Rent Heat and Dust (1983)
3.2 of 5 from 97 ratings
2h 4min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- When Anne (Julie Christie) inherits the letters of her great-aunt Olivia (Greta Scacchi), she becomes drawn to India by their revelations of a relationship with a handsome and charismatic, if not entirely scrupulous, Indian prince (Shashi Kapoor). Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's adaptation from her own Booker Prize-winning novel moves effortlessly between past and present in a sensual and evocative journey, telling the story of both women's paths to self-discovery more than half a century apart.
- Actors:
- Julie Christie, Greta Scacchi, Christopher Cazenove, Julian Glover, Susan Fleetwood, Patrick Godfrey, Jennifer Kendal, Shashi Kapoor, Madhur Jaffrey, Nickolas Grace, Barry Foster, Zakir Hussain, Ratna Pathak Shah, Tarla Mehta, Charles McCaughan, Sajid Khan, Amanda Walker, Praveen Paul, Jayant Kripalani, Sudha Chopra
- Directors:
- James Ivory
- Producers:
- Ismail Merchant
- Writers:
- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
- Others:
- Gordon Kay, Walter Lassally, Wilfred Shingleton, Barbara Lane
- Studio:
- Odyssey Quest
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- Films & TV by topic, Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Julie Christie - At 85, Memory Lane: Films Set in 1920s
- Awards:
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 15/04/2019
- Run Time:
- 188 minutes
- Languages:
- English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English LPCM Mono, English LPCM Stereo
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.66:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Autobiography of a Princess (1975, 58 mins): Merchant Ivory's fictional study of royal India starring James Mason and Madhur Jaffrey
- Merchant Ivory's Royal India (2017, 33 mins): James Ivory in conversation with writer/director Chris Terrio
- Greta Scacchi and Nickolas Grace Remember Heat and Dust (2017, 42 mins): an interview by Claire Monk
- Q&A with Madhur Jaffrey (2017, 22 mins)
- Trailers
- Three archive shorts depicting some of the princely states of India (1922 -1940, 56 mins)
- The Guardian Interview: Ismail Merchant, James Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1992, 100 mins, audio only): John Pym moderates a panel discussion at the NFT
- Disc 1:
- This disc includes the main feature
- Disc 2:
- This disc includes special features
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Reviews (2) of Heat and Dust
An enjoyable film that is nevertheless a bit flat - Heat and Dust review by Philip in Paradiso
In 1982, an Englishwoman, Anne (Julie Christie), starts an investigation into the life of her great-aunt, Olivia (Greta Scacchi), whose diary and letters she has inherited. Anne’s research into the life of Olivia takes her to India, where Olivia's life is told in flashbacks. In 1923, during the British Raj, Olivia has come to join her husband in Satipur, in central India. She has recently married Douglas Rivers (Christopher Cazenove), a civil servant in the district's colonial administration. So, the film moves in parallel on 2 levels: on the one hand, in the world of today (at the time of the release of the film, i.e. 1983), and, on the other, in the world of yesterday - the colonial society of 1920s India. The destinies of the 2 women, predictably, will come to mirror each other.
The movie explores what India means to Anne and what it meant to Olivia, through their interactions with the local people. The 2 stories and the 2 periods are, therefore, interspersed. What the movie is very good at is re-creating the atmosphere of the British Raj, and what it meant to be British in India at the time: we realize how the relations between the Europeans and the 'natives' were, inevitably, codified in the extreme.
Olivia, for her part, does not respect those rules and expectations: she is a transgressor. That is what makes her interesting, and Greta Scacchi is radiantly beautiful, playing in a subtle way the part of this seemingly shy and reserved very young Englishwoman, who, in fact, is nothing of the sort. The 2nd story, however, is far less interesting. It comes across as rather banal, somehow, as compared to the 1920s narrative. The contrast between the 2 plots makes this obvious: the story set in the 1980s has the tone and style of a TV drama rather than an insightful feature film; it is fairly predictable and lacking in depth or passion, in my view.
If Merchant Ivory had focused purely on Olivia's story, it could have been a great film. But the combination of the 2 stories (as per the novel that the film is based upon) does not really work, and the movie feels slow and overlong at times, mostly on account of the story of Anne. As a result, the movie is worth watching and very interesting in places, but, fundamentally, it is a bit disappointing. One could give it 2 stars instead of 3, if it were not for the very good acting on the part of Greta Scacchi and a few others. ['White Mischief' is a masterpiece, as compared to this movie: it is set in 1940s Kenya and far more compelling.]
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
The Most Merchant Ivory of All Merchant Ivorys - Heat and Dust review by griggs
This might be the most Merchant Ivory film Merchant Ivory ever made, and one of the flimsiest — proof you can nail the vibe and still lose the plot.
Heat and Dust splits itself between 1923 and 1982 — Olivia (Greta Scacchi) scandalising the British Raj with a Nawab nobody trusts, her great-niece Anne (Julie Christie) doing the same tour sixty years later, minus the corset, plus a rucksack. There's one sharp trick — Anne peers into the old bungalow window and catches Olivia and the Nawab in the reflection, timelines fused into a single pane of glass — the only moment the film remembers it's allowed to be clever.
The modern half is thinner, mostly Anne watching things happen, while the 1920s half has actual stakes: an affair, a scandal, a secret nobody wants to own. I kept willing Anne offscreen so we could get back to Olivia and the Nawab.
It's good-looking, calm, occasionally moving, and never catches fire. Not Merchant Ivory's best, but comfortably in the neighbourhood — just the house at the less fashionable end of the street.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.