Customer Reviews

Wide Sargasso Sea [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

When "The Wide Sargasso Sea" was first released in New York, it had received excellent reviews, an R rating and very little attention. I just happened to see a small advertisement in the New York Times one day. It was the title alone that intrigued me. From the moment the film began with that sensual and evocative soundtrack, I sensed we were in for something truly different and original.

"The Wide Sargasso Sea" is a brilliant collaboration of a gifted director, John Duigan, a strong, well paced screenplay and actors who are sublimely suited to their roles. Set in 19th century Jamaica,the screenplay transforms a fairly literal story by Jean Rhys into a rich and thrilling drama, which is driven as much by the individual conflicts and misunderstandings as it is by the cultural. "The Wide Sargasso Sea" is one of the few films that successfully combines the erotic with the lyrical;that depicts the complexity of human passion without becoming either literal or pedestrian.

With its lush, exotic setting,it is easy to become enmeshed in the endlessly subtle and colorful aspects of this film from the psychological to the sociological, individual difference to social conventions. But the story of Antoinette and Edward is the story of the delicate and precarious balance between love and knowledge, intimacy and trust, choice and destiny. So that once seeing "The Wide Sargasso Sea", you will have to see it again.

Years later I bought the VHS and found that "The Wide Sargasso Sea" is one of those superb films that stands the test of time. If only, the producers had recorded the soundtrack with music by Stuart Copeland and some wonderfully original, electronic interpretations of classical string quartets. Why didn't they?

This film is quite faithful to the tone and flow of the novel, which is now recognized as one of the great novels of the 20th century. I have been living in the Caribbean for the past year, and by doing so have more than ever begun to recognize the genius of this film. The film has a haunting quantity, and one can just feel the humid and seething sensuality of the place. The casting is wonderful, and the heroine is is a casting gem. She truly captures the vulnerability, possessiveness, and tragic qualities of Rhys' character. There really is no film that I know of that better captures the sense of the Caribbean as it was in the 18th/19th century better than this. A must see for those interested in the period, or the background to Jane Eyre.

There's lots of passion in Wide Sargasso Sea THE BOOK, but it's mostly emotional. It's an extremely multi-layered novel and the work of a true master. The film on the other hand is just your classic, bad 1990s film, beautiful to look at, with lots of skin, languid copulation, heaving bosoms, bodice-ripping nonsense, etc and next to no substance. It has no artistic integrity whatsoever, as its shameless makers must surely know they lifted their middle finger at the spirit of the Jean Rhys novel when choosing to make the film the way they did.

I was unable to feel empathy for both the lead character. The much touted erotic scenes were not developed to what they lead to believe, and it also lacked much enthusiasm. They were incomplete and contributed little, if anything, to the plot. The viewer only gets a glimpse of the passion that supposedly exists between Edward and Antoinette. Therefore, they should have either gone all the way, tastefully (no pun intended), or have left those scenes out entirely.

Now with regards to the plot of this film there were enormous holes, which perhaps could be rectified by reading the book. But for those who haven't read the book, there should be enough information in the film itself to keep the reader afloat. From the start it was unclear what was really going on with this family (despite the narration). Why did the ex-slaves keep laughing? (Something vaguely explained in the movie, though apparently fully explained in the book). Why didn't the parrot fly away? What made the mother go nuts? At no point in the movie were Mr. Rochester's "issues", as it were, fully explained. The man gets a letter exposing his wife as a Creole and dumps her like a hot potato, after (as Christophene explains) he was the one who came crawling to her in the first place. What a hypocrite. Again, maybe this is the ultimate point, that Mr. Rochester is a snob and the archetypical Victorian Englishman and that Antoinette is the victim of both his prejudice and that of the Jamaicans. But none of that exonerates the appallingly abrupt conclusion to the film.

