The Remains Of The Day

There's no better way to debut Ismail Merchant and James Ivory on this channel than to chat about their finest film. The Remains Of The Day also represents the first time Emma Thompson or Hugh Grant have come up on Have You Ever Seen...although Anthony Hopkins HAS been in one classic Oscar winner that we've covered. Something about lambs. In this case, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's layered screenplay adapts Kazuo Ishiguro's acclaimed novel about repression through exemplary professionalism, even though that hard work comes at a cost. Did Hopkins dedicate his life to a noble cause...or was his life wasted? We tried to figure out the morality of the job done by the butler Stevens (Hopkins) and the housekeeper Kenton (Thompson) in an old-world country estate where their lord works tirelessly to, in the end, appease the Nazis. Thorny issues. Our 548th podcast analyzes what the talented English actors and their international team brought to the table in this classy production of The Remains Of The Day.

Additional thought: perhaps Stevens didn't share his opinion in the "I'm unable to be of assistance in this matter" scene because he didn't want to risk his job by contradicting the guy who was putting him on the spot OR by contradicting anything said or thought by Lord Darlington.

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