Film Review: The House of Mirth

Authors

James Morrison, Claremont McKenna CollegeFollow

Document Type

Review

Department

Film Studies (CMC), Literature (CMC)

Publication Date

2001

Abstract

Catharsis, said Aristotle, is the goal of drama. You'd never know it from The House of Mirth, an adaptation of Edit Wharton's 1905 novel by the great British filmmaker Terence Davies. Its intensity is distilled in its uncompromising restraint, and though there are passing moments of anger in the film, and rare, sudden swellings of grief, there's not a second of real release in this grim anatomy of a socialite's inexorable decline. Yet the film's relentlessness does not feel cruel. It feels like the piercing expression of a boundless pity.

Comments

Brief excerpt from content used in lieu of an abstract.

Rights Information

© 2001 The Regents of the University of California

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Recommended Citation

Morrison, James. Rev. of The House of Mirth, dir. Terence Davies. Film Quarterly 55.1 (Fall 2001): 49-51.