Country Matters

Country Matters is packaged with lovely, serene photos. Fueled by the title, the mind conjures up pastoral images. I was prepared for a series of Period Piece short films that spoke of love, hate, loss, gain, apathy, greed, and all other such matters related to life everywhere, not just in a country setting.....What I got was several grim, sometimes mean little stories and the sole taste left in my mouth was that of utter cynicism. I wanted to be just in my assessments, and followed through by first actually viewing all of the stories in the two DVD set. Secondly, I truly strived to view these vignettes with an open mind....It is admirable that the authors of these slice-of-life stories strived for realism. I regret, however, that their point of view was quite unbalanced in that the Law of Reciprocity(You know-the reap what you sow thing) seems not to exist in the world of these stories. No one expects the "happy ever after". Again I understand that these are simply vignettes. The nuances of hope, light, and (God forbid, can I say it) redemption are sorely absent from this archival collection. There wasn't a single film in this collection that left me with a desire and or longing to watch it again.

Described by IMDb as "The story of people living in the countryside of the UK after World War I". What struck me was that many had a similar theme of men of varying degrees of eligibility having to choose between two or even three women. Which seems a nice problem to have. After WWI there was a surfeit of women of 1.7 million, some 10%. I'll confine my comments to these, happily three of the five are my favourites.

CRAVEN ARMS. Art teacher David (Ian McKellen) finds his classes popular with young women, three of whom he romances. All are good looking, but I didn't feel there was much character development, also it was too talky, so only rate it 6.

THE HIGGLER. Ex soldier Harvey (Keith Drinkel), fallen on hard times, is courting a local girl, then meets someone else with better financial prospects. As is usually the case with these stories, it doesn't end well. Rating 7.

CRIPPLED BLOOM. Dodgy, promiscuous bookmaker Potter (Joss Ackland) is walking out with pretty but lame Ruby (Pauline Collins). He soon transfers his affections to her more hard nosed and practical sister Nan (Anne Cropper). Rating 8.

THE FOUR BEAUTIES. Three sisters take a shine to young journalist Henry (Michael Kitchen). The older Christie is flirty and flighty, the middle one Sophie is rather devious, the youngest Tina adores him but is only fourteen. The fourth beauty is the mother. Rating 8.

THE SULLENS SISTERS. Young Tommy (Peter Firth) is in love with Rachel (Penelope Wilton) but she's seven years older and has a boyfriend. He comes to realise her younger sister Lindy (Clare Sutcliffe) is probably a better prospect. As I liked this one the most I've also done an episode review. Rating 9.