Feast of July (1995)

A lovely film of a tragic story... of sympathy and small, seemingly small impulses that eventually lead to ruin and horror.Our heroine is a poor girl who's been seduced by a handsome, charming man who leads her to believe he loves her and will marry her. And after a month or two, he has vanished. She's left pregnant and decides to walk to the town where he said was his home (about 30 miles away). By then, she is very pregnant, it's rough terrain in terrible winter weather. She has no nourishment nor money. She miscarries along the way and the baby is formed, but dead. It's a tragedy. After a few more days, she makes it to the town where he said he lives, but no one knows him. Thankfully, she finds a kind man who takes her into his family's home. He can see she's young, ill, and desperate for a place to stay. The man and his wife have three handsome, unmarried sons who are living at home with them. When the poor girl has had a few days of rest and recovery, she gets cleaned up and dressed. It turns out she is quite pretty and charming. Slowly, tensions begin to mount as one by one, the young men make it known to her that they want to court her.In her kindness, and mannerly ways, (and in a state of confused grieving, too, I'd say), she doesn't make herself clear enough to each of the young men. There are some misunderstandings....The youngest son, Con, played beautifully by Ben Chaplin, is painfully shy and awkward. He stutters some and doesn't seem all that bright. But his strong desire for more in life, his jealousy of his brothers and his family in general, his overwhelming passion for HER is as clear as a bright blue sky. Eventually, he gets up the nerve to propose to her and she accepts him. They are floating on clouds, telling all the townspeople of their upcoming wedding and their joy.Unfortunately, their happiness doesn't last long, as the cad who abandoned her is just around the corner and they are about to have a fateful encounter with him.I won't go any further, but let me tell you that Ben Chaplin's performance is haunting. Haunting. You can see the anxiety, frustration, temper, and his impulsiveness in his entire manner. His passion for her is so strong, it seems he will just explode with it.For steamy kissing scenes and almost-sex scenes without nudity, they don't get any better than this. I caught my breath a couple of times and may have moaned! Embeth Davis and Ben Chaplin were beautiful together. Simply beautiful throughout the film.It's a very well-told story that seemed so real-to-life. It's still timely, or should I say "timeless". If you like historical romance and period pieces, don't miss it. It's lovely.

In an almost quasi-Victorian style, and most certainly with a true Victorian setting, H.E.Bates' novel has been turned into a fine cinematographic production. Excellent interpretations by all concerned, not only the leading actors, lushly backed up by some truly splendid photography, this is a film which appeals to the senses of perceptive viewers.Unfortunately the music score is not up to much, or perhaps I should say that you should not see this film expecting great orchestral and vocal music as Zbigniew Preisner has already given us in the trilogy `Trois Couleurs' or especially in the previous film `La Double Vie de Véronique' (1991).H.E.Bates was first a serious novelist, giving us such splendid titles as `The Jacaranda Tree' and `The Purple Plain', both based on his wartime experiences in Burma (now called something like Myaungyi), and evidently `Feast of July' falls into this category. Unfortunately he then turned his hand to light frivolous reading with would-be attempts at hilarity, and he simply fell out of any serious reading list. Thoroughly recommend these two novels as they paint an authentic picture of people with real feelings and genuine jealousies and mistrust. Perhaps it is this characterisation that has been soundly transformed into a visual experience that makes `Feast of July' a thoroughly recommendable film. Near 7 out of 10.

Sophisticated and well paced love story between a disgraceful young woman and an insecure and neurotic young peasant man, adorned with England last century background. The movie goes on swiftly, although the first part is a little slow and heavy handed by the direction. Chaplin and Davitz are good in the lead roles and the climax (the last scene, to be exact)cause a strong and impressive impact on the viewer. I give this a six.

"Feast..." is a well crafted, somewhat staged and romanticized drama about a woman, Bella (Davidtz), who wanders into the lives of a 19th century agrarian English family with 3 adult sons changing their lives forever. The film offers good performances by all, represents rural life of the time well, is artfully presented, and avoids extreme excursions giving the film a sort of perfect Disney-esque feel. Davidtz graces the screen throughout though Chaplin offers perhaps the best performance. A good watch for those in need of some easy-going romantic period drama.