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A New York socialite circa 1905 learns hard life lessons in this beautifully austere period piece from British director Terence Davies (The Neon Bible). Based on Edith Wharton's celebrated novel, it stars Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) as Lily Bart, a young, husband-hunting society woman whose unique blend of integrity and naiveté leads to her exile from the world of privilege. Davies charts Bart's spectacularly steep fall from grace with superb restraint, allowing the story to unfold slowly and quietly, with subtly executed scenes that work as set pieces. Insinuation and innuendo propel the story line, which is punctuated by the briefest moments of intense emotion. Anderson plays the lead with a perfect combination of strength and vulnerability, allowing Bart's charm to fray in the face of adversity while keeping her dignity intact. The helpless witness to Bart's seemingly inexorable downward slide is a young lawyer (Eric Stoltz), the only man for whom she harbors genuine affection, but here true love offers little promise of lasting happiness. The House of Mirth is anything but mirthful, yet it's no tearjerker, either. Rather, a permeating sense of hopelessness, unfettered by any overt sentimentality, results in a film that rises above typical period fare into a realm of hushed introspection as it contemplates Bart's fate and the irrelevance of truth in the face of propriety. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

Adapted for the screen from Edith Wharton's much-loved novel of the same name, House of Mirth follows the fortunes -- or lack thereof -- of Lily Bart, an ambitious but financially imperiled young woman looking for a rich husband in early 20th century New York. The story opens as Lily (Gillian Anderson) takes tea at the apartment of Lawrence Selden (Eric Stoltz), a young bachelor lawyer to whom Lily is attracted but cannot marry because he is not wealthy enough for her liking. Lily stops at Selden's apartment en route to Bellomont, where she is planning to husband-hunt at the country home of shifty businessman Gus Trenor (Dan Aykroyd) and his wife. Gus agrees to invest some money for Lily, but his intentions toward her quickly turn carnal, and when she rebuffs his advances, she finds herself $9,000 in debt. Help arrives in the form of financier Sim Rosedale (Anthony LaPaglia), who extends to Lily a businesslike proposition of marriage; though she is tempted, Lily refuses his offer because he is nouveau riche rather than blueblood society. Soldiering on, Lily journeys to the Mediterranean, where she has been invited to the home of Bertha Dorset (Laura Linney), an alpha socialite who schemes to use Lily as an unwitting decoy for an affair under the nose of her husband George (Terry Kinney). When the trip starts to go bad, George tells Lily that he wants to divorce the slatternly Bertha, but needs some solid proof of her affairs in order to do so. Lily knows that one of Bertha's previous lovers was Selden, but her loyalty to him prevents her from speaking up to George. So, still in debt to Gus and given only a paltry inheritance by her aunt (Eleanor Bron), Lily endures a slew of unsuccessful jobs and, tragically, gradually sinks into the mire of genteel poverty. Directed by Terence Davies, House of Mirth premiered at the 2000 Locarno Film Festival. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Village Voice

For much of this leisurely yet streamlined film, brilliantly adapted by British filmmaker Terence Davies from Edith Wharton's most powerful novel, the unfortunate Lily (Gillian Anderson) engages in an elaborate chess game...Davies's sense of the material is closer to a Mizoguchi geisha drama than Masterpiece Theatre...His House of Mirth depicts a prolonged martyrdom in which the heroine is tricked, abused, or betrayed by almost every character she meets. As the performances are boldly emblazoned, so the filmmaking is remarkably subtle. J. Hoberman

Product Details

• UPC: 043396064553
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 2:20:00
• Sales Rank: 15,609

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• House of Mirth/Les Miserables

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