collaborator Zbigniew Preisner and you have a well crafted but sadly stagnant period drama.
Credits
- Director
- DeborahWarner
- Producer
- Yvonne Thunder
- Screenplay
- John Banville
- Based on the novel by Elizabeth Bowen
- Director of Photography
- Slawomir Idziak
- Editor
- Kate Evans
- Production Designer
- Caroline Amies
- Music
- Zbigniew Preisner
- ©The Matrix Films 'Last September' Partnership/
Scala Thunder Limited/IMA Films SA- Production Companies
- Matrix Films and Scala present in association with Bord Scannán na héireann (The Irish Film Board)/Radio Telefís éireann with the participation of BSkyB and British Screen in association with IMA Films and Canal + a Scala Thunder/Matrix Films co-production
- Pre-production financing by Freewheel International
- Developed with support from the MEDIA Programme of the European Union
- Developed with assistance from Bord Scannán na héireann/
The Irish Film Board - Produced with the support of investment incentives for the Irish film industry
- Executive Producers
- Stephen Woolley
- Peter Fudakowski
- Nik Powell
- Neil Jordan
- Born Scannán na héireann:
- Rod Stoneman
- Radio Telefís éireann:
- Joe Mulholland
- Co-executive Producer
- George Benayoun
- Co-producer
- Marina Gefter
- Line Producer
- Mary Alleguen
- Associate Producer
- Sara Giles
- Production Co-ordinator
- Niamh Nolan
- Location Manager
- Andrew Hegarty
- Post-production Supervisor
- Stephen Barker
- Assistant Directors
- Peter Agnew
- Charlotte Somers
- Elizabeth O'Kelly
- Script Supervisor
- Pat Rambaut
- Casting Director
- Leo Davis
- Special Effects Supervisor
- Kevin Byrne
- Art Director
- Paul Kirby
- Costume Designer
- John Bright
- Wardrobe Mistress
- Janet Tebrooke
- Make-up/Hair Designer
- Christine Beveridge
- Make-up Artist
- Sarah Grundy
- Chief Hairdresser
- Patricia Cameron
- Hairdresser
- Betty Glasow
- Titles Design
- Frameline
- Opticals
- General Screen Enterprises
- Musicians
- Piano:
- Simon Chamberlain
- Harp:
- Hugh Webb
- Guitar:
- John Parricelli
- Clarinet:
- Robert Hill
- Bass Clarinet:
- Nicholas Bucknall
- Lead Violin:
- Jonathan Rees
- Violin:
- James McLeod
- Dermot Crehan
- Wilfred Gibson
- Roger Garland
- Jonathan Strange
- Cello:
- Anthony Pleeth
- Double Bass:
- Christopher Laurence
- Percussion:
- Frank Ricotti
- Trumpeter/Flugel:
- Stephen Sidwell
- Glass Harmonica:
- Alasdair Malloy
- Conductor
- Robert Ziegler
- Music Research
- Alison McArdle
- Soundtrack
- "You Made Me Love You" by Al Jolson; "Sensation Rag" by Original Dixieland Jazzband; "Darktown Strutters Ball" by Lt Jim Europe
- Choreography
- Cindy Cummins
- Dance Instructor
- Mark McDonnell
- Sound Mixer
- Dan Birch
- Re-recording Mixer
- Paul Hamblin
- Dialogue Editor
- Stewart Henderson
- ADR Editor
- Mike Redfern
- Foley Editor
- Derek Trigg
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Patrick Condren
- Armourer
- John McKenna
- Horse Master
- Richard Collins
- Cast
- Maggie Smith
- Lady Myra Naylor
- Michael Gambon
- Sir Richard Naylor
- Jane Birkin
- Francie Montmorency
- Fiona Shaw
- Marda Norton
- Lambert Wilson
- Hugo Montmorency
- David Tennant
- Captain Gerald Colthurst
- Richard Roxburgh
- Daventry
- Keeley Hawes
- Lois Farquar
- Tom Hickey
- O'Brien
- Gary Lydon
- Peter Connolly
- Maeve Kearney
- maid 1
- Jonathan Slinger
- Laurence Carstairs
- Francine Mulrooney
- maid 2
- Emily Nagle
- Livvy Connolly
- Catherine Walsh
- Doreen Hartigan
- Bernie Downes
- Nora Hartigan
- Mikel Murfi
- Sergeant Wilson
- Arthur Riordan
- Black and Tan soldier
- Kieran Ahern
- Daniel Connolly
- Miles Horgan
- postman
- Aaron Harris
- Captain Vermont
- Lesley McGuire
- Mrs Vermont
- Christina Wilson
- maid 3
- Mal Whyte
- 2nd officer
- Tamsin MacCarthy
- Marcie Mangan
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Metro Tartan Distributors
- 9,286 feet
- 103 minutes 11 seconds
- Dolby
- Colour by
- DeLuxe