Product Details

• Actors: Alan Bates, Theresa Russell, Lena Headey, Jim Carter, Anna Massey
• Directors: John-Paul Davidson
• Producers: The Grotesque ( Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets ) ( Grave Indiscretion ), The Grotesque, Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets, Grave Indiscretion
• Format: Import, PAL
• Subtitles: Swedish
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: ScanBox
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000HKGS1S
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #386,253 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Norway released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Danish ( Subtitles ), Finnish ( Subtitles ), Norwegian ( Subtitles ), Swedish ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: The Grotesque (aka Grave Indiscretion, aka Gentleman Don't Eat Poets) is a very black, very British comedy that puts an unusual and perversely entertaining spin on the classic tea-cup-and-intrigue mystery. Sir Hugo Coal (Alan Bates) is a grumpy, eccentric English gentleman (and self-styled paleontologist) obsessed with reconstructing a dinosaur skeleton with bones dredged up from a nearby moor. He is also penniless, and so must live vicariously off the inheritance of his smoldering American wife Harriet (Theresa Russell). Enter: the crafty and secretive Fledge (Sting) and his wife and co-conspirator Doris (Trudie Styler) the new Coal family servants. Fledge immediately sets his sights on Harriet and the Coal fortune, Doris on the household wine cellar. When Hugo and Harriet's daughter Cleo (Lena Headey) announces her engagement to demure poet Sidney Giblet (Steven Mackintosh), Hugo is less than pleased, but not for long, since Sidney is murdered soon after and, we learn, his body gruesomely disposed of. As the rivalry between Fledge and Hugo escalates, Cleo, the police, and the poet's shrewd mother Mrs. Giblet (Anna Massey) follow a trail of clues from the swampy, bone-littered moor to the Coal pig sties and finally (rather horribly) back to the Coal dinner table. Though criticized for its irreverent humor and somewhat ambiguous ending, The Grotesque is worth a watch. Sting and his real-life partner Trudie Styler (who co-produced the film) are both wonderful as the loathsome, manipulative servants, as is Anna Mass...The Grotesque ( Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets ) ( Grave Indiscretion )

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars By the Grotesque to the unimaginable, Patrick McGrath undone, May 16, 2000

By 

"arieyajaoude" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grave Indiscretion - (aka "The Grotesque") [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The adaptation of Patrick McGrath's The Grotesque done with a flair and deadpan stolid face that only Sting could provide. Playing the deviously underhanded butler Fledge, Sting provides a masterful performance that helps to orchestrate the full capacity of evil in the human condition. His wife in real life plays his drunken spouse in the movie. Not as inspiring, but truly provides the motive to Fledges actions throughout. The pace is slow and adds to the devious tone of the entire film. Call this what you want, but don't call it cutsie. As in all movies the true cinicism of life is better on paper than film, but here true evil is unleashed revelling in man's true nature as the beast.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grave Indiscretion a/k/a The Grotesque, November 12, 2001

By 

J. Weisman (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grave Indiscretion [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a cunning black comedy starring Alan Bates as the mainstays of a typically disfunctional, upper-class english/American family, Teresa Russell (the original Black Widow) and Sting (who really shines silver in the role of the butler). Family and community interactions disintegrating in the guise of a murder mystery.

Yes, everyone assumes that the butler did it - you will have a delicious time finding out how and whether!! The script is outrageous and fast moving, the acting (both leads and supporting roles) skilled. The scripting and cuts are subtle, and the humor (though hardly understated by British standards) is just subdued and suggestive enough to maintain a sharp edge to the plot whlie blurring the line between the absurd and the seriously weird! Like a great off-Broadway play written by Rube Goldberg. A movie for anglophiles and those who love to hate them alike!! A middle class version of The Ruling Class (Peter O'Toole)? Watch it, and you still won't understand why our British cousins drive on the left side of the road - but what an amusing ride!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dark, looming and NOT funny. This is a comedy?, November 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Grave Indiscretion [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I rented this film only due to Sting's presence. I therefore enjoyed his scenes, but had difficulties staying with the story. Maybe it's a cultural thing & I'm too much the "Yank"... Anyway, Sting is a beautiful man. Great opportunity to see "Most" of him.