THE END WAS JUST THE BEGINNING.
London, 1944; novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) has an affair with a married woman (Julianne Moore), which is abruptly ended, but Maurice can’t get over what happened. Director Neil Jordan also made a thriller the same year, In Dreams, but this remake of a 1955 film showed him in his right element. It’s a low-key, stylish reminder of films like Brief Encounter (1945); the romance between the two leads may have more of an effect on modern viewers than Sarah’s religious torments, the other great theme of Graham Greene’s story, but that is a key part of it. Different perspectives add weight to a skilfully told, gripping story that has excellent performances.
1999-Britain-U.S. 109 min. Color. Produced byĀ Neil Jordan, Stephen Woolley. Written and directed byĀ Neil Jordan. Novel: Graham Greene. Cinematography: Roger Pratt. Cast: Ralph Fiennes (Maurice Bendrix), Julianne Moore (Sarah Miles), Stephen Rea (Henry Miles), Ian Hart, Samuel Bould, Jason Isaacs.
Trivia: Miranda Richardson and Kristin Scott Thomas were allegedly considered for the part of Sarah.
BAFTA: Best Adapted Screenplay.
Last word:Ā āI remember very strongly the feeling ā¦ being in a room with the typewriter and reinventing your world and bits of your world that had gone from the page.Ā One of the things I definitely wanted to put in there was this world of this obsessive writer trying to recreate this affair that had ended.ā (Jordan on identifying himself with the source material, Hollywood.com)
