Vita di campagna

I saw this movie for the first time a year ago, and couldn't wait for its video release. It's a wonderful farce, a bit like "The Man Who Came to Dinner." I thoroughly enjoyed John Hargreave's "Uncle Jack" and Kerry Fox's "Sally". If this were a television program it would have me hooked! All of the characters at the Canterbury estate were given good development (even the minor ones), and I was sorry to have to leave them when the movie ended. My only complaint is that Michael Blakemore's "Alexander" and Greta Scacchi's "Deborah" did not seem to learn anything from their experiences with their relatives. They returned to their selfish, bombastic selves at the end, which made the point of the story a bit fuzzy for me. Overall, however, I would recommend this as a very good picture.

The Country Life is what I consider to be a pretty run-in-the-mill rich-people-go-into-the-country-and- the=country-folk-teach-them-a-lesson type of movie. Michael Blakemore and Greta Scaachi play two upper crust British folk who set foot in the beautiful Australian countryside to visit his relations that he hasn't seen forever. He's acquired much success in the city, something not lost on the country folk. However, just like me, when the spoiled rich people go into the country, it's not quite the same lifestyle. Soon, they try to change the whole house upside down, and even getting to the point where they want to sell it. The country folk, needless to say, are not amused. The plot in this is rather predictable, sort of like City Slickers meets Gosford Park. Everyone seems to have a high upper nose about the whole thing, and I HATE movies like that. The acting for this is pretty good, Michael Blakemore and Greta Scaachi are good as the city couple, and Kerry Fox and John Hargreaves (doing a damned good Eric Idle impersonation) are all pretty good. Sam Neill's character, though a necessity in the plot, I feel is somewhat needless here.

Oh, and for those of you wondering, no, Blur's 'Country House' is not in the movie.

The first thing to do if one is to derive any pleasure from "Country "Life" is to forget Chekhov. Admittedly the film carries a disclaimer insofar as it is only "Suggested by Uncle Vanya", but having said this it is even more remote from Chekhov that Nikita Mikhalkov's "Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano" which carries a similar disclaimer "Themes from the works of...". This aside, "Country Life" is an agreeable piece of period soap set just after the end of the First World War with pretty visuals of New South Wales's Hunter Valley. Like "Uncle Vanya" it tells of the disruptive visit of a pretentious elderly professor-type and his attractive young second wife to the relatives of his deceased first wife living in a rundown country estate. There all resemblance ceases. Chekhov had a genius for taking a group of characters and exploring each one with equal depth so that even the eponymous Uncle Vanya is but one of several equally fascinating characters. In "Country Life" the focus of attention is placed on the elderly pedant, not unsurprisingly played by the director himself, Michael Blakemore. Would it be cynical therefore to suggest that the film becomes something of an ego trip! The rest, even the Uncle Vanya figure, are curiously colourless by comparison except for that 1940's glamour girl, Googie Withers, still going strong one is glad to see, who turns up as an elderly, domineering and tetchy family cook and almost steals the show. I cannot quite see why the film was made but at least it is harmlessly entertaining. For the real thing I went back to Stuart Burge's filmed adaptation of the Laurence Olivier 1963 Chichester Festival production of Vanya: sans very much in the way of scenery, sans music, apart from a bit of on-stage guitar stuff, monochrome and sans very much in the way of interesting camerawork and visuals, but with Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, Joan Plowright, Rosemary Harris, Max Adrian, Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson, a cast to dream of in as powerful a piece of filmed theatre as one is likely to find anywhere.

Sally and her uncle work a sheep ranch in rural Australia, circ 1920 something. Along comes stiff and stilted Dad (Blakemore) and stepmum Debbie (Scacchi). Toss in a roaming physician, some hired help, etc. and you've got "All in the Family in the Outback". Personalities clash, eccentricities entangle, and hanky-panky ensues. "Country Life" is an endearing Aussie cum English wry and lighthearted romp which should appeal most to those who enjoy British comedy.

I can't speak to the quality of the source material, other than to acknowledge Chekov's fine reputation. I hesitate to read the book now, for fear that it will prove to be as bad as this film.

I was attracted by the the quality of the actors, and pleased by the production and tone of the film. The acting was indeed quite good, with perhaps one exception. I don't know if the character Jack Dickens was supposed to come across as a buffoon, or whether this was a case of over-acting by John Hargreaves. Either way, it was dissonant.

But the real disappointment was that the film ultimately failed to present any compelling or sympathetic characters among the marquee cast.

The supporting actors did yeoman work, and I found myself enjoying them more than the central players, e.g. The old farm hand, Livingstone, played by Maurie Fields. But among the principal figures, only Sally (Kerry Fox) was worthy of some sympathy, but not enough to overcome the growing feeling, as the story progressed, that their petty and silly putterings hardly amounted to a hill of beans. Initially, I could see some good qualities in Sally, Jack and the doctor, but as their core conceits were revealed, I found myself caring very little what happened with any of them, not to mention Sally's father and step-mother, the story's "catalysts".

Frankly, most of them deserved a good spanking. Come to think of it, and I regret to say, watching that might have made for a more enjoyable time.