Customer Reviews

Kundalini Yoga - Warrior Workout

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Originally broadcast in 1971, the telly production of Stella Gibbon's 1932 novel, "Cold Comfort Farm" helped to launch the first season of PBS's signature series, "Masterpiece Theatre".

This is a great remake and is director, John Schlessinger's acclaimed 1995 film adaptation starring a TERRIFIC Kate Beckinsale as the recently orphaned, Flora Poste.

Set in the 1930's, in England, Flora writes to all of her relation, hoping someone will take her in as she has no real drive or ambition, save for possibly becoming the next Jane Austen. Flora accepts an offer from The Starkadders Of Cold Comfort Farm in Howling, Sussex. She thinks that she just might like farm life and it might be good for her writing career. However, once she arrives she finds out that the farm has had a curse upon it along with all of the inhabitants, human and animal alike.

The Starkadder family is comprised of Amos & his forelorn wife, Judith, & their two virile & rakish sons, Seth and Reuben. As Flora says, "Highly sexed young men living on farms are always called Seth or Reuben."

Also living at Cold Comfort is a lovely waifish sprite of a cousin, Elfine, the hired help, Adam Lambsbreath, Urk, Rennet & Mrs. Beetle. Also locked in her chambers is an old crusty hermit of a grandmamma, Ada Doom (appropriately named). The Starkadders & the rest of the clan are pure country folk with pure country ways. Their lives being quite primitive in contrast with Flora's.

Flora sets out to change it all though and with some priceless and hilarious scenes ensuing. Flora tries to bring everyone around to a higher common sense and does it with great gusto.

With lines in the film like:

Amos Starkadder: Seth, drain the well. There's a neighbor missing.

Violet: She b'aint worf it Urk, she jus b'aint worf it!

and the two most repeated and beloved lines in the film:
Ada Doom: I saw something nasty in the woodshed! & "There has always been Starkadders on Cold Comfort Farm."

This film is a gem, a fabulous adaptation of the novel and a great and wonderful surprise for it's viewers. A great cast and performances with the great Ian McKellen,Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley, Eileen Atkins and Rufus Sewell. I highly recommend "Cold Comfort Farm"!

Happy Watching!

This is a marvelous and fairly faithful adaptation of Stella Gibbons' 1932 novel of the same name. The film brilliantly captures the quirkiness of the novel which is a hysterically funny, tongue in cheek parody of the heavy handed, gloomy novels of some early twentieth century English writers who had previously been so popular. The film is likewise hysterically funny and itself seems to parody British costume dramas.

The film starts out innocuosly enough, when well educated Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale) finds herself orphaned as a young woman. Discovering that her father was not the wealthy man she believed him to be, she is resigned to the fate of having to live on a hundred pounds a year. After some discussion with her good friend, the wealthy Mrs. Smiley (Joanna Lumley), Flora opts to live with relatives, rather than earn her bread. She seeks out a most unlikely set of relations with whom to do so, the decidedly odd Starkadder family who live in rural Howling, Sussex.

Therein begins what is certainly one of the funniest movies to grace the silver screen. When Flora arrives in Howling, she meets her odd relatives, who live in neglected, ramshackle "Cold Comfort Farm", where they still wash the dishes with twigs, and have cows named Graceless, Pointless, Feckless, and Aimless. Headed by a matriarchal old crone, Flora's aunt, Ada Doom Starkadder (Sheila Burrell), who has not been right in the head since she "saw something nasty happen in the woodshed" nearly seventy years ago, they are a motley and strange crew indeed. Confronted with their dismal and gloomy existence, Flora sets about trying to put things to right.

Peppered with eccentric, memorable characters, this film will take the reader on a journey not easily forgotten. Kate Beckinsale is delightful as the practical, no nonsense Flora Poste. Joanna Lumley is delicious as the sophisticated and wordly Mrs. Smiley. Eileen Atkins is a standout as Flora's gloomy first cousin, Judith Starkadder, Ada's daughter. Rufus Sewell is well cast as Judith's son, Seth Starkadder, the oversexed ladies man. The role of the fire and brimstone preacher, Amos Starkadder, is played to perfection by Ian McKellen, while Shiela Burrell is nothing short of sensational as the imperious Ada Doom Starkadder. The rest of the supporting cast is likewise uniformly excellent.

All in all, this is a hilariously funny film and every bit as brilliant as the novel upon which it was based. It is certainly worth having in one's personal collection, as it is a keeper by any standard.

