Movies at the Library: Class differences in early 20th century British society
BY LOU SCHMITT | CONTRIBUTOR
For the final offering in the fall series of Movies at the Library, we will show the extraordinary 1983 romantic drama “Heat and Dust” on Tuesday, December 8 at 7 p.m. The film is one of the best from the wonderful output of Merchant Ivory Productions that includes “Howard’s End,” “The Remains of the Day” and “Jefferson in Paris.”
The screenplay for “Heat and Dust” was written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and is based on her 1975 Man Booker Prize-winning novel. The film is really two intertwined stories.
The first is set in the 1920s and deals with an illicit affair between Olivia (played by Greta Scacchi), the beautiful young wife of a British colonial official, and an Indian nawab, a romantic and decadent minor prince described by IMBd as combining “British distinction with Indian pomp and ruthlessness.”
Olivia, recently married when she joins her new husband in Satipur, quickly finds the conventional narrow society of the English memsahibs boring. At a palace dinner party, she attracts the attention of the nawab and he seduces her. Olivia eventually becomes pregnant and her life in unalterably changed.
The second story is set in 1982 and tells of Olivia’s grand-niece Anne (played by Julie Christie) and her trip to India. She hopes to find out about her great-aunt’s life, whose diary and letters she has inherited. While in India, she has an affair with an Indian man who has been serving as her guide as she tries to get connected with the world in which Olivia lived. The affair leads to Anne’s pregnancy and her life, like her great-aunt’s, is also changed.
Beyond these compelling stories is a rich examination of the class differences and hypocrisy of early 20th century British society. In particular, the Raj — meaning “rule” in Hindi — defined British colonialism on the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947, but was also firmly in place throughout the Empire.
Another film, “White Mischief,” shown earlier at the library and currently available in its DVD collection, tells the true story of similar events in British East Africa in the early 1940s.
The underlying tensions present in these societies are touchingly shown through the often tragic personal stories of those affected. These stories ring true to us today as we read, almost daily, of the tragedies of societies experiencing all forms of oppression.
Join us on December 8 at 7 p.m. on the library’s lower level when we will show this classic film.
