Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1996
August (1996 film)
Buy August (1996 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = August
| image = August_film_dvd.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = Anthony Hopkins
| producer = June Wyndham-Davies
Pippa Cross
| screenplay = Julian Mitchell
| based_on =
| starring =
| music = Anthony Hopkins
George Fenton
| cinematography = Robin Vidgeon
| editing = Edward Mansell
| studio = Majestic Films International
Newcomm
Granada Film Productions
| distributor =
| released =
| runtime = 94 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
United States
| language = English
| budget =
}}
'August' is a 1996 British drama film directed by and starring Anthony Hopkins as Ieuan (IPA:j//a/n) Davies, and featuring Rhys Ifans in a small role in one of his earliest films, as Griffiths. It is an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's 1899 play 'Uncle Vanya', with the character Ieuan Davies taking over the title role.
The film was Hopkins's first feature film with a full cast (he had previously directed the one-man-performance of 'Dylan Thomas: Return Journey' in 1990). It would be over a decade before his next directorial effort, 'Slipstream' in 2007, which he also wrote and for which he also composed the score.
During an interview on late night show, The Ghost of Hollywood, cinematographer, Robin Vidgeon, stated that working with Anthony Hopkins on August was the highlight of his career.
Cast
*Anthony Hopkins as Ieuan Davies
*Leslie Phillips as Prof. Alexander Blathwaite
*Kate Burton as Helen Blathwaite
*Gawn Grainger as Dr. Michael Lloyd
*Rhian Morgan as Sian Blathwaite
*Menna Trussler as Gwen
*Rhoda Lewis as Mair Davies
*Hugh Lloyd as Thomas Prosser
*Huw Garmon as Dafydd Edwards
*Rhys Ifans as Griffiths
*Susan Ellen Flynn as Rhianon
*Buddug Morgan as Nesta
Adaptation and issues
The film adapts 'Uncle Vanya' to a turn-of-the-century Welsh setting, emphasizing the hardships of Welsh industrial life in the slate quarries and Welsh-English turmoil as an English professor upsets normal Welsh life when he arrives at the Welsh estate which acts as his vacation home (at one point Ieuan states that he feels that he has been cheated by the Prof. Blathwaite, just as "the English have always cheated the Welsh").
Language
It is primarily in English, with a few lines in Welsh here or there - such as 'diolch yn fawr iawn' ("thank you very much"), 'cariad' (a term of endearment, meaning "love"), and 'iechyd da' ("cheers").
See also
* Meibion Glyndr, on Welsh-English relations surrounding the English taking vacation homes in Wales.
* List of Welsh films
References
Buy August (1996 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1996