Film Review
What better way to end a glorious filmmaking career than with a
superlative adaptation of a 20th Century literary masterpiece?
Incredible to think that David Lean was 75 when he made
A Passage to India, a film that
combines the epic scale of his previous great films with the intimacy
of a poignant drama concerned with the twin demons of
racial prejudice and sexual repression, set in the declining years of
the British Raj. Far better received than Lean's previous film,
Ryan's Daughter,
made fourteen years earlier, this
blockbuster swansong was nominated for eleven Oscars and won
awards in two categories: Best Support Actress (Peggy Ashcroft) and
Best Score (Maurice Jarre).
A Passage to India is not
David Lean's greatest film, perhaps because it tries a little to hard
to match up to the standards of the director's previous monolithic
works,
The Bridge on the River Kwai
(1957) and
Lawrence of Arabia
(1962). The film is overlong, somewhat plodding in its first half
and lacks the almost manic intensity that ignites E.M. Forster's
classic novel. But, whilst not perfect, it still manages to be a
beguiling, deeply moving film, peppered with moments of exquisite
visual poetry.
The cinematography is excellent, as you would expect from a David Lean film,
vividly evoking the location and the era in which the story takes
place. The film boasts some terrific performances from a
magnificent cast, with Judy Davis and Victor Banerjee both
totally convincing as the two main protagonists who have to confront
and overcome their latent racial predjudices. The only false note on the acting front is
Alec Guinness's portrayal of a native Indian, which leaves a queasy
aftertaste and would now be considered by some to
be a grotesque example of racial caricature. The lynchpin
of the film is Peggy Ashcroft, whose startlingly humanist portrayal of
the colour-blind Mrs Moore provides one of cinema's most powerful
broadsides against racial intolerance.
© James Travers 2009
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Next David Lean film:
In Which We Serve (1942)
Film Synopsis
In the 1920s, Adela Quested makes the journey from England to India,
where she intends to marry her fiancé, Ronny Heaslop, the
magistrate of a provincial town named Chandrapore. She is
accompanied by Heaslop's elderly mother, Mrs Moore, who, having barely
set foot in the country, becomes disgusted by the way in which the
local population suffer under British colonialism. Soon after
their arrival, the two Englishwomen get to know Professor Godbole, an
amiable if eccentric Brahmin scholar, and school superintendent Richard
Fielding. One evening, Mrs Moore strays from a club for British
residents and enters a mosque. Here she meets Aziz Ahmed, a local
doctor, who responds warmly to her courtesy and complete lack of racial
prejudice. Having grown tired of the anglicised version of India,
Mrs Moore and Adela declare that they want to see the country as it really is.
They are delighted when Aziz offers to take them to the Marabar Caves,
a place that few British ever visit. The well-planned excursion
ends disastrously. On her return to Chandrapore, Adela insists
that Aziz attempted to rape her. The only person that can help Dr
Aziz now is Mrs Moore, but she is already on her way back to England...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.