Product Description

Set in county cork ireland in 1920 the drama unfolds at danielstown the home of anglo-irish aristocrats sir richard naylor and his wife lady myra. As the war for irish independence escalates around them sir richards 19-year-old niece losi struggles with her longings for love & freedom. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/06/2007 Starring: Maggie Smith Jane Birkin Run time: 104 minutes Rating: R Director: Deborah Warner

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33417 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2000-09-12
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.com
The Last September opens with a title card portentously announcing that what we are about to see is "the end of a world." Not, it turns out, too great an overstatement. In 1920 Ireland, a wealthy group of Anglo-Irish, the English-descended "tribe" who historically had overseen the country on behalf of its colonial rulers, seat ensconced in their luxurious estate. Just down the road, throughout small towns and villages, the British army is arrogantly terrorizing storeowners, and isolated IRA factions are responding by killing the occasional soldier. But at Sir Richard Naylor's palatial residence no such troubles need interfere. There the daily routine is still built around tennis matches, picnic parties, nature walks, and evenings spent on the lawn watching the stars. Young Lois (Keeley Hawes), niece of Sir Richard (Michael Gambon) and his wife (Maggie Smith), has lived there her entire life and has recently caught the fancy of a sweetly earnest military captain. But when a childhood friend of hers--in hiding after his murder of an army sergeant--takes refuge in a nearby abandoned mill, the thrill of danger and daring, of finally something different after all those maddeningly pleasant years, leads her down a different path. While The Last September is sometimes overly pretty in the British fashion, it benefits enormously from its excellent cast and novelist John Banville's smart, efficient script, which is alert to the nuances of conversations in which the most horrible threats are made and fears confided just below the polite chatter. --Bruce Reid

Customer Reviews

Searching for Love
This story is based on Elizabeth Bowen's cleverly crafted novel in which a young woman comes of age in a brutal time. It is a story about seeking love in all the wrong places. Love is not a simple affair. It is a complex journey, filled with many decisions along the way.

As Lois (Keeley Hawes) and Army Captain Gerald (David Tennant) dance through a forest there is an unmistaken sense of innocence clouded by a forboding evil clinging to each step. The deeper they go into the forest, the more aware you become that a ghost-like melancholy seems to consume Lois. She is amused by Gerald, but has a penchant for rebels. Even in her innocence, she longs for excitement and the impossible situation.

You are consciously aware of the intricacies in the lives of the characters and become less concerned with the plot. Laurence (Jonathan Slinger) seems content to amuse himself observing the blossoming yet mild romance between Lois and Gerald.

There are scenes of spinning on a swing, playing tennis out on the grass, frivolous parties and while life seems to go on like Renoir's painting: "The Gust of Wind." The undercurrent is more of a ominous gale. Most of the characters seem unaware of even the slightest political gust. They fill their lives with walks in nature and evenings spent gazing at the stars on a luxurious estate.

Lois wants to be in love and she seeks love where she feels she can find it. Although, she seems to be playing with fire when she discovers Peter Connolly (Gary Lydon) hiding in the old mill house. He is an IRA fugitive wanted for the murder of an English Army officer. Lois sneaks out on her bike to see him, all the while realizing she is putting her life in danger.

This is not the end of the world as predicted, but perhaps the end of a romance. It is however, a tragic romance with artistic moments to die for. The seemingly insignificant raindrops splashing into a glass of lemonade has a much deeper meaning. The joyfulness of a romantic existence is contrast sharply with the deviousness of destiny.

~The Rebecca Review

An emotional clash between the Irish, Anglo-Irish &British
This was a very moving movie showing how the Irish, and the British and how families like uncle Richard and aunt Myra (Maggie Smith) Anglo Irish buisness people who no longer support the British yet fear the Irish rebels are caught in between a confict. Fiona Shaw does an wonderful job playing the part of a vamp, Marta who is to marry a wealthy English business man but enjoys fooling around and tempting Hughie who is regreatfuly married to a much older woman while they are staying at Richard and Myra's house. In the mean time Lois ( Uncle Richard's niece) is playfuly leading on a very attractive young British officer and yet sneaking to meet the young Irish rebel and allowing herself to be seduced by him. The British Officer wishes to marry her but Aunt Myra (Maggie Smith does a really good job playing a polite snob) slams the poor officer with the fact that he is not of money and that it would be impossible to marry Lois, yet uncle Richard, who really hates the British, is encouraging the young officer to continue in his relationship with Lois. This is a movie that anyone who enjoys the English movie format, should see.

