![]() ![]() The fact that Anthony Lane in The New Yorker claimed it was ‘oddly unshocking’ for me is a recommendation, because it is not the apparently controversial subject matter of teenage incest that hooks the audience, but the portrayals, mise-en-scène, and cinematography. ![]() ![]() Conversely, Birkin’s film is in a number of ways more interesting than Roth’s, in that the parents die of natural causes, leading to a subtler plot, plus it is more cinematically innovative. The film is now a British classic, and has blatantly influenced arguably more powerful films, such as Tim Roth’s The War Zone (1999), also based on a novel about transgression, Alexander Stuart’s 1990 book. Jack, a typical teenager, just cannot keep it in his trousers. This is emphasised in the occasional voiceover by the American astronaut, from the science fiction book Jack (Andrew Robertson) is reading, which speaks of the monster that rises up even in death, a metaphor for the dead mother and sexuality. At the same time, being set in an apparently observer-free world, during the hottest summer since 1900, there is something completely alien about the film from today’s perspective. Given the current intense media attention given to ‘wayward youth’, particularly concerning sexual behaviour, Andrew Birkin’s emotionally engaging and atmospheric 1993 adaptation of Ian McEwan’s 1978 novella has lost none of its relevance. ![]()
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