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A Month in the Country (film)
Encyclopedia
A Month in the Country is a 1987 British film
directed by Pat O'Connor
. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by J. L. Carr
, and stars Colin Firth
, Kenneth Branagh
, Natasha Richardson
and Patrick Malahide
. The screenplay was by Simon Gray
.
Set in rural Yorkshire
during the 1920s, the film follows a destitute World War I
veteran employed to carry out restoration work on a Medieval mural discovered in a rural church while coming to terms with the after-effects of the war.
Shot during the summer of 1986 and featuring an original score by Howard Blake
, the film has been neglected since its 1987 cinema release and it was only in 2004 that an original 35 mm film
print was discovered due to the intervention of a fan.
to carry out restoration work on a Medieval mural
discovered in a church in the small rural community of Oxgodby, Yorkshire
. The escape to the idyllic countryside is cathartic for Birkin, haunted by his experiences in World War I
. Birkin soon fits into the slow-paced life of the remote village, and over the course of the summer uncovering the painting begins to lose his trauma-induced stammer and tics.
In particular, he forms a close friendship with archaeologist
James Moon (Kenneth Branagh), another veteran, who like Birkin has been emotionally scarred by the war. Moon is employed in the village under the same bequest, working to uncover a mysterious lost grave, but is more interested in discovering the remains of an earlier Saxon church building in the field next to the churchyard.
Birkin becomes accepted into the Nonconformist
family of Mr Ellerbeck the station master (Jim Carter), with whom he dines on Sundays; the hospitality of the chapel congregation is contrasted against the established church, who have consigned the penniless Birkin to sleep in the church belfrey. Mr Ellerbeck's children eventually persuade Birkin to preach a sermon at a nearby Methodist chapel. Birkin also forms an emotional, albeit unspoken, attachment to Alice Keach (Natasha Richardson), the young wife of the vicar. The vicar himself (Patrick Malahide) is portrayed unsympathetically as an obstruction to the ongoing work in the church, viewing the medieval painting as symptomatic of the superstition still prevalent in the remote community.
to cast Colin Firth, it was his first lead role. Similarly, it was Kenneth Branagh's first cinema film, and Natasha Richardson's second. Conversely, it was the last role of David Garth who died in May 1988.
Initially intended to be a made-for-TV film
, the film's producer Kenith Trodd
upgraded his original plan to a cinema feature. The original working title for the film was "Falling Man". Playwright Simon Gray
was commissioned to write the screenplay
, and Pat O’Connor
chosen to direct. In contrast to the book, which is narrated as a recollection by Birkin as an old man, the film is set entirely in the 1920s, except for a brief moment towards the end. In initial drafts of the screenplay, Gray had included a narrator, but O'Connor felt this was not the correct way to present the story:
Funding for the film was scarce, and it eventually fell to Euston Films
(a subsidiary of Thames Television
) and Channel Four Films, who had had some success with low budget features such as My Beautiful Laundrette
.
Despite being set in Yorkshire, the majority of location filming
was moved to Buckinghamshire
, although Levisham railway station
and the surrounding area in North Yorkshire
were utilised. The location shooting of the film began on August 18, 1986 at St. Mary's church in Radnage
. Filming was periodically hindered by inclement weather - the perfect summer in which the book was set was not forthcoming, and scenes were filmed during breaks in heavy rain. Interiors were shot at Bray Studios
in Berkshire
.
The church, which is a main location for the film, was substantially set-dressed
. Despite having several original medieval wall paintings, the largest addition was the creation of the medieval mural by artist Margot Noyes. To create the impression of an austere country church, Victorian stone flags were replaced with brick pavers for the duration of filming and the original wall paintings covered up. Plastic guttering and other modern additions were covered up or removed. The churchyard had several gravestones added, including the large box tomb which is a focus of several scenes.
Several members of the local community were used as extras in the film, and local children were recruited by the director to collect butterflies to be released out-of-shot to create a "summer feeling". However there was some opposition to the disruption caused by the filming, and also problems involving unwelcome damage to a section of the interior plasterwork
, which had to be restored after filming had concluded.
of the film was written by Howard Blake
, and is scored entirely for string orchestra in the style of early 20th Century British music. Blake notes that the style chosen was intended to complement and contrast recordings of classical music during particular scenes: Verdi
's Quattro Pezzi Sacri
was used during the uncovering of the mediaeval mural and a flashback
montage of the First World War which opened the film utilised an excerpt from Schubert
's Deutsche Messe (D. 872) "Zum Sanctus: Heilig, heilig ist der Herr".
