Wide Sargasso Sea (1993)

Wide Sargasso Sea (1993) (DVD) (*)

~~$20.99~~ $14.97

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
English ( Dolby DTS 5.1 )

Product Origin/Format:
Australia ( PAL/Region 4 )

Running Time:
98 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1993 and produced in:
Australia ( Australia, New Zealand )

Directed By:
John Duigan

Written By:
Jan Sharp
Carole Angier

Actors:
Karina Lombard ..... Antoinette Cosway
Nathaniel Parker ..... Edward Rochester
Rachel Ward ..... Annette Cosway
Michael York ..... Paul Mason
Martine Beswick ..... Aunt Cora
Claudia Robinson ..... Christophene
Huw Christie Williams ..... Richard Mason
Casey Berna ..... Young Antoinette
Rowena King ..... Amelie
Ben Thomas ..... Daniel Cosway
Paul Campbell ..... Young Bull
Audbrey Pilatus ..... Drummer
Ancile Gloudon ..... Nelson
Dominic Needham ..... Pierre
Kevin Thomas ..... Benbow

Synopsis:

Director John Duigan brings Jean Rhys' difficult 1966 best-selling novel to the screen. It's a story meant to be a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's novel {-Jane Eyre}, surmising what drove the first Mrs. Rochester mad in that novel. In Jamaica in the 1840s, slavery has been recently outlawed. Plantation owner Annette Cosway (Rachel Ward) has become so poor that she marries a rich, boorish Englishman whom she does not love. Her husband, Paul Mason (Michael York), is a sexist, racist tyrant who mistreats his servants and his wife. Paul flees to England after the servants and their countrymen revolt and burn down the mansion, killing Annette's young son. Annette goes insane and is consigned to the care of a servant. Her daughter Antoinette (Karina Lombard) is placed in a convent until she is old enough to inherit the property, but the inheritance depends on her marrying a proper husband. By previous arrangement, she marries Edward Rochester (Nathaniel Parker). At first they are lustily in love, but Rochester proves to be as elitist who is as disrespectful as Mason. Rochester has title to all of Antoinette's property, but he despises Jamaica and wants to return to England. He also fears the black magic of Christophene (Claudia Robinson), who mixes up a voodoo potion which ends up driving the couple farther apart.

WIDE SARGASSO SEA is based on Jean Rhys feminist "prequel" to Charlotte Bronte,s classic novel, JANE EYRE. Rhys' novel took JANE EYRE as its inspiration, and imagined a history for the mysterious first Mrs. Rochester. The novel is considered both a feminist masterpiece, and insightful in terms of its exploration of the European attitude toward race. On the island of Jamaica in 1844, amidst the political upheaval brought about by slavery's abolition, Antoinette Cosway (Karina Lombard), a free spirited Creole, is forced to enter into an arranged marriage in order to inherit her dilapidated family's estate. At first she resents Rochester (Nathaniel Parker), her new husband; then, gradually, she falls in love with him. But Antoinette has many secrets that she cannot keep her husband from discovering. Soon the disturbed and suspicious Rochester, affected by the spell of Jamaica's "exotic atmosphere," brings the story to its tragic, and inevitable, conclusion.

A young female landowner in 1840s Jamaica marries a just-arrived Englishman to avoid losing her property. All seems to be perfect, love arises, and happiness is on the way, but she is hiding an old secret regarding her childhood and her mother. Slowly, this secret begins to erode this perfect relationship and, perhaps, her mother's story will begin again...with her.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 25 October, 2011.

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