A rule bound head butler’s world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master’s cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.
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Credits: TheMovieDb.

Film Cast:

• James Stevens: Anthony Hopkins
• Miss Kenton: Emma Thompson
• Lord Darlington: James Fox
• Jack Lewis: Christopher Reeve
• Reginald Cardinal: Hugh Grant
• William Stevens: Peter Vaughan
• Charlie, Head Footman: Ben Chaplin
• Mrs. Mortimer, the cook: Paula Jacobs
• Spencer: Patrick Godfrey
• Dupont D’Ivry: Michael Lonsdale
• Sir Geoffrey Wren: Rupert Vansittart
• Thomas Benn: Tim Pigott-Smith
• Lizzie: Lena Headey
• Harry Smith: Paul Copley
• Sir Leonard Bax: Peter Cellier
• Baroness: Brigitte Kahn
• Doctor Meredith: John Savident
• Doctor Richard Carlisle: Pip Torrens
• Lord Halifax: Peter Eyre
• German ambassador: Wolf Kahler
• Housemaid: Abigail Hopkins
• Auctioneer: John Haycraft
• Landlady: Caroline Hunt
• George, Second Footman: Steve Dibben
• Trimmer: Terence Bayler
• Canon Tufnell: Peter Halliday
• Viscount Bigge: Jeffry Wickham
• Postmaster: Tony Aitken
• Irma: Christopher Brown
• Publican: Ian Redford
• Publican’s wife: Jo Kendall
• Andrews: Steven Beard
• Craddock (uncredited): Miles Richardson

Film Crew:

• Casting: Celestia Fox
• Director of Photography: Tony Pierce-Roberts
• Editor: Andrew Marcus
• Makeup Department Head: Christine Beveridge
• Producer: Mike Nichols
• Producer: John Calley
• Production Supervisor: Joyce Herlihy
• Director: James Ivory
• Production Design: Luciana Arrighi
• Costume Design: Jenny Beavan
• Assistant Director: Bernard Bellew
• Dialogue Editor: Derek Holding
• Screenplay: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
• Producer: Ismail Merchant
• Original Music Composer: Richard Robbins
• Novel: Kazuo Ishiguro
• Music Director: Harry Rabinowitz
• Set Decoration: Ian Whittaker
• Assistant Director: Simon Moseley
• Associate Producer: Donald Rosenfeld
• Executive Producer: Paul Bradley
• Assistant Director: Christopher Newman
• Visual Effects: Martin Body
• Hair Department Head: Carol Hemming
• Script Supervisor: Diana Dill
• Location Manager: Christian McWilliams
• Property Master: Arthur Wicks
• Driver: Brian Baverstock
• Camera Operator: Roger Pearce
• Makeup Artist: Norma Webb
• Gaffer: Tommy Finch
• Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Robin O’Donoghue
• Art Direction: John Ralph
• Costume Design: John Bright
• Special Effects Supervisor: Garth Inns
• Choreographer: Elizabeth Aldrich
• Hairstylist: Paolo Mantini
• Music: Geoff Alexander
• Telecine Colorist: John Dowdell

Movie Reviews:

• CinemaSerf: This is one of Anthony Hopkins’ most nuanced and classy performances, depicting the last of a dying breed of upper servants in the stately home of “Lord Darlington” (James Fox). It’s told by way of a retrospective as he takes some time off from his work as butler to American millionaire “Lewis” (Christopher Reeve) and goes for a drive to meet the former housekeeper “Miss Kenton” (Emma Thompson). The theme has two threads. The first concerning the peer for whom he worked for a great period of his career. This is a man who believed in what turned out to be a flawed gentlemen’s code of honour and decency when it came to dealing with the rise of the Nazis. The second featured a more personal take on his life, reconciling his duties with the failing health of his now under-butler father (Peter Vaughan) as well as his relationship with a determined and new “Kenton”. The attention to detail on this production is meticulous; the characterisations are convincing and engaging – the unconditional loyalty of “Stevens”; the decent naivety of “Darlington” and finally, the strong performance from Thompson that acts nicely as a conduit from the days of old to the more modern times where the deference and service culture that gave “Stevens” his purpose (and comfort blanket) are now gone. This story offers a wonderful illustration of the how the consequences of WWI started the now inevitable process of change to a social structure that had endured for centuries, exposing the leadership class – which took such a dim view of their underling “sheep” as out of touch and, for all their education, no longer fit for purpose: any purpose! It’s a gently paced affair and that helps us to engage with this fine adaptation of the Ishiguro novel that, though applied here to the last days of Imperial Britain, could apply to many a nation in what was still a largely family run Europe.