Cold Comfort Farm (film)

Cold Comfort Farm

US theatrical release poster
Directed by John Schlesinger
Produced by Alison Gilby
Richard Broke
Screenplay by Malcolm Bradbury
Based on Cold Comfort Farm by
Stella Gibbons
Starring Kate Beckinsale
Joanna Lumley
Ian McKellen
Rufus Sewell
Music by Robert Lockhart
Cinematography Chris Seager
Editing by Mark Day
Studio Thames Television
Distributed by BBC (UK)
Gramercy Pictures (US)
Release date(s) 1 January 1995 (1995-01-01) (United Kingdom TV)
10 May 1996 (1996-05-10) (United States theatrical)
Running time 95 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Box office $5,682,429[1]

Cold Comfort Farm is a 1995 British romantic comedy film directed by John Schlesinger and produced by the BBC and Thames Television, an adaptation of Stella Gibbons' 1932 book of the same name, the film stars Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley, Ian McKellen, and Rufus Sewell. Originally broadcast on 1 January 1995 on the BBC, it was Schlesinger's final film shot in his home country England, and was picked up for theatrical release in North America through Gramercy Pictures, where it was a small success.

Contents

Plot

Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale), a young orphan in the 1920s, moves in with her eccentric and backward relatives, the Starkadders. The Starkadders live in a run-down farm off the beaten track in Sussex. Flora decides to rehabilitate and modernize them.

She first removes the head of the family (Ian McKellen), an amateur preacher with his own entourage of timid followers, by encouraging him to go on a preaching tour. This leaves the farm in the far more capable hands of his elder son. She introduces the very lusty and handsome younger son to an American film producer, and so gets rid of him as well. She marries off the poetry-addicted gypsy daughter after coaching her in manners, deportment, and fashion. She connects the chronically-depressed mother (Eileen Atkins) with a famed psychiatrist, who takes a great interest in her. The greatest challenge is her domineering Aunt Ada Doom, whom she eventually convinces to go on a tour of Europe.

Cast

Reception

Cold Comfort Farm received generally positive reviews; it currently holds an 84% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[2] During its theatrical release in North America, the film grossed $5,682,429.[1]

References

External links