So, despite the beautiful cinematography, this movie is a hopeless muddle. I'd highly recommend the novel by the way: a book you don't forget in a hurry. Needless to say I think you should give this insulting (to the memory of Jean Rhys) film a miss, especially if you've read the novel: it'll just frustrate you, no matter how keen on a bit of easy titillation you may be feeling at the time.

Wide Sargasso Sea (John Duigan, 1993)

John Duigan, who aggressively makes indie films, got the most notoriety of his career out of his adaptation of Jean Rhys' prequel to Jane Eyre. It's a very pretty thing, to be sure, but really-how much can you expect of any film made after the mid-eighties that plays up the casting of Michael York?

Let's face it, the main reason to watch Wide Sargasso Sea is that Antioniette (Karina Lombard, whose biggest role since has been in Kull the Conqueror) and Amelie (Rowena King, most recently seen in Proof of Life), who are battling for the affections of Antoinette's husband Edward (Nathaniel Parker, whose days are occupied making the Inspector Lynley mysteries presently), spend a whole lot of their screen time unclothed. (One wishes the same could be said of Naomi Watts, who has a small part here, but one can't have everything.) The story itself is about as riveting as... well, let's put it this way. It's a prequel to Jane Eyre. They share a certain leisure of plot.

Once Michael York's scenery-chewing is out of the way (he plays Antoinette's father, and is only seen in the scenes where she's young), the film settles down into a nice, quiet lull for the rest of its length. The scenery is beautiful, the bodies are beautiful, it's like Winged Migration with nudity and an attempt at a storyline. ** ½

Many reviewers here did not like this, but I found it quite interesting. You get the young Rochester, and this time around his pre-crazy wife is shown completely sympathetically, like a victim of his insensitivity rather than the curse hidden away (that he had to bear due to fate alone). In my opinion, this adds depth to the characters. It is easy, of course, to interpret her insanity as inevitable, but I saw it as a role that was created for her in the marriage, and it didn't need to be that way - Rochester allowed it to happen, even participated in it, and so bears some responsibility; he then abandons her once a better life-style opportunity arises. Also, the film stands very well on its own; it was only after I saw it that I realized it was the characters from Bronte. The acting is very good, particularly Lombard.

Warmly recommended.

This movie has helped me alot in my studies. It had a great plot. I enjoyed it. Being a West Indian all my life, Iam able to identify with the movie. I must admit that my heart ached for the treatment that Antoinette recieved and what she had to go through as a child, living without a mother who was considered to have gone 'mad', and then living with an English man who wanted to control her life.
The persons in the movie who acted out the characters in Wide Sargasso Saea did a splendid job i should say.I would recommend this movie for mature viewers due to the explicit scenes it contains. I see Wide Sargasso Sea as book that many should be able to identify with.

This movie captures the eye throughout with beautiful scenery, colors and people. Though generally described as a sexy romance, the movie really looks at the clash of staid British culture (and imperialism) with the more emotional and erotic African/Creole peoples in the Caribbean. Not a perfect film, but filled with passion.

Few films get as steamy as this one and still manage to convey any kind of story; kudos to Nathaniel Parker and Karina Lombard, who flawlessly pull off a difficult period piece.

What makes this film work is the progression of events; madness as depicted by tangleweed, temperature, voodoo/black magic, lust, etc. makes for a tantalizing feature, but none of it would work if the acting wasn't up to par.

Having read "Jane Eyre" a long time ago, I always thought it would be a great idea to create a story based on Rochester's psychotic wife, and how she got that way.

Steamy, superb drama for those of you who like a little subversion in your lives...

While there was some classy nudity and sexual content in the story which made the movie tolerable, the story line itself was frustrating and depressing. In the end I wanted to throw it in the trash along with the bad bannana that I had eaten.

I was surprised to find a prequel to Jane Eyre and even more surprised to discover what a hot story it is. This movie stars the very sultry Karina Lombard and the very look-at-able Nathaniel Parker, who start their arranged marriage happily in bed and then come to hate each other (it isn't entirely clear why). True Jane Eyre fans may find this movie too explicit.