Unusually structured and travelling at about the speed of India's Metupalayam Ooty Nilgiri Passenger Train, this film still delivers an intriguing story.
Set in India it has the bonus of authentic locations, and features two beautiful actresses at different stages of their careers in the same movie, although they don't share a single scene together.
The story takes a little getting into. It's actually two intertwined stories and starts with Anne (Julie Christie) travelling to India to find out about the life of her great aunt Olivia (Greta Scacchi) - a forerunner of "Who Do You Think You Are?" Flashbacks reveal Olivia's story and the film cuts back and forth from one story to the other as we see that Anne's journey follows Olivia's path, and also begins to parallel her story.
A fascinating aspect of the movie is how it reveals two Indias: one under the British Raj during the 1920's, which Olivia inhabited, and the modern one of the 1980's that Anne experiences.
Over the years there have been many films about British rule in India - Hollywood loved an earlier period especially along the Northwest Frontier, but of late, British films and television have concentrated on the decades just before India's independence - the twilight of the Raj.
Another critical element in the drama is the relationship between a semi-independent prince, the Nawab of Khatm (Shashi Kapoor), and the British rulers. The film shows the attitudes of the British and Indians towards each other, and also the attitudes of the British towards their fellow Britons. It highlights the class system that existed between the races and how crossing that line was linked to the balance of power.
Despite being married to Douglas Rivers (Christopher Cazenove), a British colonial official, Olivia crosses the line, has an affair with the Nawab, and is virtually banished from both societies. Although Anne also has an affair with an Indian, it is 60-years later and no longer has the significance of her great aunt's fall from grace.
This film looks good and composer Richard Robbins created an evocative score blending electronics with Indian instruments.
Although the script and direction understates just about everything, even using narration to glide over what could have been emotion charged scenes, the combination of stars, locations and the lovingly recreated depiction of an era ensures that "Heat and Dust" still leaves an impression.
Plot summary
Anne is investigating the life of her grand-aunt Olivia, whose destiny has always been shrouded with scandal. As Anne delves into the history of her grand-aunt, she is led to reconsider her own life.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
April 26, 2019 at 03:07 PM
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A tale of two women
Not much heat but definitely covered in dust.
This is a film that I truly wanted to love because as a fan of the Merchant Ivory films, it seemed to have a lot of potential. Also, being interested in Indian culture, I wanted to see it for that aspect, and there I was not disappointed. You get a lot of that but you do not get much story. It is an examination of a woman's life through letters left behind that are in the hands of her great-niece Julie Christie. Greta Scacchi, in her film debut, gets better material than Christie, and her performance and character reminds me of an underrated drama she did a few years later, "White Mischief".
When Christie arrives in India, she goes to the exact locations where her aunt went 60 years before, and in comparing that gap, it appears that not much has changed. In a sense, she is nearly possessed by her aunt Spirit as she finds herself drawn into this strange culture, finding solace there and making friends with the locals, eventually having an affair with a married Indian man.
As I said above, the better sequences are the earlier ones, dealing with newlyweds Scacchi and Christopher Cazenove, and it's obvious that she finds little passion in that marriage. She's very similar in that area to Miss Quested in "A Passage to India" and Karin Blixen in "Out of Africa", but those are better films that flow with better pacing and more interesting stories. You don't even get the vistas of the beautiful Indian countryside, just glimpses into some of the traditions and a bit of historical relevance. It's nearly humorless and at times that makes it tedious to get through.
Greta Scacchi looks lovely in her first major film
Very disappointing and drawn out effort that neither gives a realistic or particularly romantic pictures of those seemingly despicable days in India. One or two pretty scenes but low key and seeming dispassionate direction leaves one wondering where the enthusiasm came from to even set this up. Greta Scacchi looks lovely in her first major film but most is overdressed soap opera and Julie Christie seems so lost she must still be wondering why she ever did this.