Howard Blake recalls: "I went to a viewing and saw that the film was very profound, with a serious anti-war theme, but a certain amount of 'found' choral music had already been laid in by the editors...I explained that I loved the film and I thought the choral/orchestral music worked brilliantly but it was very big and rich and I felt a score would have to emerge from it and be very pure and expressive and quite small — and that I could only hear this in my head as done by strings only."
Blake decided to compose his score to match the key of the Schubert Mass, in order for the music to continue seamlessly. However, during the recording session with his orchestra, the Sinfonia of London
, he found that the Schubert piece was running slow and therefore flat, and he had to ask the players to tune flat to match his intended key.
Due to the small budget of the film, Blake agreed "in lieu of a reasonable fee" to retain the copyright to his music. The score was subsequently arranged into a suite for string orchestra, and is available on CD in a recording by the English Northern Philharmonia conducted by Paul Daniel
.
suggested "It's all rather Arthurian, with its chivalric hero on his spiritual quest, the atmosphere suffused, seeming to dance with once and future truths." Tom Hutchinson in the Mail on Sunday praised "a script whose delight is in the rounded reality of its characters". Janet Maslin, writing in The New York Times
praised O'Connor's direction, suggesting it lent the film "a strong sense of yearning, as well as a spiritual quality more apparent in the look of the film than in its dialogue." Desmond Ryan of The Philadelphia Inquirer
wrote "Rarely has the impossibility of love been more wrenchingly presented than in the scenes of dashed hope between Firth and Richardson.
However, Nigel Andrews of the Financial Times
found it "like a pastoral parable that has been left outside in the damp too long, causing its batteries to go flat" and following a 2008 screening, Sam Jordison of The Guardian
suggested "even though this film is (unusually) faithful to the book...it is really little better than inoffensive. Somehow the magic that makes JL Carr's book so precious is missing."
The film was the recipient of two awards: Pat O'Connor won the Silver Rosa Camuna at the Bergamo Film Meeting in 1987 and Howard Blake was awarded the Anthony Asquith
Award for Musical Excellence by the British Film Institute
in 1988. In addition, Colin Firth was nominated for an Evening Standard
Award. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard
section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival
.
edition in 1991. However, when Glyn Watkins, a poet who had been encouraged by J.L. Carr early in his career wished to screen the film to accompany the launch of a poetry book at the National Media Museum in Bradford
in 2003, the museum found that all original 35mm film prints had disappeared.
Watkins, undeterred, contacted the cast's and director's agents
and eventually the online fan clubs "Friends of Firth" and "Ken Friends". He discovered that the film had appeared as part of the National Film Theatre's Branagh season in May 1999 and that the film's American distributors, Warner Bros.
, had a print in a bonded warehouse
albeit of a shorter cut running to 92 minutes. However, the rights
of the film were still unclear, and it was only after several months that it was found Channel 4 still owned the rights, and the film was eventually released on limited edition Region 2
DVD in late 2004. However, the DVD is now no longer widely available in the United Kingdom. As of 2008, a complete 96 minute print has been located in the Academy Film Archive
in Los Angeles
and a campaign is underway to have it restored
and released on DVD.
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Pat O'Connor
Pat O'Connor (director)
Pat O'Connor, born in Ardmore, County Waterford, is an Irish film director.In 1982, O'Connor won a Jacob's Award for his direction of the RTÉ TV adaptation of William Trevor's short story, Ballroom of Romance starring Cyril Cusack and Brenda Fricker. It was shot near the village of Ballycroy,...
. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by J. L. Carr
J. L. Carr
Joseph Lloyd Carr ; who called himself "Jim" or even "James," was an English novelist, publisher, teacher, and eccentric.-Biography:...
, and stars Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
, Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
, Natasha Richardson
Natasha Richardson
Natasha Jane Richardson was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...
and Patrick Malahide
Patrick Malahide
Patrick Malahide is a British actor, who has played many major film and television roles.-Personal life:Malahide, real name Patrick Gerald Duggan, was born in Reading, Berkshire, the son of Irish immigrants, a cook mother and a school secretary father...
