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Tom & Viv [1994] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
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Our Price: £4.65 (subject to change)
Grim but revealing
Review date: 2008-10-09 Rating: 8 out of 10
I am surprised that this film has not yet so far made it on to Region 2 DVD; this review is based on watching the video. As ever, I am amused by some of the more stern and unforgiving reviews elsewhere on Amazon; for some people nothing is ever good enough and too many people just cannot wait " to put the boot in" and damn a perfectly serious, well-crafted, if rather grim little movie. If you are looking for a feel-good, relaxing film - this isn't it, but I found it intelligent and sensitive in the manner that it portrays poor Viv sympathetically and Eliot's heroic devotion to her and his marriage vows. It is certainly valuable, too, in the manner that it illuminates Eliot's poetry; links between his circumstances and their married life are subtly established when the dialogue echoes famous lines, or excerpts from the poems sparingly comment upon the content of the film. Eliot is expertly embodied by Willem Dafoe; he comes across as more English than the English, complete with a rather (deliberately exaggerated?) clipped English accent and a permanent case of emotional constipation which found its release in the verse. As Eliot says in the film, poetry is expression "free from emotion" - and that really shows here. Miranda Richardson gives a chilling and touching performance as Viv, bringing out her qualities as well as her frightening afflictions; we realise to what degree theirs was a relationship of mutual dependence - though I would have liked more on Ezra Pound's influence over Eliot's final drafts. The film is dark-hued yet sometimes funny. Apart from its intrinsic value, it is very useful as a teaching aid, helping my students to understand the Edwardian context of the texts we are studying and the biographical circumstances behind the verse. So even if others claim that the film taught them nothing, I have to say that it enhanced our appreciation of a great poet.
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Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Willem Dafoe
Rosemary Harris
Tim Dutton
Miranda Richardson
Nickolas Grace
Creators:
Willem Dafoe (Primary Contributor)
Miranda Richardson (Primary Contributor)
Harvey Kass (Producer)
John Kay (Producer)
Marc Samuelson (Producer)
Miles A. Copeland III (Producer)
Paul Colichman (Producer)
Adrian Hodges (Writer)
Michael Hastings (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Miramax
Manufacturer: Miramax
EAN: 0786936206500
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen,
Release date: 2003-04-08
Universal product code (UPC): 786936206500
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 115 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1994-12-02
Language: English (Original Language)