Le domaine

This is about as undramatic a film as it's possible to make.

I didn't see it in the cinema but instead watched a DVD. The sound effects are pretty terrible - lots of clinking of keys and plod by plod descending of stairs. The actors put nothing into the film, and with a script that plods along too, providing no drama, whether it be in the sub-story of the political activist - a sub-story that doesn't seem to me to serve any useful purpose - or in the main story, the search of a way out of the family's financial problems. The English sub-titles too are very poor grammatically, and often quite poor as far as English goes. That, however, is the least of this film's problems. Not a film I would ever wish to watch again.

Wekande Walauwa (Mansion by the Lake) is a 2002 award winning Sinhalese language film directed by Lester James Peries that follows the lives of wealthy people in Sri Lanka. As per the film director the story is inspired by Anton Chekov's play The Cherry Orchard adapted to a Sri Lankan family context. It is clearly visible that the lake and the mansion are not adjacent or conterminous, though the name of the film is Mansion by the lake . Paboda Sandeepani as Aruni is showing lot of potential . Film was shown for one week at the Empire Cinema before the release date. Devaka S. Jayasuriya - St. Andrew's Lane Kadawatha Sri Lanka

Can this really be the director who made REKAVA a half century ago? It does have the measured authoritative quality of the films that Carl Dreyer or G.W. Pabst made in their seventies - should we add Clint Eastwood? Peries is not overshadowed in this company.

However MANSION BY THE LAKE is warmer and more involving than the work of these other seasoned directors. The Chekov plot is visible but the people seem so firmly located in their own setting that it is hard to think of it as an adaptation. Sharp, high key color picks out the lush foliage, fabrics, skin textures and the central image of the still imposing family house, as we get into the machinations that take away it and the way of life the family knew, as part of a salvage effort and revenge by the one time servant.

Perhaps it would not be so surprising if we could see the other films made by the people involved. The novelty certainly adds to the film's appeal. It is odd to write about a film's dignity as it's major asset.