The Remains of the Day

Sometimes I'm absolutely not inspired to blog, then my mom happens upon The Remains of the Day on TV.

The summer before college I got a TV/DVD player and Blockbuster online and I, in effect, watched most of the important costume dramas to that point in time. Amongst them were many Merchant/Ivory films. I read and/or purchased the accompanying books; read A Room With a View, bought Howards End. 

I was determined to read The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro before I watched the film and I couldn't wait to see it so I ran to the library and hunkered down...HOLD UP. I've been going through my journals and I cross referenced RofD that summer, but I guess I watched it the summer before my senior year, strange. Anyway, this is what I had to say after I read it...

source

Sunday 18 June 2006
Oh man, I just sobbed bitterly and uncontrollably for like five plus minutes at the end of The Remains of the Day. Are you joking me?...OH Stevens! I lost it, I was all sprawled on my bed from many a maneuver all night to try and get comfortable, my comforter all twisted, my mouth guard in, just sobbing and weeping uncontrollably...I just laid there all contorted absolutely blubbering... AOAoGH!

Huh, I can't find an entry about actually seeing the movie. I do say that the library didn't have it. Oh well, anyway....

The Remains of the Day is amazing. S'bout Stevens the butler and his butling. The book is his telling of the good ol' days of Darlington Hall right before the Second World War. You quickly realize that Stevens is the perfect butler because his sole, and I mean sole purpose in life is to be of the most assistance to his employer as possible no matter what his employer does, or what he feels for others. It's just profoundly heartbreaking and amazing. The film stars Anthony Hopkins as Stevens and Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton the housekeeper with James Fox as Lord Darlington and Hugh Grant as Lord Darlington's godson. It's absolutely magnificent. Hopkins and Thompson are my favorite on screen couple and are just, ah! just SO good! If you like Downton you'll LOVE this, it's pre-Julian Fellowes, back in the day when Merchant and Ivory were the name in aristocratic and posh British costume dramas.

Go read it, cry a lot.

My Fair Lady 2012--more info

A'ight, I've posted about the new My Fair Lady film already, due out December 2012. I got my info from one blog but yesterday I decided to look into it some more to see about any new info. I didn't find any newly published info, but I did find more about the project in general.

Interesting things from the above article:

"The new film will use the original songs of the much-loved Broadway show, and will not alter its 1912 setting, but Kenworthy and Mackintosh intend where possible to shoot the film on location in the original London settings of Covent Garden, Drury Lane, Tottenham Court Road, Wimpole Street, and Ascot racecourse. The filmmaking team will also look to adapt Alan Jay Lerner's book more fully for the screen by drawing additional material from Pygmalion - - George Bernard Shaw's play that served as the source material for the musical -- in order to dramatize as believably as possible for present-day audiences the emotional highs and lows of Eliza Doolittle as she undergoes the ultimate makeover, transforming under the tutelage of Professor Henry Higgins from a Cockney flower girl to a lady...

'My Fair Lady's extraordinary tale of a man turning a flower girl into a lady, and then falling for her, combines one of the most powerful narratives in world literature with some of the wittiest and most winning songs ever written for the stage,' said Mackintosh. 'People everywhere will fall in love again with Lerner and Loewe's miraculous songs set in a big, gorgeous film with contemporary stars, a more realistically achieved vision of Edwardian London, and a touch more Pygmalion at the heart of this powerfully emotional story of a girl's transformation. The classic story of a flower girl transformed into an instant sensation couldn't be more timely in a contemporary world obsessed with overnight celebrity.'"

Ok, I'm excited about the more realistic view they're taking. I'm very intrigued about filming on location and drawing more from Pygmalion, one of my favorite plays. BUT what's with Mackintosh (producer of MFL and also working on Les Mis) thinking that Higgins falls for Eliza? I've written an entire report on how Shaw's Pygmalion is different from Ovid's bc Higgins doesn't fall in love with Eliza. He becomes obsessed with her yes,“(a)s if I ever stop thinking about the girl and her confounded vowels and consonants. I’m worn out, thinking about her, and watching her lips and her teeth and her tongue, not to mention her soul, which is the quaintest of all”. He does not fall in love with Eliza. Comes to rely on her? yes, falls in love? no. Higgins is a confirmed bachelor and he stays that way. Read Shaw's epilogue people! It's a disservice to Eliza to think that she would end up with Higgins. She doesn't, she marries Freddy, supports him and stays a fixture in Higgins and Pickering's lives. I'll publish my paper on here if you want to hear more about this.This point of Shaw's Pygmalion is a real sore point for me.

