Drama

Romance

The House of Mirth

Granada Productions

Arts Council of England

Film4 Productions

The Scottish Arts Council

The Glasgow Film Fund

Three Rivers Production

Showtime

United Kingdom

Deutsch

Français

English

Gillian Anderson

Dan Aykroyd

Eleanor Bron

Terry Kinney

Anthony LaPaglia

Laura Linney

Jodhi May

Elizabeth McGovern

Eric Stoltz

Penny Downie

Pearce Quigley

Helen Coker

Mary MacLeod

Paul Venables

Serena Gordon

Lorelei King

Linda Marlowe

Anne Marie Timoney

Clare Higgins

Ralph Riach

Brian Pettifer

Philippe De Grossouvre

Trevor Martin

David Ashton

Lesley Harcourt

Mark Dymond

Pamela Dwyer

Kate Wooldridge

Graham Crammond

Roy Sampson

Alyxis Daly

Joanne Bett

Mary Goonan

Gowan Calder

Morag Siller

Paul Darroch

Nick Smith

Terence Davies

Edith Wharton

Olivia Stewart

Bob Last

Pippa Cross

Remi Adefarasin

Diane Dancklefsen

Adrian Johnston

Sarah Lee

Louise Coulter

Louis Kramer

Danny Sumsion

Eva Marieges Moore

Catherine Hodgson

Julia Duff

Chris Plevin

Mandy McKay

Tarn Harper

Neil Cairns

Beverley Syme

Jennifer McNamara

Mark Bennett

Deborah Maxwell Dion

Gemma Hancock

Sonya Dunwoodge

Rosalind Nashashibi

Mark Milsome

Harry Bowers

Gordon McMillan

John Arnold

Stuart Bunting

Jimmy Wilson

Ian Franklin

Barrie More

Brian Sullivan

Tony Cook

Jo Graysmark

Ursula Cleary

Tim Monroe

Alan Bailey

Richard Hassall

Bobby Gee

Ann Taylor Cowan

Kate Burnett

Tom Hornsby

Adrian Ratley

Guy Speranza

Anna Lau

Michael Solinger

Anita M. Patel

Celia Haining

Lea Morement

Stewart Henderson

Michael Redfern

Martin Brinkler

Paul Hamblin

Ted Swanscott

Terry Davies

Heather Bownass

John Paul Docherty

Susi Roper

Charles McDonald

Chris Paton

Jaap Buitendijk

Julia Wilson Dickson

Stuart Murdoch

Jeff Derby

Kerry Barden

Billy Hopkins

Suzanne Smith Crowley

Don Taylor

Monica Howe

Renate Leuschner

Paul Huntley

Pat Rambaut

Alan J. Wands

Michael Parker

Dianne Millar

Christine Powers

Jan Harrison Shell

Meg Speirs

Tony Hood

Wendy Broom

William Booker

Nanna Mailand-Mercado

Guy Travers

John Bush

CinemaSerf

“Lily” is a smart, charismatic and charming socialite who frequents the best houses in New York as the twentieth century beckons. She is not, however, a wealthy woman. She has a small annuity and is largely dependent on income from her aunt “Julia” (Eleanor Bron). She also has a penchant for bridge. The kind that sees gambling debts accrue! Finding herself in need of funds and feeling that she dare not ask her benefactress, she is soon vulnerable to the machinations of some wealthy and unscrupulous men who have all they will ever need in life, save for a glamorous and “suitable” wife. She does have one more earnest suitor in “Selden” (Eric Stoltz) but it’s her financial dalliance with “Gus” (Dan Aykroyd) that sows the seeds of her spiral into a series of catch-22 scenarios that increasingly find her ostracised from those she loved, liked and needed. “Lily” is not a woman equipped for poverty, but at every turn that looks like the road she must travel as her options become hemmed in by her earlier choices and her own decency and pride. The start of this drama does come across as a sort of poor man’s Merchant Ivory, but that actually serves quite well in illustrating just how faux this whole society was. Built entirely on wealth and social standing, it was trying to emulate the aristocratic hierarchies of London, or Paris, or Vienna but without the history or, dare one say it, the “breeding”. It is startlingly shallow. Once we have embarked on her journey, though, Gillian Anderson really does begin to imbue her character with characteristics that are both pitiable and frustrating. Here is the sort of woman whose toast would always land butter side down, and once the very whiff of toxicity became associated with “Lily”, it manifested itself cruelly and irreversibly - and again, Anderson brings a delicate vulnerability to that persona. Stoltz is a bit weak and feeble, indeed none of the male roles here really stand out. Possibly because they are all fairly insipid and/or unpleasant, but also because none of the writing is for them and so they remain little more than wallpaper. As to any sense of sisterhood, well it’s not just the menfolk who know how to turnstile screw and both Bron and Laura Linney’s “Bertha” prove every bit as merciless. Perhaps unexpectedly, it doesn’t shy away from quite a provocative ending and if you can just sit tight through the opening scenes of high-costumed, chandeliered, melodrama, then this turns into something quite poignant and worth a watch.

Lily Bart and Lawrence Selden

25th Anniversary Trailer

The House Of Mirth (2000) Trailer

Best Movies

The House of Mirth

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Gillian Anderson

Dan Aykroyd

Eleanor Bron

Terry Kinney

Anthony LaPaglia

Laura Linney

Jodhi May

Elizabeth McGovern

Eric Stoltz

Penny Downie

Box office

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