Product Details

• Actors: Jacqueline Bisset, Michael York, Edward Fox, Mariel Hemingway, Virginia McKenna
• Directors: Colin Bucksey
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 2, 2007
• Run Time: 187 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000LE1GGM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #254,872 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "September with Bonus CD: Classical Autumn" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

FREE MUSIC CD: Classical Autumn
Strathcroy is a beautiful old village nestled in a valley in the Scottish Highlands, a community seemingly of another age, but one which has adapted and strengthened almost in spite of the progress of the rest of the world--a last bastion of the old values.

Those values are best embodied by Violet Aird. Sensible and understanding at seventy-eight years old, Vi looks out over the little community as though it were her own. That community includes her son Edmund, the commanding owner of Aird Electronics, who lives in the palatial Edwardian house Balnaird with his second wife, the American Virginia. Also Edmund's oldest friend Archie or, more properly, Lord Balmerino, who has lapsed into bitter and lethargic melancholy, ostensibly over an accident in the army in Northern Ireland years before in which he lost a leg.

One day Vi is visited by her bossy but good-hearted friend Verena who has hit upon the idea of holding a ball in September, a lavish affair of dancing and music to which absolutely everyone will be invited. Including Pandora.

Pandora, we learn, is Archie's sister who fled the village under a cloud some twenty years ago, and from whom no one has heard since. The news of Pandora's invitation goes round the village like wildfire, stirring up all the old gossip about her. Half-mad Lottie's muttered implications finally drive Virginia to ask questions about Edmund's role in Pandora's past, until Violet reluctantly tells what she knows: that years ago Edmund had an affair with Pandora, who became pregnant; that he and Archie had a row over it; that Pandora disappeared and presumably aborted the child, the guilt over which Edmund and Archie have lived with ever since.

At last the night of the ball arrives and with it, Pandora. In a dramatic climax, the truth is revealed about Pandora's missing years, and old wounds, we see, will finally heal. But Pandora has a new secret that brings a bittersweet conclusion to this picturesque drama.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars recommended to period-piece fans, August 23, 2007

By 

bookloversfriend (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: September (DVD)

Stunning scenery. Good music. A broad sweep of characters and relationships in this three-hour extravaganza. Viewers who like grand-scale period movies such as "The Buchaneers" or "North and South" should enjoy this movie, even though the period is the present and the upper-class is Scottish rather than English. The film is PG-class with no naughty words or bare skin or any of the other things that some people object to.

If this movie had not been based on a Rosamunde Pilcher book, it would probably be very popular. But it invites comparisons with "The Shell Seekers" and "Coming Home", and unfortunately it comes in second by comparison. But on its own, it is quite a respectable movie with much to offer.

The tension is kept up by two on-going mysteries: who is the dead body shown at the beginning? and what is Lottie going to do? When you set up exciting questions like these, you have to have some exciting answers to them. This film doesn't. Lottie doesn't do anything. And the dead body is a disappointment. There is another disappointment. We are made to dislike Edmund at the beginning and are longing to see him get clobbered. He doesn't.

Also, even at three hours, with the large number of characters, we don't get a chance to get into the few interesting characters enough. So, even though we come to know who the characters are, who their relationships are, and what their problems are, we don't really get a chance to feel those problems as we do in "The Shell Seekers".

There is also a serious casting mistake in the casting of Edmund. Edmund is a guy with whom the most beautiful and interesting women fall madly in love at first sight. The actor who plays him has to be a stone fox. Michael York, to put it mildly, isn't. This casting mistake makes the main story incredible and also contributes to making the ending less than satisfactory. The appealing characters are Pandora (Jacqueline Bisset) and the Mariel Hemingway character. Since they are appealing, we would like to see them do well. Alas.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting enough to make me want to read the book., October 6, 2009

By 

K. Blaeser "skipblazer" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: September (DVD)

I have never read the book and happened upon this movie blindly when it was broadcast on cable. The length of the movie (3 hours) intrigued me and I recorded it to watch later. Because I didn't know the movie was based on a book, I was confused for a while as to what the deal with this film was. Was it originally a 2-night miniseries which turned into 3 hours with all the commercials cut out? Had it ever been in theaters? The dialogue seemed very melodramatic, compulsory and not well-fleshed out. Scenes seemed dropped into the movie out of thin air, and I highly suspect reading the book would be necessary to get a better feeling for these characters.

Another review said there was a casting mistake in Michael York. I wouldn't know, he seemed to fit in well to me. I did have a hard time picturing Mariel Hemingway in her role, though, and I could not for the life of me picture her in a marriage with Michael York. Zero chemistry. Likewise when her old boyfriend comes from the United States, I found it really difficult to see how Mariel and he would also have such instant and overwhelming chemistry. The casting was just really weird there.

All in all, I did watch the whole movie, but I wouldn't say it's one for the bookshelf in your home. On the other hand, there was enough there so that I am looking forward to ordering the book. I have no doubt that as other people say, it's a worthy read.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good melodrama with beautiful people and settings, January 12, 2008

By 

Barbara Harrelson (Santa Fe, NM, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: September (DVD)

SEPTEMBER gives us what we want from a Rosamunde Pilcher narrative: a story with enough mystery and intrigue to balance the obvious cliches, a beautiful place full of landed gentry in the English--or in this case, Scottish--countryside, beautiful people from varying walks of life, and the village idiot (in this case, a dotty woman) to help move things along.

While several of the major actors walk through their roles with no strain, little gems of acting appear in the lesser roles, like the dotty woman, and the little boy who plays the son.

Jacqueline Bisset as the "dazzling" Pandora is as gorgeous and as headstrong as the character requires and manages to capture the viewer's heart along with most of the people she meets.