The House of Mirth (12) | Home Ents Review

Dir. Terence Davies, UK,US, 2000, 140 minutes

Cast: Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Laura Linney, Dan Aykroyd, Anthony LaPaglia, Elizabeth McGovern, Jodhi May

Review by Colin Dibben

Part of the British Film Institute’s celebration of the much revered British director, this 2K remaster and reissue doesn’t really do justice to Davies’ vision. It does however, make the film available on Apple TV and Amazon Prime as well as Blu-ray for the first time.

It is 1905 and Lily Bart (Anderson) is a New Yorker living with her aunt and expecting to inherit a substantial sum from her. Lily is independent and flirty, fending off good, solid offers of marriage at least in part because she has a grand passion for Lothario lawyer Lawrence Selden (Stoltz).

Lily crosses swords with the mores of her time as well as with three first-class bitches from her family and its social coterie, and at least one predatory male. Can she survive and win at love and riches?

This is a Terence Davies film so, of course, it is packed with beautiful shots. Davies always wants you to see the constructed nature of his shots and lighting schemes – there is no sense of immersion in what he is doing. Or rather, in other of his films, shot duration provides the only immersion. Here, this artificiality – of light more than material objects in the decor – allied with the characters’ old-fashioned way of speaking and an over-emphasis on meaningful looks throughout, makes the film slightly mannered.

Once you have understood the mannered approach, most of the acting is pretty obvious, if restrained. That is especially a problem with Anderson’s Lily. Except for a couple of nuanced sequences, she seems to have only two modes. The problem being that it makes her situation look like a “false position”, as Selden says at one point, meaning one that is both improbable and almost wholly of her own making.

The House of Mirth feels like a melodrama – fitting nicely with BFI’s current celebration of that genre. On the negative side, you get the sense that you are being manipulated emotionally by coincidences in the story as well as character quirks that embrace the unlikely.

But the real problem here isn’t the melodramatic story, but the 2K presentation, which just can’t cope with the nuances of Davies’ practical effects. Brightness and colour give the 35mm film a glassy, digital video look and details of sets and faces are often in blurry, soft focus. I guess a 4K treatment was just too expensive, but anyway it is a pity.

The Blu-ray hosts extras:

New audio commentary by Marc David Jacobs
Vintage audio commentary by Terence Davies
Deleted scenes (2000, 17 mins total): three deleted scenes with commentaries by Terence Davies
Still Lives – The House of Mirth (2025, 18 mins): Caroline Millar analyses Wharton’s novel and Davies’ interpretation
Featurette (2000, 7 mins): the cast and crew discuss the film
On location footage (2000, 11 mins): a peek at the cast and crew at work on location
Cast and crew interviews (2000, 27 mins): the director, producer and cast discuss Wharton’s novel and their approach to the material
Gallery (2025, 4 mins): featuring a selection of drawings, plans, script pages and stills from the Terence Davies Archive, Edge Hill University
NFTS Back Stories: Terence Davies (2021, audio only): Terence Davies discusses his career with Sandra Hebron

The House of Mirth is out now on Apple TV and Amazon Prime as well as BFI Blu-ray.