The Last September
In 1914, the English revoked the "Home Rule Bill", which had been designed to give Ireland a modicum of autonomy. As you might expect., the Irish were not pleased. Various radical and separatist groups were motivated to action, including Sinn Fein ("we ourselves", founded in 1905), a group which is still known today as the political arm of the IRA.

The Easter Rebellion, in the spring of 1916, marked the beginning of a new era in Irish-English relations. On the day after Easter, the Republicans claimed various government buildings in Dublin, and declared a provisional government of the new Irish Republic. This didn't sit well with the English, who sent in troops the next day, established martial law, rounded up the insurgents and sent the leaders to the firing squad without even any pre-execution crumpets.

I don't know if they thought that this would strike fear into the hearts of the rebels, and quell the insurgency, but if they thought that they were plumb loco, as we say in Texas. Shooting some Irish patriots is like shooting Jason in those Friday 13th movies. It just makes them madder. Britain's forceful suppression of the revolt actually strengthened the will of the rebel groups.

Sinn Fein was reorganized under Eamon De Valera, and set up an alternate assembly which claimed to be the legitimate ruling body of Ireland. The British and Irish fought for five or six years, and if you have seen the movie Michael Collins, with Liam Neeson, you're probably familiar with what happened in that time.

The fighting continued until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. Collins himself was nominated to head up the team which represented the Republicans in the negotiations with Lloyd George. This treaty incorporated 26 of Ireland's 32 counties. I believe you know pretty much what has happened to the other six counties over the years. Actually, the 26 to the South weren't so tranquil, either, in those days. Even patriotic Irish leaders were split over the proper nature of the Anglo-Irish relationship, and the Free State treaty had opponents from every extreme of the political spectrum.

OK, enough background. The point is that there was a bloc of English-Irish creoles, people of English descent who were born in Ireland or whose children were born in Ireland, and who considered themselves both Irish and good subjects of the Crown. Many of them had gone there originally to be government administrators. When Ireland became a battleground in the teens and twenties, these people found themselves at the September of their era, with the end clearly in sight.

They were not able to continue in their former glory, and they had no viable alliances to forge a new life. Irish Republicans certainly didn't want them in the new free Ireland, and yet their divided loyalty made them suspect by the British as well.

So they wondered desperately what to do, tried to stay alive, and cried a lot as they planned to leave their great estates and move to two-room flats in Toronto.

This movie chronicles the lives of those people, the Anglo-Irish, in that time, the 1920's.

Needless to say, for the purpose of dramatic contrast, the lovely young Anglo-Irish daughter is flirting with a British soldier (who is unacceptable to her family because of his social status), and an Irish radical (who is a violent outlaw, and therefore even more unacceptable). Her relationships with the two men leave her walking a dangerous tightrope in a netless society.

The movie is marked by beautiful cinematography. You may not have heard of Slavomir Idziak, but he was Kieslowski's cinematographer, and he's in his element here, working with a director who idolizes Kieslowski, and a composer who scored many of Kieslowski's films. If you had told me, "Oh, yeah, it's a rare English language film from Kieslowski", I would have believed you until I looked at the 1999 date. (Kieslowski died a few years ago).

Oh, well, I guess you can already figure whether you'd like it or not. I have to say that I did not. I found it too middle brow and historical-romance-novelish to be a great movie, and too damned slow and boring to be a good entertainment. I thought it was pretty much of a stuffy snoozefest with some very strong atmospheric touches.

Keeley Hawes was topless during her rendezvous with the Irish Republican. These are taken from VHS.The love scene in this movie was done quite well, too well to rely on VHS images. Hawes was afraid of the guy, somewhat repulsed by him, but attracted to him as well, and the scene was charged with a subtle erotica.