House of Mirth

one of my all-time favorites. READ IT. although it sounds extremely hard to believe, the cinematic adaptation with gillian anderson and dan akroyd is very good as well.

yes Lauren is right - the book is stunning and incredibly moving. Its amazing how she manages to make Lily Bart so horrid and yet you still stay on her side. Or rather you swither between extremes: she's clever/ i hate her/ she's selfish and manipulating/hmmm.... she's just like me...

Forget "The Age of Innocence" this is her masterpiece. I didn't like the film so much at the time (stilted acting i thought) but i feel like i want to see it again because i also love Terence Davies' films.

READ IT.

yeah, the acting isn't the film's strongest suit overall (though i do think anderson did a great job). what i really liked about it is that it completely nailed the stifling, poisonous atmosphere that bart is trapped in. it would have been easy to make the film without an emotional core and let the period details suffice (cough, age of innocence, cough).

The fim was shot in Glasgow stanfdng in for New York. Bizarre!

Terence Davies is currently filming Lewis Grassic Gibbons' "A Scots Quair" but it is having quite a tough time cos no one will give him enough money. that makes me pretty sad.

One thing about the film is that is suggests that something that possibly happened by accident happened by Lily's own choice in the very end (trying not to give anything away). I dont think that's any worse an ending but it is interesting.

...and there's a beautiful series of shots going from a very slow pan of a dust-sheeted drawing room to a rainy garden and stream to the prow of a boat to the italian(?) coast which is simply breathtaking.

that sequence is what pops into my head first when i think of the movie. gorgeous.