Cold Comfort Farm
First screened in 1996 or 1997 / Most recently screened in August 2024
Director: John Schlesinger. Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Eileen Atkins, Joanna Lumley, Sheila Burrell, Rufus Sewell, Maria Miles, Ivan Kaye, Ian McKellen, Christopher Bowen, Freddie Jones, Stephen Fry, Miriam Margolyes, Rupert Penry-Jones, Sophie Revell, Jeremy Peters, Louise Rea, Henry Ditson, Frederick Jaeger. Screenplay: Malcolm Bradbury (based on the novel by Stella Gibbons). In Brief:
Worth asking how much "arch" is too much, and yet the laughs keep coming. Great actors are plainly having a ball.
VOR:③
Shifts from a kind of cynical, shooting-fish satire to an almost compassionate one, while staying of one piece. Artfully silly, if slight.
You're down, then you're up, then you're down again: this period farce, made for BBC TV, so charmed audiences and critics alike that the late and much-missed Gramercy Pictures promoted it as a theatrical release in the U.S., where it became a sleeper hit and emerged on a few year-end Top 10 lists. Now, this coolly riotous, plummily literary, pre-eminently British comedy is AWOL on streaming services and languishing as a user upload on YouTube. It's possibly worth asking how much archness is too much for one film, and yet the laughs keep coming. Great actors like Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry, and Joanna Lumley are plainly having a ball, as are a few faces less known to me. Kate Beckinsale is a strong, slightly acidic center without alienating the audience and in fact gets in her own poker-faced jokes. No molds are broken, but this kind of period comedy from a smartly constructed, lesser-known source ought to be tried more often. The film even shifts from a kind of cynical, shooting-fish satire to a more stealthily compassionate one, without signaling any transition or losing its unifying sense of humor. Artfully silly, then, if arguably slight. I dare you not to be saying "There've always been Starkadders," "golden orb," or "Something nasty in the woodshed" for at least a few hours afterward. Grade:B
Awards:
British Academy Awards (BAFTAs): Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Dorka Nieradzik)
