julian_craster

I have recently been viewing the DVD of John Schlesinger's film of 'Cold Comfort Farm'
(on DVD in UK and USA), and thoroughly enjoying it.

Admirers of D.H. Lawrence and Mary Webb (author of 'Gone to Earth') will soon get the
literary jokes, and it is beautifully performed. It is a bit like 'Gone to Earth' with laughs....and gives a pretty
good indication of our lifestyle down here in the West Country....



Roger Ebert writes....

British fiction is packed with stories of forlorn orphans being shipped off
to live with stone-hearted relatives. ``Cold Comfort Farm'' satirizes those
stories. This time, the dreadful relatives find their lives in an uproar;
they get more than they expect and better than they deserve. The movie,
based on the famous comic novel by Stella Gibbons, is dour, eccentric and
very funny, and depends on the British gift for treating madness as good
common sense.

As it opens, poor Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale) has lost her parents, and
been cast into the cruel world with only 100 pounds a year (``hardly enough
to keep you in stockings and furs,'' a rich friend observes). She writes to
her relatives for a place to live and receives unencouraging replies (one
uncle promises ``plenty of hard life, surrounded by ruin on all sides'').
Finally she decides to accept an invitation to live with the Starkadders,
whose Cold Comfort Farm is well-named, an oasis of despair in a slough of
despond.

The Starkadders are ruled by an invisible matriarch named Ada Doom (Sheila
Burrell), who keeps to her room while shrieking that once, years ago, she
``saw something nasty in the woodshed.'' Her daughter Judith (Eileen Atkins)
tries to hold hearth and home together with the aid of two seldom-bathed
sons, Seth (Rufus Sewell) and Reuben (Ivan Kaye). Among the other
inhabitants of the cheerless, muddy place are Judith's brother Amos (Ian
McKellen), a ferocious preacher, and young Elfine (Maria Miles), who gambols
in the wood like a demented Isadora Duncan.

If this were a story by Dickens, poor Flora would immediately begin working
her fingers to the bone, pausing only to wipe away a tear while remembering
better times. But Flora is a modern heroine, and calmly sets about upsetting
all the traditions of Cold Comfort Farm and refurbishing the lives of its
inhabitants. By the time Seth has been cleaned up and put in a tuxedo, he is
ready to star in the movies, and obviously all the preacher requires is a
Ford van, so that he can drive 'round to the county fairs and stop driving
his family crazy.

Flora (invariably referred to as ``Robert Poste's child,'' for reasons
eventually revealed) is a bit of a poet and novelist herself. We get a
sample of her prose: ``The golden orb had almost disappeared behind the
interlacing fingers of the hawthorn.'' She makes friends with a local
intellectual (Stephen Fry) who hopes to prove the novels of the Bronte
sisters were written by their brother Branwell. She is happy to discover
that the Arts and Crafts movement is flourishing in the district, along with
enthusiastic Morris dancing. She even tackles the problem of the reclusive
Mrs. Doom (``How long have you been in there, Aunt Ada?'').

One of the gifts of the movie is its physical presence; Cold Comfort Farm
and the nearby hamlet of Beershorn Halt are designed and photographed as if
vagrants had spent decades defacing a once-charming locale. Beneath the
grime and grit, and beyond the animals who crowd up to the family at its
dinner table, there is, somehow, a charming place here, and Flora Poste is
able to imagine it.

``Cold Comfort Farm'' is a departure in style for its director, John
Schlesinger, whose credits include ``Midnight Cowboy'' and ``Sunday, Bloody
Sunday.'' It seems more like the sort of film Chris Noonan might have
directed after ``Babe.'' It takes joy in eccentricity, but it's wicked, too,
like ``A Fish Called Wanda.'' Kate Beckinsale, last seen in ``Much Ado About
Nothing,'' finds a nice balance between Flora Poste's native spunk and her
instinctive snobbishness, and Atkins provides a center for the film, as the
mother determined to keep her strange household together under impossible
conditions. ``Cold Comfort Farm'' is like Thomas Hardy rewritten by P.G.
Wodehouse, which is a nice trick if you can pull it off, and the movie does.

GRAEME

Can anyone tell me if this film is a straightforward period piece or if it is set in Gibbons' strange future post-WWII (?) world of video phone booths and local aerodromes?

All men leak.

CaptainWaggett

It's a period piece. I'm always surprised at how many people don't even notice the sci fi elements. They're even more obvious, IIRC, in Conference at Cold Comfort Farm (an excellent satire on BritArt but impossible to get hold of without taking out a second mortgage. Alas, apparently there are 'rights issues' about reprints)

GRAEME

Thanks, Cap. Pity. I'd really like to see it done properly.

All men leak.

CaptainWaggett

Me too. But another version seems unlikely in the forseeable future. The Schlesinger version is good though, especially Ian McKellen and Rufus Sewell smoulders very nicely. If smouldering Rufus Sewell is your thing (it is mine!)

Chevyman

I liked Eileen Atkins' portrayal of Judith Starkadder. The locations were spot on too.

The book is well worth reading

"Don't tread on Greta Garbo, as you walk down the Boulevard?"

Why not visit the Quiz Section?

Blanche Fury

The cheapest copy on abebooks is £23. Rather steep, but not outrageously expensive.

CaptainWaggett

Really ? I looked a while back and , there was nothing under £200. The cheapest Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm is £70 (but that's not as good)

Chevyman

Play.com (UK) : Cold Comfort Farm : Books - Free Delivery

£6.99 delivered

"Don't tread on Greta Garbo, as you walk down the Boulevard?"

Why not visit the Quiz Section?

CaptainWaggett

That's Cold Comfort Farm itself - the sequels have never been so easy to get hold of because they've been out of print for years. They're worth reading though not as good as the first one.