acquiescence and denial
by Douglas Messerli
Ruth Prawer Jhbvala (screenplay,
based on a screenplay by Harold Pinter, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro),
James Ivory (director) The Remains of
the Day / 1993
Between them is the equally excellent James Fox who as Lord Darlington,
plays a man of passionate and seemingly humane concerns who, unfortunately is
on the wrong side of history and societal moral concerns. He may think he is
working to help dignify the German people, but is, in fact, serving his country
as a traitor.
Minor figures such as Christopher Reeve, who plays the American
Congressman Mr. Lewis, and later becomes the owner of Darlington Hall, and Hugh
Grant as Reginald Cardinal, Darlington’s godson, who helps in Darlington’s
downfall, round out this excellent company.
The trouble with the film is that beyond those remarkable qualities
revealed in the work’s series of character interchanges, it is mostly all work
and no play. To watch its two major figures sparring behind their statements of
domestic duties quickly grows tedious; yes, all these conversations are highly
ironic, each of them saying one thing while meaning another, but it’s done
mostly on the sly and any wit they contain, particularly on Stevens’ end, is
expressed in curt and sometimes ill-motivated asides. For all the gloriously
adorned meetings and dinner parties at Darlington Hall, we listen into those
conversations as if we were ourselves servants. Most of the significance of the
film lies in what is not being said rather than what is said, which helps to
make us feel throughout as if we are peering into the lives of these figures
through frosted windows. When, later in the film, Stevens claims that he did
not have time to truly over-
By the time Stevens attempts to reclaim his life, he, like the Daimler
he drives, has “run out of gas,” he now, like a doubting Peter, denying he even
knew Lord Darlington, although Darlington in fact, has defined his life. When
Miss Kenton asserts that now that her daughter is having a child she cannot
return to Darlington Hall under the employment of the new owner, it all seems
quite inevitable. Like Darlington, himself, Stevens was destined to die as an
outcast, a loner. There are, he discovers, no “remains” of the day left to him.
And although, once again, we may be saddened by that fact, we have known all
along that by refusing to say anything of consequence, refusing to express love
or moral outrage, Stevens’ life itself has become insignificant—as does, alas,
this well-made film. It may be, polished up and gracefully performed as it is,
pretty to look at, but like Stevens’ late-life passage into night, it is
ultimately empty.
Los Angeles, April 20, 2014
Reprinted from International Cinema Review (April 2014).
No comments:
Post a Comment