Cousin Bette (BBC/Acorn)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B
Recently,
Honoré de Balzac’s Cousin Bette was
made into a feature film with Jessica Lange, which we would like to look at
sometime down the line. Acorn Media has
decided to acquire and release a 1971 BBC British mini-series version that has
the leisure and time to go all out with the book. The journeyman director Gareth Davies helmed
this enduring, interesting and very well produced five-parter.
Margaret
Tyzack is the title character, a woman who has drifted between scorn and being
the black sheep of the family.
Eventually, she decides slow revenge and is ready to go to the ends of
the earth to get revenge on her happy family.
Money is one of the devisors, but there are other issues at hand and
being this is 19th Century Paris, a harder time for women then than
now. Tyzack is incredible and even
someone with Lange’s skill could not eclipse what we get here. The conflict comes to a head with the help of
Valerie Marneffe (a young Helen Mirren already showing why she is one of the
best actresses of her generation) speeding up her vendetta with the world.
Once
again, the last great period of British TV proves once again that it is as
great as remembered and everything works.
The cast is excellent, including a young pre-Doctor Who Colin Baker, while the production design, color and
lighting here embarrass so many digital High Definition productions of late in
every genre that it shows how badly TV and film production have regressed. This runs 220 minutes long and is constantly
compelling.
The 1.33
X 1 image was shot on professional analog PAL video and unfortunately shows its
age. Whether this is from storage or the
nature of the brand of tape used, there are flaws, but this is colorful and
stylishly produced enough to still enjoy.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 boosts the original monophonic sound to stereo and
it fares better as a result. Extras
include text sections of cast filmographies and biography of Balzac, which is
not much, but the series is so good that you have got to see it to believe
it. If you like your literary
adaptations rich, don’t miss Cousin
Bette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
