Another Country

UPC: 794051202123

Studio: BBC Warner

Summary: A pair of British lads, one gay and one socialist, chafe at the restrictions of boarding school life in this period piece, which was adapted from Julian Mitchell's novel and play of the same name and loosely based on the Burgess-Maclean spy scandal of the 1950s. In the 1930s, upper-class scions Tommy Judd (Colin Firth) and Guy Bennett (Rupert Everett) are both nearing the end of their careers at an unnamed public school that bears a striking resemblance to Eton. Tommy, a Marxist intellectual, refuses to participate actively in the school's rigid social hierarchy. But Guy, when not mooning after pretty boys, angles for a position next term as one of the "gods," or master prefects, of his house. When a faculty member stumbles onto the homosexual fumblings of a pair of students, one boy commits suicide and a scandal erupts. The administration and senior students do their best to ensure nothing of this sort ever sullies their reputation again. Considering that homosexual experimentation is rampant and that Guy has slept with most of the prefects in his house, the strict new rules leave a bad taste in his mouth. They also put a damper on his Wildean lifestyle, especially after he falls hopelessly in love with James Harcourt (Cary Elwes), a dreamy boy from one of the other houses. Things come to a head when autocratic prefect Fowler (Tristan Oliver) intercepts a letter from Guy to James and sentences Guy to a savage beating. By film's end, Guy's complicity in the power games of the British class system has been challenged, and his friend Tommy's communist dogma has made a lasting impression; a framing device portrays Guy as an elderly former spy living in exile in Soviet Moscow. Another Country was shot at Cambridge, Oxford, and Althorp Hall (Princess Diana's childhood home) after the producers were denied permission to shoot at Eton. Everett and Firth both appeared in the original London theater production alongside Kenneth Branagh and Daniel Day-Lewis; on-stage, it was actually Firth who played Guy. For a more factual account of the Burgess-Maclean affair, see the TV movie An Englishman Abroad. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Category: Spy Film

Awards: Best Artistic Contribution – Cannes Film Festival

Features: ccCommentary with director Marek Kanievska and director of photography Peter Biziou
News item on the 1984 Cannes Film Festival
Discussion of the original play with Kenneth Branagh, Rupert Everett and author Julian Mitchell
Scrapbook of posters, articles and photographs
Selections from the original score
French audio and subtitles

Another Country

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 09/07/2004

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, 2 PCM stereo

Runtime: 107 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: French

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. For Posterity [5:25]
2. Life in the 30s [4:53]
3. Martineau [7:10]
4. The Gods [6:40]
5. Wedding [7:23]
6. Clandestine Meeting [6:46]
7. Hopes and Dreams [5:05]
8. Disappoinment for Menzies [5:24]
9. Judd Refuses [7:56]
10. On Parade [4:47]
11. Appeal to House Gods [5:49]
12. The People's Hero [8:39]
13. Owning Up to Yourself [4:21]
14. Total Indiscretion [6:15]

Brian J. Dillard

Although the protagonist of this measured, elegiac coming-of-age story is loosely based on Guy Burgess, an Englishman who spied for the Soviets and defected in the '50s, the events of the film are almost wholly fabricated. They're also deeply moving -- an alternately brutal and tender examination of class, status, disillusionment, and longing. Set to a mesmerizing, subtly mournful score by Michael Storey, Another Country deftly introduces its audience to the complicated world of British public schools, then methodically exposes the cracks in the system of oppression that holds such institutions together. Rupert Everett and Colin Firth give strong, economical performances as the homosexual dandy and the fervent Marxist who, for different reasons, chafe at the restrictions of their society. Both characters are callow and self-absorbed, but Firth's principled thinker and Everett's ambitious romantic undergo subtle transformations that make them ultimately sympathetic. The rest of the cast is uniformly fine, especially Anna Massey as Bennett's propriety-minded mother. Cary Elwes doesn't have to do much besides look exceptionally handsome and blush a lot as the dashing young man who steals Bennett's heart. But the restrained love scenes -- shot in the same wistful style as the rest -- are a lot hotter than the more explicit ones that have become the standard in years since. Julian Mitchell's witty, nostalgic script may not do enough to connect the dots between the main action and the framing device that establishes Bennett's later career as a spy. But the prologue and epilogue do set the film's melancholy tone and provide Everett with an absolute corker of a closing line. In short, the tart and thoughtful Another Country may not stick to the facts, but its sustained sense of yearning gives it a compelling emotional power. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Llewellyn Rees  Actor 
Guy Henry  Actor 
Gideon Boulting  Actor 
Tristam Wymark  Actor 
John Line  Actor 
Tristram Jellinek  Actor 
Martin Wenner  Actor 
Geoffrey Bateman  Actor 
Ivor Roberts  Actor 
Christopher Milburn  Actor 
Arthur Howard  Actor 
Nicolas Rowe  Actor 
Kathleen Saint John  Actor 
Jeffry Wickham  Actor 
Alan Marshall  Producer 
Robert Fox  Executive Producer 
Robert Fox  Producer 
Marek Kanievska  Director 
Julian Mitchell  Screenwriter 
Michael Storey  Composer (Music Score) 
Julian Seymour  Executive Producer 
Rupert Everett  Actor 
Colin Firth  Actor 
Michael Jenn  Actor 
Frederick Alexander  Actor 
Philip Dupuy  Actor 
Robert Addie  Actor 
Rupert Wainwright  Actor 
Crispin Redman  Actor 
Ralph Perry-Robinson  Actor 
Tristan Oliver  Actor 
Cary Elwes  Actor 
Adrian Ross-Magenty  Actor 
Anna Massey  Actor 
Betsy Brantley  Actor 

Country: UK