. The screenplay was by Simon Gray
Simon Gray
Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE , was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years...
.
Set in rural Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
during the 1920s, the film follows a destitute World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
veteran employed to carry out restoration work on a Medieval mural discovered in a rural church while coming to terms with the after-effects of the war.
Shot during the summer of 1986 and featuring an original score by Howard Blake
Howard Blake
Howard Blake, OBE is an English composer , particularly noted for his film scores, although he is prolific in several fields of classical and light music...
, the film has been neglected since its 1987 cinema release and it was only in 2004 that an original 35 mm film
35 mm film
35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...
print was discovered due to the intervention of a fan.
Plot
Set in the early 1920s, the film follows the experiences of Tom Birkin (Colin Firth), who has been employed via a bequestBequest
A bequest is the act of giving property by will. Strictly, "bequest" is used of personal property, and "devise" of real property. In legal terminology, "bequeath" is a verb form meaning "to make a bequest."...
to carry out restoration work on a Medieval mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
discovered in a church in the small rural community of Oxgodby, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. The escape to the idyllic countryside is cathartic for Birkin, haunted by his experiences in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Birkin soon fits into the slow-paced life of the remote village, and over the course of the summer uncovering the painting begins to lose his trauma-induced stammer and tics.
In particular, he forms a close friendship with archaeologist
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
James Moon (Kenneth Branagh), another veteran, who like Birkin has been emotionally scarred by the war. Moon is employed in the village under the same bequest, working to uncover a mysterious lost grave, but is more interested in discovering the remains of an earlier Saxon church building in the field next to the churchyard.
Birkin becomes accepted into the Nonconformist
Nonconformism
Nonconformity is the refusal to "conform" to, or follow, the governance and usages of the Church of England by the Protestant Christians of England and Wales.- Origins and use:...
family of Mr Ellerbeck the station master (Jim Carter), with whom he dines on Sundays; the hospitality of the chapel congregation is contrasted against the established church, who have consigned the penniless Birkin to sleep in the church belfrey. Mr Ellerbeck's children eventually persuade Birkin to preach a sermon at a nearby Methodist chapel. Birkin also forms an emotional, albeit unspoken, attachment to Alice Keach (Natasha Richardson), the young wife of the vicar. The vicar himself (Patrick Malahide) is portrayed unsympathetically as an obstruction to the ongoing work in the church, viewing the medieval painting as symptomatic of the superstition still prevalent in the remote community.
Cast
A Month in the Country featured film debuts or early roles of several notable British actors. Although it was the third cinema feature filmFeature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
to cast Colin Firth, it was his first lead role. Similarly, it was Kenneth Branagh's first cinema film, and Natasha Richardson's second. Conversely, it was the last role of David Garth who died in May 1988.
- Colin FirthColin FirthSirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
as Tom Birkin - Kenneth BranaghKenneth BranaghKenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
as James Moon - Natasha RichardsonNatasha RichardsonNatasha Jane Richardson was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...
as Alice Keach - Patrick MalahidePatrick MalahidePatrick Malahide is a British actor, who has played many major film and television roles.-Personal life:Malahide, real name Patrick Gerald Duggan, was born in Reading, Berkshire, the son of Irish immigrants, a cook mother and a school secretary father...
as the Reverend J.G. Keach - Jim Carter as Ellerbeck
- Vicki Arundale as Kathy Ellerbeck
- Martin O'Neil as Edgar Ellerbeck
- Richard VernonRichard VernonRichard Vernon was a British actor. He appeared in many feature films and television programmes, often in aristocratic or supercilious roles...
as Colonel Hebron - Tim Barker as Mossop
- David Garth as Old Birkin
Development
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
, the film's producer Kenith Trodd
Kenith Trodd
Kenith Trodd is a British television producer particularly noted for a long association with television playwright Dennis Potter.The son of a crane driver, Trodd was raised in the Christian fundamentalist Plymouth Brethren...
upgraded his original plan to a cinema feature. The original working title for the film was "Falling Man". Playwright Simon Gray
Simon Gray
Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE , was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years...
was commissioned to write the screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
, and Pat O’Connor
Pat O'Connor (director)
Pat O'Connor, born in Ardmore, County Waterford, is an Irish film director.In 1982, O'Connor won a Jacob's Award for his direction of the RTÉ TV adaptation of William Trevor's short story, Ballroom of Romance starring Cyril Cusack and Brenda Fricker. It was shot near the village of Ballycroy,...
chosen to direct. In contrast to the book, which is narrated as a recollection by Birkin as an old man, the film is set entirely in the 1920s, except for a brief moment towards the end. In initial drafts of the screenplay, Gray had included a narrator, but O'Connor felt this was not the correct way to present the story:
I felt that if I couldn’t do it in the present, suggesting internal pain by performance, then I wouldn’t really want to do it at all.