I saw this film soon after its 1995 release and thought it wonderful, all the more so because Kate Beckinsale's interpretation of Flora Poste reminded me very much of my oldest daughter. So I was pleased to see that it has finally come out on DVD; I bought a copy, watched it again, and still think it wonderful.

You should be warned that you may have a hard time understanding what some of the inhabitants of Cold Comfort Farm are saying. However, that's intentional and straight from the novel, where the accents and strange word usages often leave Flora puzzled. Here's an exchange (from the novel) that I believe is reproduced pretty much verbatim in the movie, when Reuben comes in after working out in the fields not long after Flora has started living at Cold Comfort Farm:

========
...After another minute Reuben brought forth the following sentence:

'I ha' scranleted two hundred furrows come five o'clock down i' the bute.'

It was a difficult remark, Flora felt, to which to reply. Was it a complaint? If so, one might say, 'My dear, how too sickening for you!' But then, it might be a boast, in which case the correct reply would be, 'Attaboy!' or more simply, 'Come, that's capital.' Weakly she fell back on the comparativel safe remark:

'Did you?' in a bright interested voice.
========

Speaking of which, the original novel (written in 1932 by Stella Gibbons) is just as wonderful, and the film is a remarkably faithful adaptation, if (understandably) a bit trimmed and modified. I read the book for the first time after watching the DVD release of the movie and was delighted to see that most of the dialog comes straight from the book, including my favorite line (the interchange between Neck, the movie producer, and Aunt Ada), if a bit punched up.

Finally, for the reviewers who are frustrated that we never find out what Ada saw in the woodshed, what wrongs were done to Robert Poste by Amos Starkadder, and what Flora Poste's rights were...well, the novel leaves us pretty much in the dark as well. In the book, Aunt Ada _does_ answer the second question for Flora--though we as readers don't get to hear the answer--and Ada is interrupted before she can answer Flora's intriguing follow up question, "And did the goat die?"

The movie and the book are both delightful; enjoy. ..bruce..

Stella Gibbon's comic novel, Cold Comfort Farm, written in the 1930's, is brought to perfect fruition with this 1995 adaptation. It's the story of a young woman (Flora) who's parents die leaving her with only 100 pounds a year--not nearly enough to keep her living in the high-society style to which she's becomed accustomed. So she writes to her relatives and picks one to go live with--the Doom family of Cold Comfort Farm. Flora plans to tidy up their lives, and collect material for the book she plans to write when she's 53--after she's lived life.

Cold Comfort Farm is filled with a fabulous collection of characters who Flora systematically converts to a Higher Sensibility. The film is well acted, cinematically superior, and perfectly captures the spirit of the book--a wonderful read that I highly recommend as well!

I love this film, and have found it the perfect addition to my rainy day/sick bed viewing library. If you like british eccentrism, you'll love this movie!

Although the book was far more detailed(books have that luxury), the adaptation from book to movie script was right on the money. Set in the 1930's, Flora Poste is a twenty-something girl whose parents die within weeks of each other due to the Influenza. This isn't traumatic for Flora, since her parents were fond of travelling and only saw her a few months out of the year. Since Flora has never been educated to make a living for herself, she decides to write her relations and ask to live with them. The relatives she chooses are unbelievably eccentric and rustic; they have a dingy farmhouse in Sussex. Each relation has some wild oddity about them and are extremely behind the times. But Flora chooses them because she feels she can satisfy her need to organize things, and also feels they'll provide the perfect colorful characters she'll need when she finally writes her first novel. Flora changes everyones lives for the better, and you will laugh heartily throughout. "I saw something nasty in the woodshed!" will be a phrase you hear in your head for weeks after watching this film. Stars Kate Beckinsale as Flora, Joanna Lumley ("Absolutely Fabulous"'s Patsy Stone) as Mary, Oscar nominated Sir Ian McKellan as Flora's over-zealous preacher cousin, and Rufus Sewell (most recently in "Bless the Child") as Flora's over-sexed 2nd cousin Seth who dreams of Hollywood stardom. One to have in your personal movie collection. Read the book as well.

If you enjoy a craftily written movie with interesting characters, witty writing, and unconventional story line, this is the movie for you! The characters will stay with you and certain phrases become a part of your vocabulary. Very English, very entertaining, every lovely to watch.