Anyway, to recap: Carrie Mulligan is playing Eliza. Emma Thompson who is doing the screenplay wants Hugh Grant to play Higgins (I don't!) but he has not yet said if he's interested.

My Fair Lady 2012

source

 While trying to figure out titles for best costumes for the Academy Awards in February (entry to come) I happened upon Enchanted Serenity, which I occasionally trowel for costume drama news. Seems there's to be a new My Fair Lady! Adapted by Emma Thompson (a lady and a scholar). I'm assuming since it's called My Fair Lady and not Pygmalion they're keeping it a musical and am also assuming they'll keep the Lerner and Loewe score and lyrics. The latest news on the cast has Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan (P&P '05, Bleak House, An Education) as Eliza and Hugh Grant as Thompson's pick for Higgins. That's right ladies and gentlemen, we've reached the time that Hugh Grant is old enough to play Henry Higgins!

I think Mulligan is a fine choice for Eliza. She's one of my absolute favorite new (if you've just discovered her as America has) talents and I'd love to see her play both sides of Eliza seeing as until now she's been rather prim and proper. I have no idea if she can sing, but here's hoping.

source

source

Grant as Higgins? Granted (haha) he is only Thompson's pick and there is no evidence that he's actually interested in the project, but doesn't he seem a tad inarticulate to play famed linguist Henry Higgins? I mean that's the schtick right? Bumbling but adorable (?) Hugh Grant. I don't know about this one. Enchanted Serenity has a list with its article of other possible Higgins including Daniel Craig, Colin Firth (role reversal from The King's Speech?), Hugh Jackman, Hugh Laurie (personal fave), Jeremy Northam etc. Who'da thunk we'd see the day when our favorite heroes mature into the role of Henry Higgins? Yes they are the right age, but Rex Harrison just seemed so much older than any of them ('sides maybe Hugh Laurie).  I only know that Hughes Jackman and Laurie can sing so...not that Higgins actually sings per se. Rex Harrison invented talk singing for My Fair Lady, so maybe I shouldn't rate them on musical ability...

source

source

source

 And my opinion on the project in general? I'm leaning toward "cool!". I've always longed to see the original cast with Julie Andrews i.e. an Eliza that did her own singing. I love Audrey Hepburn to bits, but in My Fair Lady she just doesn't do it for me as much as her other contemporary works. She's too waify for Eliza and for that period. I'd be excited to see a new face and form take the role. As for Rex Harrison, loved him and he IS Higgins to me, but again, I'd be excited to see a new take. Don't think I've forgotten the mess that was made of The Music Man w/ Matthew Broderick, but here's hoping under Emma Thompson's keen eye this project will be a nice reinvention, not replacement for or blotch on the original. I'd also be excited to see a new take on the costumes. With so many iconic pieces (the flower girl dress, the ascot and ball dresses) I'd love to see them turned on their head.


As a child My Fair Lady was my stay home sick movie and the ending always confused me and my mother couldn't explain it to me. Were they in love? weren't they? What on earth happens after she comes back? ****SPOILERS****I was actually pondering Pygmalion this morning oddly enough and how if you read Shaw's epilogue he's very adamant that Eliza and Higgins are not in love and do not get together and that supposing they are and do is dumb and is insulting to Eliza. She marries Freddy and has a relatively unremarkable life as she supports Freddy and becomes a fixture in Higgins and Pickering's lives. What will Thompson do with this? My high school had Higgins and Eliza kiss at the end which gave my childhood a lot of closure, but looking back I agree with Shaw (who wrote it, so you should too). While My Fair Lady is excellent at leaving the end very ambiguous I wouldn't mind Thompson making up our minds for us, siding w/ Shaw and myself of course.