User reviews

I too love this movie. But after reading the book I see how this movie could have been so much better. If you can get the book and read it. It is excellent. You get more background of the characters. The book is written by Joanna Trollope. She is an English writer.

1. The Beatles Anthology 2. Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood 3. The Final Cut 4. Prime Suspect: The Scent of Darkness 5. Prime Suspect: The Lost Child 6. Mr. Bean 7. Prime Suspect: Inner Circles 8. Indictment: The McMartin Trial 9. A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies 10. Poirot: Hercule Poirot's Christmas 11. Engraçadinha... Seus Amores e Seus Pecados 12. Poirot: Hickory Dickory Dock 13. Pride and Prejudice 14. A Village Affair

Excellent movie but can't be had in NTSC. IT's in PAL only, right. I saw it on i offer dot com . The movie is a good one. Shows though how selfish and childish the one character is, and also the husband. The wife seems to be the only one with any sense at all. Will have to read the book. No, didn't know the actress in this came out. Very interesting....makes one wonder if an actress/actor can be typecast after doing a movie. Or, makes one wonder if they did the movie so well, was it really acting? The British really have made so very many good movies like this one......Tipping the velvet and Fingersmith are both great ones to go along with this one. And oh, Portrait of a Marriage, if it can be found.

Ever since I read that Sophie Ward came out as a Lesbian in the British press, I have been anxious to see her in this role of a frustrated housewife-cum-lesbian lover (pun intended!) I enjoyed this movie, and I cannot say anymore about it lest I give away the ending. Rent it if you can find it. It's worth the effort.

A Village Affair (1995) was directed by Moira Armstrong from a novel by Joanna Trollope. The plot is fairly basic--a city couple move from London to a country village. Troubles ensue.

However, if you look more closely, troubles were brewing already. Nathaniel Parker plays Martin Jordan, a handsome and successful lawyer. He has two women in his life--his wife, Alice (Sophie Ward) and his mother Cecily Jordan (Claire Bloom). There's no question about who pulls the strings. Cecily is rich, successful, and extraordinarily intrusive.

In the village we meet all the standard British Village Types--the meddling storekeeper, the meddling neighbors, the lord and lady of the manor. Most important, we meet Clodagh Unwin, their wild daughter, recently returned home and looking for something--maybe just trouble. (Also add in visiting evil brother Anthony Jordan, who is a really bad guy. He does everything villainous but twirl his mustache.)

Still, if you can get past, "This is a village. We all know everyone's business," you can enjoy the subtleties of the movie, and the excellent acting. Also, the plot takes some twists and turns for which I wasn't prepared, which certainly makes the film more interesting.

The picture really centers around Alice. Sophie Ward is an excellent Alice. In fact, she reminded me of Lewis Caroll's Alice--beset on every side by new and difficult challenges, and slowly becoming tough enough to cope.

We saw this movie on a used VHS tape. I don't know if it's available in DVD. It worked very well on the small screen.

I wouldn't say "A Village Affair" is a must-see film, but if you can find it, I'd recommend it. It's carrying an abysmal IMDb rating, but it's better than that.

P.S. Notice how neatly director Armstrong frames the movie with the first and last scene.

P.P.S. Take a careful look at daughter Natasha Jordan. It's a tiny role, but great things happened later to the actor who played it.

Seen on TV: A Village Affair provides an opportunity for Kerry Fox to stalk around the pretty countryside, chewing the scenery and wailing about her thwarted love affair with Sophie Ward. Joking aside, she's pretty good in this picture that sometimes threatens to drown in good taste, like sub-Merchant-Ivory. Don't know much about Sophie Ward; she seems too restrained, too well-brought-up to be convincing as a wife and participant in a lesbian relationship. Shouldn't she show us that she has a lot on her plate? Michael Gough does a good job as Kerry's indulgent father.

I note that IMdb lists A Village Affair at 137min, whilst the VHS/DVD version runs to only 100min.

Having seen the DVD version it does seem to me to be disjointed compared with the original TV airing.

Anyone out with any information

Ian