Cold Comfort Farm is a wonderful mixture of offbeat characters and strange situations that make for some of the grandest comedy on screen in some time. If you think you won't like it because it's an English period comedy abandon that notion and dive in. This movie is one you will enjoy. The actors are perfect for bringing this off and it is a pleasure just to watch them tangle with this material. Ian McKellen and Rufus Sewell are particularly quirky as is Maria Miles as Elphine, but Sheila Burrel as Aunt Ada gets the best line: "I saw something nasty in the woodshed!" But the key character is Flora, played to perfection by the delectable Kate Beckinsale. It is Flora's good sense and practicality that master the situation and win the day. She sets the world right with her refusal to allow it to be otherwise. This mix of wacky characters needs the grounding of Flora to allow us a point of view and Kate Beckinsale establishes that perfectly. Ms. Beckinsale has done the kind of exceptional work here that we've come to expect from her. Get this video and get ready to laugh long and hard.

AFTER 81 YEARS, I HAVE DECIDED TO GIVE UP ON THE GREAT DRAMATIC MOVIES THAT PRESENT THE WORLD IN ALL ITS MASSIVE TURMOIL. I GET ALL THAT FROM NEWSPAPERS, PERIODICALS, RADIO, TELEVISIOPN AND NOW, EVEN THE INERNET. I WANT TO WATCH MOVIES THAT I CALL "FEEL GOOD" MOVIES. THESE MOVIES CEMNTER ON A SMALL GROUP OF PEOPLE WITH A FEW INSIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS AND THEN, OVER THE COURSE OF AN HOUR OR SO, WORKOUT THE KINKS OF THIER LIVES AND LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. THESE MOVIES CAN BE FULL OF PATHOS OR BATHOS OR EVEN SLAP STICK COMDEDY, BUT THEY NEVER PRESENT YOU WITH ANY PROBLEM GREATER THAN HOW TO GET YOUR MOTHER-IN-LAW TO BABYSIT THE KIDS BUT NOT MOVE IN WITH YOU...UNLESS YOU WANT HER TO. COLD COMFORT FARM MEETS MY CRITERIA TO BE CLASSIFID AS A "FEEL GOOD" MOVIE.

Cold Comfort Farm is a hilarious film that is remarkably faithful to the plot (one character does ends up with a different mate than in the book but it actually makes more sense) characters and spirit of the novel. The film is perfectly cast. Kate Beckinsale is especially good as our heroine, Flora Poste, who is unflappable and efficient at tidying up the many messes at Cold Comfort. Ian McKellen is also unforgettable and hysterically funny as Amos, the fire and brimstone preacher/farmer. All the other actors fulfill their roles well and without a hint of the self-consciousness too often seen in film satires. The British accents are sometimes a bit difficult for Americans to understand but fortunately the DVD comes with close captioning so the viewer doesn't miss a word of the clever script. The special features are almost nonexistant except for the trailer and a couple of "recommendations" but who cares when the film is so special and enjoyable?

If you are searching for comparisons to help you decide whether to watch "Cold Comfort Farm" imagine a slightly older "Pollyanna" going to live on a rundown version of "Babe's" English farm with a strange and bleak collection of her country cousins.

This is an excellent and very earthy adaptation of Stella Gibbon's 1932 satirical novel (which itself is an odd marriage of Hardy and Wodehouse). Where the village pub is named "The Condemned Man" and the cows are named Aimless, Feckless, Graceless, and Pointless. Both the novel and its adaptation are joyfully depressing and packed with literary eccentricity and subtle humor. If you like "Faulty Towers" then you can expect to get off on the humor. But if you prefer "Hot Shots! Part Deux", you should probably pass on "Cold Comfort Farm".

There are three possible viewer reactions: It's not funny. I didn't figure out it was a comedy until halfway through but then I found it hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing.

Kate Beckinsale plays Flora Poste (always referred to by her relatives as Robert Poste's daughter), a recently orphaned 19 year old who chooses to live with relatives (the Starkadders) she has never met, at gloomy Cold Comfort Farm in Sussex. Beckinsale, even more radiant than usual, pulls off a nice characterization of the resourceful yet snobbish heroine. Like Pollyanna, she is a catalyst for positive change, but they are calculated changes. Her instinctive snobbishness (Beckinsale has a real talent for this) is played for laughs since everyone would feel a bit superior and distanced from this eccentric collection of misfits.

The adaptation nicely incorporates Gibbons's subtle parody of Jane Austen romantic clichés, from the controlling madwoman in the attic to wood nymph poetess, to the quivering parishioners. Even the production design is a funny send-up of the standard BBC mini-series look.

This is really a terrific production, doubly so for Beckinsale fans.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.