A Month by the Lake (1995)
For 16 years Miss Bentley has been spending April at an elegant hillside villa on Lake Como. This year, 1937, her London society artist father has recently died and the only other English-speaking guests are brash Americans. Then Major Wilshaw arrives. He suggests they meet for cocktails and Miss Bentley stands him up -- not even thinking about it -- as she helps the new nanny of an Italian family settle in. Miss Beaumont, a tall, young American who has dropped out of finishing school in Switzerland, is bored and finds some amusement in flirting with the major, whose libido is awakened for the first time since before the great war. And Miss Bentley now finds more about the major to admire than his ears.
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Best movie ever!
n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.
a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
DVDs are very cheap to make, and for a few years we have been seeing disks with 2 to 4 movies on it, all for the price of a cheap DVD, usually $5. Now my public library has bought some sets with 8 movies on two DVDs, and this movie is one of them. We watched it last night.The sound and video quality are not up to current DVD standards and are more in line with older VHS quality. Still it was OK for this type of movie.It is 1937, England and Europe have not completely recovered from the first WW, and now they are hearing signs that Nazi Germany may be readying for a war to try to take over Europe. Vanessa Redgrave is 50-something (57 during filming) Miss Bentley who had visited Lake Como in Italy every summer with her father for about 16 years. This is the first year she is there alone, after her father died. She sort of hangs out and goes with the flow.An interesting British gentleman shows up, Edward Fox (57 also during filming) as Major Wilshaw. He is a queer sort, brash and tactless, but somehow Miss Bentley finds him attractive. But he seems to have an eye for the younger ladies.That brings in 20-something American Uma Thurman (24 during filming) as Miss Beaumont, recently dropped out of school in Europe and, not wanting to go home, at Lake Como with an Italian family to help with the young children. She is a playful sort, bats her eyes at the Major at dinner, and when he leaves Lake Como per his schedule, she teases him with "We didn't have enough time to get to know each other."That teaser caused him to stay to try to romance her, while she was figuring out ways to get out of his clutches, all the while Miss Bentley hoping to gain his attention.It is a lightweight romantic comedy with interesting characters. Right at 90 minutes it is good entertainment.
Miss Bentley (Vanessa Redgrave) has been spending every April at an elegant hillside villa on Lake Como. It's 1937, and her father has recently died. It's supposed to be an uneventful vacation and then Major Wilshaw (Edward Fox) arrives. Next is tall, flirtatious, sassy, young American Miss Beaumont (Uma Thurman). It's all fun and games to her, but her affects are much more powerful than she realizes.It's a breezy film at first like the countryside setting. It is where the rich set vacation. There's some attempts at slapstick with the tennis game. The Italians are mostly cartoonish. Vanessa is easy going. Uma is flashy. When the specter of jealousy arise, the story finally gets going. Instead of using this emotional drama, the story ends and it's wrapped up with a happy ending. It lacks any tension or power. Vanessa Redgrave makes it watchable. It's just a slow watch.
Warning: Spoilers of sorts.Beautiful, lush sets and scenery.Characterizations of oddball characters bounce all over the map.Uneven direction from a director whose right hand doesn't seem to know what his left hand is doing. Or care. Script is nothing to shout about either.Strangely non-affecting. Not especially amusing, not especially romantic, not even a little bit sexy. It's a bit of a mystery why the two main characters are attracted to one another or why they end up together.Odd, off-hand treatment of impending war.A collection of truly bizarre performances. Normally reliable actors run amok. No doubt the director's and screenwriter's faults.A film that tries hard, very hard, too hard and doesn't succeed. Can't really recommend, but on the other hand, it's not a complete waste of time. It apparently has its audience.
It is 1937, and a spunky spinster (Vanessa Redgrave) is spending a month at a villa on Lake Como. There she meets and is intrigued by a pompous old major (Edward Fox). He, on the other hand, has eyes only for a lovely but cruel young nanny (Uma Thurmon).How could a movie about beautiful Lake Como and a lovelorn English lady go wrong? Apparently, very easily. This terribly-misguided movie has a juvenile script, hammy actors, and poor direction. Even the wardrobe, makeup, and hairdos are way off, looking like contemporary styles rather than pre-WWII. The attraction between the spinster and the major is never explained and their bantering is off-putting as well as boring. Thurmon over-enunciates every syllable and shouts like she's doing a (bad) high school play. None of the stars is believable in their roles.Despite the picturesque location, there's absolutely nothing romantic about this movie. Disappointing.