Funding for the film was scarce, and it eventually fell to Euston Films
Euston Films
Euston Films was a British film and television production company. It was a subsidiary company of Thames Television, and operated from the 1970s to the 1990s, producing various series for Thames, which were screened nationally on the ITV network...
(a subsidiary of Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
) and Channel Four Films, who had had some success with low budget features such as My Beautiful Laundrette
My Beautiful Laundrette
My Beautiful Laundrette is a 1985 British comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. The story is set in London during the period when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, as shown through the complex—and often comical—relationships...
.
Filming
To compensate for the lack of budget, a very tight shooting schedule was planned over 28 days, during which Kenneth Branagh was only available for two weeks and was performing on-stage nightly in London.Despite being set in Yorkshire, the majority of location filming
Filming location
A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage...
was moved to Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, although Levisham railway station
Levisham railway station
Levisham railway station is a station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and serves the village of Levisham in North Yorkshire, England. Holiday accommodation is available in the form of a camping coach.-Origins :...
and the surrounding area in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
were utilised. The location shooting of the film began on August 18, 1986 at St. Mary's church in Radnage
Radnage
Radnage is a village and civil parish in the Wycombe district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the Chiltern Hills about two miles north east of Stokenchurch and six miles WNW of High Wycombe....
. Filming was periodically hindered by inclement weather - the perfect summer in which the book was set was not forthcoming, and scenes were filmed during breaks in heavy rain. Interiors were shot at Bray Studios
Bray Studios (UK)
Bray Studios is a film and television facility at Bray, near Windsor, Berkshire, England. The films Alien and The Rocky Horror Picture Show were shot there...
in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
.
The church, which is a main location for the film, was substantially set-dressed
Staging (theatre)
Staging is the process of selecting, designing, adapting to, or modifying the performance space for a play or film. This includes the use or absence of stagecraft elements as well as the structure of the stage and its components....
. Despite having several original medieval wall paintings, the largest addition was the creation of the medieval mural by artist Margot Noyes. To create the impression of an austere country church, Victorian stone flags were replaced with brick pavers for the duration of filming and the original wall paintings covered up. Plastic guttering and other modern additions were covered up or removed. The churchyard had several gravestones added, including the large box tomb which is a focus of several scenes.
Several members of the local community were used as extras in the film, and local children were recruited by the director to collect butterflies to be released out-of-shot to create a "summer feeling". However there was some opposition to the disruption caused by the filming, and also problems involving unwelcome damage to a section of the interior plasterwork
Plasterwork
Plasterwork refers to construction or ornamentation done with plaster, such as a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. This is also sometimes called pargeting...
, which had to be restored after filming had concluded.
Music
The soundtrackSoundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
of the film was written by Howard Blake
Howard Blake
Howard Blake, OBE is an English composer , particularly noted for his film scores, although he is prolific in several fields of classical and light music...
, and is scored entirely for string orchestra in the style of early 20th Century British music. Blake notes that the style chosen was intended to complement and contrast recordings of classical music during particular scenes: Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Quattro Pezzi Sacri
Quattro Pezzi Sacri
The Quattro Pezzi Sacri, or Four Sacred Pieces, are choral works by Giuseppe Verdi. Written separately and with different origins and purposes, they were nevertheless published together, in 1898, and are often performed as a cycle in this sequence:...
was used during the uncovering of the mediaeval mural and a flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
montage of the First World War which opened the film utilised an excerpt from Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Deutsche Messe (D. 872) "Zum Sanctus: Heilig, heilig ist der Herr".
Howard Blake recalls: "I went to a viewing and saw that the film was very profound, with a serious anti-war theme, but a certain amount of 'found' choral music had already been laid in by the editors...I explained that I loved the film and I thought the choral/orchestral music worked brilliantly but it was very big and rich and I felt a score would have to emerge from it and be very pure and expressive and quite small — and that I could only hear this in my head as done by strings only."
