Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ben Barnes bring Noël Coward's witty comedy of manners magnificently to life in this "deliciously cheeky" (Ella Taylor, The Village Voice) adaptation from director Stephan Elliott (
The Adventures of Priscilla,
Queen of the Desert). When British playboy John brings his new wife Larita - a race car-driving feminist from Detroit - home to meet the family at their country estate, pretty much everyone's expectations are disappointed. His snooty mother is offended by Larita's carefree American ways, while Larita does everything she can to get her mother-in-law to loosen up, which only annoys her even more. John's sisters have diametrically opposed feelings about their new sister-in-law, but his father is intrigued to have finally found another who sees through the family's façade - and takes great perverse p! leasure in watching his wife meet her match.A lighthearted adaptation of a Noel Coward play set in the late 1920s,
Easy Virtue stars Jessica Biel as Larita, an adventurous American who marries John, the naive, British heir (Ben Barnes) to a crumbling family estate. Whisked into the less-than-receptive bosom of John's kin, Larita soon finds herself drawing the scorn of her mother-in-law (Kristin Scott Thomas), who would have preferred John marry a longtime sweetheart from his own genteel community rather than a brash Yankee. Eager to move to London, Larita knows the longer a post-honeymoon John visits his family the harder it will be for the newlyweds to live on their own terms, and she's right. Giving up on any notion of fitting in, Larita suffers a few embarrassments before fighting back. But nothing can help her once a past scandal encroaches on her dream of happiness.
Co-writer and director Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) keeps everything breezy and fun, though the clashes between! Larita and her malicious mother-in-law are keenly felt. Elliott's period sensibility is very strong, not least of all his appreciation of John's father (Colin Firth), a restless intellectual and member of the so-called Lost Generation of World War I veterans. Firth's performance as a man distanced from his family's preoccupations and material woes is a real highlight of Easy Virtue. When he dances a tango, late in the story, one can see years of repressed desire erupt in him. --Tom Keogh
Stills from Easy Virtue (Click for larger image)
Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ben Barnes bring Noël Coward's witty comedy of manners magnificently to life in this "deliciously cheeky" (Ella Taylor, The Village Voice) adaptation from director Stephan Elliott (
The Adventures of Priscilla,
Queen of the Desert). When British playboy John brings his new wife Larita - a race car-driving feminist from Detroit - home to meet the family at their country estate, pretty much everyone's expectations are disappointed. His snooty mother is offended by Larita's carefree American ways, while Larita does everything she can to get her mother-in-law to loosen up, which only annoys her even more. John's sisters have diametrically opposed feelings about their new sister-in-law, but his father is intrigued to have finally found another who sees through the family's façade - and takes great perverse pleasure in watching his wife meet her m! atch.
Stills from Easy Virtue (Click for larger image) Alfred Hitchcocks Easy Virtue DVD!After divorcing an abusive husband Innocent woman makes a valiant effort at beginning her new life. But can not escape the incidents surrounding her past. This is a wonderful early Hitchcock work.A divorcée hides her scandalous past from her new husband and his family.
This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy wi! ll apply.Studio: Osiris Entertainment Llc Release Date: 02/11/2010Blackmail (1929 | B&W)
When Frank's job at Scotland Yard comes between them, Alice accepts a date with another man. The handsome artist invites Alice to pose for a portrait but then tries to assault her. She kills him in self-defense. Assigned to the case, Detective Frank soon learns the identity of the killer, but so has someone else... During production of this silent feature, Hitchcock added dialog with the advent of talking pictures in America, making this England's first talkie.
Easy Virtue (1927 | B&W | Silent)
After divorcing an abusive husband, an innocent woman makes a valiant effort at beginning her life anew, but she cannot escape the incidents surrounding her past. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, featuring a newly recorded score. Based on a play by Noel Coward. Cast members include Isabel Jeans, Franklin Dyall and Eric Bransby Williams.
Special Edition
Includes an introduction by Tony Curtis and a bonus clip of ! the orig inal theatrical trailer
from Hitchcock's film, "Rear Window", with James Stewart and Grace Kelly.
Digitally mastered from the best available sources for the highest quality possible.
MENU languages: English / Spanish / Chinese / Japanese
Subtitles: Spanish / Chinese / Japanese
This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
Two-time Oscar® nominee Colin Firth turns in a riveting performance as a widower desperately trying to hold his family together after tragedy threatens to tear them apart. Searching for a fresh start, Joe (Firth) moves with his two daughters from Chicago to the Italian town of Genoa. Seduced by the ancient city, each find themselves lost in an alluring paradise where souls stir and spirits linger.
Bonus Features:
Cast/Crew Interviews, Behind-the-Scenes Footage.An American family moves to Italy to start over in Michael Winterbot! tom's A Summer in Genoa. The film has hardly begun when Marianne (Hope Davis) dies in a car crash, leaving behind her academic husband, Joe (Colin Firth, very good), and their daughters, Kelly (The O.C.'s Willa Holland) and Mary (Dark Water's Perla Haney-Jardine). Five months later, British-born Joe exchanges modern Chicago for medieval Genoa, where Harvard classmate Barbara (Catherine Keener) shows the trio around the city. While Joe teaches, the girls take piano lessons, but other things remain much the same. Mary, who feels responsible for the accident, continues to receive visitations from her mother's ghost, and Kelly sneaks out to canoodle with a Vespa-riding Lothario. As the weeks pass, the sisters grow further apart, not least because Kelly also blames her younger sister. Winterbottom contrasts Kelly's romance with a possible relationship between Joe and Barbara, except he expresses greater interest in an attractive student with a more direct ap! proach. Not counting the opening and closing scenes, however, ! both of which involve automobiles, the director concentrates on the rhythms of life for three people grieving in their own way, rather than using a series of incidents to build to a cathartic conclusion, making Summer one of his more subtle, if less eventful efforts. The extra feature offers behind-the-scenes footage and a 21-minute featurette, in which the filmmaker says he took inspiration from Nicolas Roeg's chilling Don't Look Now, in which a couple moves to Venice to mourn a loss. --Kathleen C. FennessyForever young. Forever cursed. Based on the acclaimed novel by Oscar Wilde. Upon arriving in London, the young and powerful Dorian Gray (Ben Barnes) becomes drawn into a world of debauchery and decadence by Lord Henry Wotton (Colin Firth). Desperate to preserve the beauty captured in his exquisite portrait, Dorian trades his soul for eternal youth â€" leading him down a path of wickedness and murder in order to protect his horrifying secret.
