Basils Liebe

I must admit, Jared was the hook, but it was the story that kept me interested. Not quite 'Dangerous Liaisons' or 'The Remains of the Day', but this film was very enjoyable. Jared Leto and Christian Slater both did fine jobs playing Brits and I would recommend this film to anyone.

A brit production, where the two leads are american. Basil's older brother had shamed the family, so he was sent away. Basil has always been careful around his dad, but there may be a showdown coming! Father doesn't approve of the young lady for whom basil has fallen. Mannion has become basil's friend, and will try to help. Julia's father agrees to the wedding, but they may not consummate the marriage until it is too late for basil to be dis-inherited. It's okay. The first half is pretty slow. The script is rather sparse, and we feel the desolation that basil feels. Twists, turns, intrigue. In the close-ups, faces, eyes, wallpaper, paintings are quite vivid. In the wide shots, everything and everyone is a bit faded, or foggy. It's possible they did something to the film to give it an aged look, like sepia. Directed by radha bharadwaj. Story by wilkie collins.

Basil hooks up with the grungy Christian Slater, who helps hook him up with the object of his lust, played by Claire Forlani.

And it all goes downhill from there. Seems like it might've been an ok Victoria melodrama to read, but on film, it's just boring.

In Basil's secret and unconsummated marriage to the linen-draper's sexually precocious daughter, and the shocking betrayal, insanity, and death that follow, novelist Wilkie Collins reveals the bustling, commercial London of the nineteenth century wreaking its vengeance on a still powerful aristocratic world. Contemporary reviewers of the novel vehemently disapproved of that explicit treatment of adultery; and even today the passionate and lurid atmosphere Collins creates still has the power to disturb. 'Basil' has a good basic plot, but the protagonist is difficult to like. His reasoning is unconvincing, and his actions verge on stupidity. There are also plot holes, things that just don't make logical sense. Basil has flaws, but it began the mystery thriller that Collins would adopt later on in The Moonstone and The woman in white. Whereas in 'The Moonstone' things are difficult to predict, and unable to see where things are going, 'Basil' isn't discreet enough, there are no red herrings, what you read are the glaringly obvious hints that lead the story on and lead you to guess the subsequent events. This makes watching 'Basil' a lot less thrilling. There is too much foreshadowing, and too much of it is made very clear. Oddly enough, Basil is more popular among all the movie versions of Collins' works. It is far from being the best of them, though.

"Basil" is a film that has all the ingredients of a classic soap opera. There's plenty of love deception, jealousy, a rich man who falls in love with a poor girl etc. But that's not one more and forgettable soap opera like the others. First of all, the film is based on a novel written by Wilkie Collins, one of the most important English writers of the 19o. century (a great friend of Charles Dickens) and that makes a great difference. On the other hand, this film has a nice direction and a fine cast, never sliding in hollow sentimentalism. Maybe the only negative point is that the plot is too predictable but even though you can still have a good time watching the film.