Cast: Keeley Hawes, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Jane Birkin, Fiona Shaw, Lambert Wilson, David Tennant, Richard Roxburgh, Gary Lydon
Director: Deborah Warner
Producer: Yvonne Thunder
Screenplay: Deborah Warner, based on the novel by Elizabeth Bowen
Cinematographer: Slavomir Idziak
Music: Zbigniew Preisner
U.S. Distributor: Trimark Pictures
It would come as no surprise to me to learn that Deborah Warner, the director of The Last September, is an admirer or Krzysztof Kieslowski's work. For her adaptation of Elizabeth Bowen's novel, she has employed two long-time Kieslowski collaborators, cinematographer Slavomir Idziak and composer Zbigniew Preisner. With their contributions crafting the atmosphere, there are times when The Last September feels like it could have been helmed by the master Polish filmmaker.
Thematically, The Last September exists in a territory that Kieslowski would have felt comfortable traversing. The movie deals with the impending end of an era, and an autumnal sense of loss hangs over everything. Halcyon days are past; darker seasons are coming. The time frame is the early 1920s, and the location is County Cork, Ireland. The hostilities between the Irish Republicans and the British are heating up. Caught in the middle are the so-called Anglo-Irish, those British citizens who moved to Ireland decades ago to "oversee" the country, and who now consider themselves to be Irish. Many of the locals, however, still view them as foreigners, in part because they have refused to give up the traditions and customs of their native land. As a result, the Anglo-Irish find themselves in a difficult hybrid situation, not belonging fully to either side, and thus earning a measure of distrust from both.
Sir Richard and Lady Myra Naylor (Michael Gambon and Maggie Smith) are an affluent Anglo-Irish couple who live in County Cork during these troubled times. Also dwelling in their spacious house is the young and vivacious Lois Farquar (Keeley Hawes), Sir Richard's motherless niece, whose father is a world traveler. The Naylors often entertain guests, and this summer is no exception. Staying there are Francie and Hugo Montmorency (Jane Birkin and Lambert Wilson) and Marda Norton (Fiona Shaw). Meanwhile, Lois is being courted by Captain Gerald Colthurst (David Tennant), a British officer stationed in the area. But, although she is friendly with the upright young man, her passion is stirred by a young Irish hothead, Peter Connolly (Gary Lydon), who is part of a terrorist gang roaming the countryside, killing English soldiers.
The Last September is a brooding, moody motion picture with a powerful atmosphere that emphasizes the sense of encroaching doom. This is the kind of story that cannot end well. Like The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, the film explores the mindset of a group of people who will not acknowledge the impossibility of remaining apart from the turbulent, changing world around them. Eventually, the violence will reach into their lives and their home. Yet Sir Richard and Lady Myra wear blinders, continuing to host tennis and dinner parties while a "war" rages outside the borders of their property. One of their guests puts it best when he states, "When this house burns, we will all be so careful not to notice."
The Last September is really Lois' story - she is the fulcrum and the emotional centerpiece, although Warner has a tendency to distance the audience from her struggles. Unlike Kieslowski, who forged deep bonds between viewers and the protagonist, Warner prefers for us to remain observers. It's no accident that there are so many scenes of characters watching other characters through telescopes. Idziak's rich and innovative cinematography is used for emphasis. The principals of The Last September are not only isolated from the outside world, but, to a degree, from us as well.
The movie has a slow, deliberate pace that gradually builds the sense of impending danger. It's never clear whether Sir Richard and Lady Myra are truly unaware of the precariousness of their situation, or if they are simply pretending that things must go on as they always have. Certainly, others see things more clearly. Lois is perhaps an exception. She is so involved in her own sub-plot, that of being caught between a Republican lover and a proper Englishman, that she has little time to reflect on the nature of the larger conflict. For her, it's all very personal, and, like the overall struggle, it is destined to end tragically.
The Last September features several noteworthy performances. Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon are in top form, she blending tart humor with an upper-crusty seriousness, and he radiating a gentle, paternal wisdom. Fiona Shaw is a delight as a woman who speaks her mind regardless of the consequences. Keeley Hawes, who will be largely unknown to U.S. viewers (she has done some British television work), is an excellent find. She shines in a role that demands a complex spectrum of feelings and reactions. Lois is the romantic whose illusions are brutally shattered.
The Last September ends on a symbolic note that augurs, rather than graphically displays, the inevitable. There's such an air of certainty surrounding everything that no one will debate what must happen soon after the end credits have rolled. Despite occasional bursts of humor, the prevalent tone throughout the movie is somber. The Last September does not represent a celebration of times gone by; instead, it is a sober reflection of the dangers of acting like an ostrich and sticking one's head in the sand.
© 2000 James Berardinelli