Blake decided to compose his score to match the key of the Schubert Mass, in order for the music to continue seamlessly. However, during the recording session with his orchestra, the Sinfonia of London
Sinfonia of London
The Sinfonia of London is a session orchestra based in London, England. Muir Mathieson, the director of music for Rank Films, founded the ensemble in 1955 specifically for the recording of film music...
, he found that the Schubert piece was running slow and therefore flat, and he had to ask the players to tune flat to match his intended key.
Due to the small budget of the film, Blake agreed "in lieu of a reasonable fee" to retain the copyright to his music. The score was subsequently arranged into a suite for string orchestra, and is available on CD in a recording by the English Northern Philharmonia conducted by Paul Daniel
Paul Daniel
Paul Daniel CBE is an English conductor. He is particularly noted for performances and recordings of opera and of British music....
.
Reception and awards
Upon its release in 1987, the film was generally well-received by critics. Rita Kempley, writing in The Washington PostThe Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
suggested "It's all rather Arthurian, with its chivalric hero on his spiritual quest, the atmosphere suffused, seeming to dance with once and future truths." Tom Hutchinson in the Mail on Sunday praised "a script whose delight is in the rounded reality of its characters". Janet Maslin, writing in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
praised O'Connor's direction, suggesting it lent the film "a strong sense of yearning, as well as a spiritual quality more apparent in the look of the film than in its dialogue." Desmond Ryan of The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
wrote "Rarely has the impossibility of love been more wrenchingly presented than in the scenes of dashed hope between Firth and Richardson.
However, Nigel Andrews of the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
found it "like a pastoral parable that has been left outside in the damp too long, causing its batteries to go flat" and following a 2008 screening, Sam Jordison of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
suggested "even though this film is (unusually) faithful to the book...it is really little better than inoffensive. Somehow the magic that makes JL Carr's book so precious is missing."
The film was the recipient of two awards: Pat O'Connor won the Silver Rosa Camuna at the Bergamo Film Meeting in 1987 and Howard Blake was awarded the Anthony Asquith
Anthony Asquith
Anthony Asquith was a leading English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on The Winslow Boy and The Browning Version , among other adaptations...
Award for Musical Excellence by the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
in 1988. In addition, Colin Firth was nominated for an Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
Award. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival
1987 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Yves Montand*Danièle Heymann*Elem Klimov*Gérald Calderon*Jeremy Thomas*Jerzy Skolimowski*Nicola Piovani*Norman Mailer*Theo Angelopoulos-Feature film competition:...
.
DVD release
Following its cinema release, the film was transferred to VHS in a pan and scanPan and scan
Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects...
edition in 1991. However, when Glyn Watkins, a poet who had been encouraged by J.L. Carr early in his career wished to screen the film to accompany the launch of a poetry book at the National Media Museum in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
in 2003, the museum found that all original 35mm film prints had disappeared.
Watkins, undeterred, contacted the cast's and director's agents
Talent agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, film directors, musicians, models, producers, professional athletes, writers and other people in various entertainment businesses. Having an agent is not required, but does help the artist in getting jobs...
and eventually the online fan clubs "Friends of Firth" and "Ken Friends". He discovered that the film had appeared as part of the National Film Theatre's Branagh season in May 1999 and that the film's American distributors, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, had a print in a bonded warehouse
Bonded warehouse
A Bonded warehouse is a building or other secured area in which dutiable goods may be stored, manipulated, or undergo manufacturing operations without payment of duty. It may be managed by the state or by private enterprise. In the latter case a customs bond must be posted with the government...
albeit of a shorter cut running to 92 minutes. However, the rights
Film rights
Film rights are the rights under copyright law to make a derivative work—in this case, a film—derived from an item of intellectual property. Under U.S...
of the film were still unclear, and it was only after several months that it was found Channel 4 still owned the rights, and the film was eventually released on limited edition Region 2
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
DVD in late 2004. However, the DVD is now no longer widely available in the United Kingdom. As of 2008, a complete 96 minute print has been located in the Academy Film Archive
Academy Film Archive
The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of motion picture history...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and a campaign is underway to have it restored
Film preservation
thumb|300px|Stacked containers filled with reels of [[film stock]]The film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images which they contain...
and released on DVD.