The unity within the second novel of D. H. Lawrence that embraces character development, location, symbolism, and incident is preserved in this potent rendering, well-directed by Colin Gregg from a visually accented script penned by Hugh Stoddart, filmed largely on the Isle of Wight, setting of the heart of the novel and an important constituent toward an understanding of the escape from reality that shadows tortured lovers Helena Verden (Pauline Moran) and Siegmund MacNair (Alan Bates). An influence of Nietzsche upon Lawrence as an artist is partly transposed for this film as a totemic element of light, and Gregg and Stoddart, which latter performs a commendable task by interfusing many of a lengthy work's most significant sections into a linear scenario, additionally focus upon the sea and the moon, twin motival subjects of the Wertherian original wherein the lovers become prisoners to romantic passion. Siegmund, an orchestral violinist, has tutored Helena for the past seven years, during which they have fallen in love, although a physical aspect has not been consummated, as Siegmund is married with three children and, notwithstanding his being unhappily so, has not that force of character requisite to alter his posture towards either his wife or lover, so that Helena eventually arranges for the pair to have a five-day idyll upon Wight, since she believes that Siegmund will decide in her favour after they are able to be constant companions. Contrast between an imaginary world of romance and poetically charged emotion is compared by the scenario with mundane actuality, and if Helena's inhibitions and Siegmund's depression are not overcome, their shared desire will remain unrequited, made palpable by the straightforward plot decorated with cogent voiceovers from Siegmund taken directly from the novel's text. No aspect of this English production is arrested by the efforts of any, with exceptional contributions from, in addition to those mentioned, Dinah Stabb as Helena's friend and musical accompanist Louisa; costumer Monica Howe, whose Edwardian garmenture only enhances the striking Pre-Raphaelite quality of Helena; and the sterling sound mixing of David Stephenson that sharply increases the artistic value of a film that should receive wider distribution.
2 Reviews
spellbounding "Zauberland" of a masterpiece
karlericsson3 October 2008
Done for television, with almost no production values at all to speak of, seemingly done on a shoe-string budget, this little shines more intensively then any other romantic film. This is longing beyond longing: At night in the garden in moon-light the lovers Sigmund and Helena meed in their doomed love, sharing, for a brief moment, their "Zauberland" and we know how they feel for we have all been their in our longing and just like them we have been unable to make that moment stay with us, we, the poor and we, the competitors in a race for more and more, getting less and less. We, the exploited by the very few ridiculously rich, who hate mankind and rules it for the present. What wasted lives we live, so far away from "Zauberland".
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