Episode Four- A Letter and Two Proposals
It’s
easy to imagine the narrative of part 4 re-worked for a sitcom as it deals with
two young people whose elders are attempting to push them into marriage which,
in different ways, neither is ready for. Yet in the end the choices they make
are unexpected. The intelligent Pierre is ultimately railroaded into an engagement
proposal he doesn’t even actually make; rather it’s Vasili Kuragin who
congratulates him and his own daughter Helene on it! He is less successful
though with his son Anatole whom he tries to interest Maria Bolkonskya in only
for the marriage to be rejected by her. While the episode starts with alot of material that seems like old fashioned frippery, it’s very cleverly constructed contrasting the two
situations and held together by Basil Henson’s wonderfully arch expressions.
Neither couple are ideally suited. Helene is beautiful and poised but Pierre believes she has no brain. Maria is plain but practical and has no connection with the vain Anatole who in any case is more interested in the French maid. Internal monologues comes into play as well and work so much better here than last week’s unexpected battlefield musing. We hear Pierre constantly saying to himself “how did this happen?” while Maria concludes that she wants to be happy and knows she would not be with Anatole. It is of course a timeless plot that had been and will continue to be re-purposed in all manner of dramas.
It is fun to see Pierre mumbling and fumbling like a gawky adolescent with Anthony Hopkins’ busy acting coming to the fore again. Angela Down’s stillness also works well against Colin Baker’s haughty self interest as Anatole. The letter referred to in the title is a note from Nikolai outlining the events of last week for which he appears to have been promoted. This really does tip over into over the top drama as the family react in various ways; whether happy or sad they appear to be playing to a gallery some distance away.
Episode Five- Austerlitz
Strategy
is what this is about as events take place entirely out in the field as the
inevitable battle draws near. Though both sides use identical overtures-
sending a high ranking envoy to exchange diplomatic niceties while also scoping
what the opposition camp is up to- it is clear Napoleon is much better at this
sort of thing. He manages to convince the Russians that the French army are
underprepared and short handed while his envoy gets the true measure of the
intent of the Russian camp. What the drama also does is paint a portrait of
each side’s leader. So we see Donald Douglas’ younger Tsar whose enthusiasm for
the campaign is not matched by intellect. He tours the battalions hoping his
presence alone will be enough to inspire the troops. We see the fervour he inspires in the
form of Sylvester Morand’s Nikolai Rostov whose tall tales from the battlefield
are called out by Bolkonsky. Yet these are really tales of what he wants to achieve
and later gets himself transferred to the front line. It sums up how
the Russians are more enthusiastic than they are skilled
David Swift’s Napoleon lingers in his tent sending equally inspirational messages on paper while he spends his time more
valuably working out what actually needs to be done. The narrative paints Napoleon as a
brooding figure, often alone in the semi darkness as he pours over maps while
his keen understanding of strategies is clear from his battle meetings. He allows
his Marshalls leeway knowing their skills can win the day whereas we see the
Russian meeting outlining intricately planned detail as if they can control
what both sides will do.
This
occurs to Andrei Bolkonsky who, in one of the increasingly well placed inner
voice monologues, realises the strategy sounds wrong. Later on the battlefield
he seems to comprehend that the Russians have been outflanked long before the
crusty Kituzov (Frank Middlemass as his bellowing best). It’s a good episode
for Alan Dobie actually- during this meeting as he voices his thoughts he does
what the best actors can do and subtly alters his facial expressions in tune
with what we can hear.
The
battle itself is a triumph for a tv show; once again access to many hundred
extras gives a grand sense of scale - a modern viewer thinks `digital effects` but there was no such thing then. Instead there are literally thousands of extras. John Davies’ direction mixes
confident wide shots of the lines and much closer, sometimes hand held, footage
of the bloody fighting. I know some have suggested these scenes are a little
laboured lacking perhaps the daredevil gymnastics we become accustomed to in
films but I would imagine they are far more accurate a depiction than the big
screen. Lines are not held, troops don’t advance all together and through
the ramshackle fusillade you can taste
the terrible toll these brutal battles took. Bolkonsky falls, a bullet grazing
his head and even though he appears dead at the end of the episode, he isn’t.
There’s a symbolic shot though of his body in the foreground and the victorious
Napoleon on a hill in the distance. Yet the latter is not triumphant and pays
tribute to the bravery of his fallen enemies.
Episode Six – Reunions
People
often say vintage tv dramas lack emotion unlike today’s which sometimes
overplay that aspect with lashings of technique and orchestral flourishes. Yet
here’s an example suggesting that’s not entirely true. `Reunions` updates us
with what’s happening in three different households and there is plenty of joy
and sorrow to go round. At the Bolkonskys despite two months since Andrei was
reported as falling in battle, his sister still holds out hope as the body has not
been found whereas her father declares that hope “is for fools”. Andrei’s
heavily pregnant wife meanwhile has not been told anything. At the Rostov’s
Nickolai’s return heralds speculation over whether he and Sonia can be together
while a new arrival, the smooth Dolohov sweeps in with a trendy moustache and
card tricks. Pierre, meanwhile, is unaware but also sort of aware his wife
Helene is having an affair with the sneaky Dolohov. If this all sounds a bit
like a soap opera set in the past, it is given more weight by some exemplary
acting especially from Fiona Gaunt’s distant but clever Helene and a great turn
from Donald Burton as Dolohov.
The
scenes are immaculately arranged from the dimly lit cold, lonely corridors of
the Bolkonsys as they wait to the warmth of the Rostovs and the boisterous
greeting the family give Nikolai. The episode’s set piece is set in a dance
where many of the characters come together for those oddly poised dances that
were all the rage. The Mazurka has to be seen to be believed; the man seems to
have you behave like a leaping deer. No wonder it’s never been revived.
Despite
its period drama trappings there is rich emotion in nearly every scene from
Helen’s dismissive responses to Pierre, Prince Bolkonsky’s refusal to even
think his son has survived, Sonya’s responses to her potential suitors and
Dolohov’s angry look when he doesn’t get his own way. With a melodramatic flair
that you probably would get today Andrei turns up, robes covered in snow, at
the moment when his child is born but his wife dies. Without music and set
amidst flickering candles it’s proof that these dramas can do emotion just as
well as they can today.
Episode Seven- New Beginnings
In
which Pierre joins the Freemasons, a ritual depicted by a most odd assortment
of symbols and jagged music that could be part of some series about the occult.
It looks so out of place in what is actually a superbly philosophical episode
presumably much of it taken from the novel. Pierre has hit rock bottom; his
unhappy marriage made even unhappier when he suspects the rascal Dolohov is his
wife’s lover mainly because the man himself keeps goading him about it. He
finally flips and challenges the scoundrel to a duel. Considering his
formidable reputation with pistols of all kinds, Dolohov actually turns out to
be a bit rubbish at the duel itself. Shot in a very cold, snowy forest we see
both parties advancing but Dolohov hasn’t even pointed his gun. Pierre trips,
gets up and fires hitting his tormenter albeit not fatally. Rules say Dolohov
has a shot but he misses.
Like
most matters we’ve seen him involved with this still doesn’t make Pierre any
happier but his Road to Damascus moment occurs in the unlikely location of a
waiting room as he travels to Petersburg. An elderly man engages him in a far
higher level of conversation than your or I have experienced at a bus stop or a
long queue in Waitrose. This man puts Pierre onto a new way of life, of helping
others for its own good rather than the selfish life Pierre has admitted he
hates. All of which leads him to the Masons.
The
results are evident when Pierre visits Andrei with, as the latter suggests, the
enthusiasm of someone recently converted. He tries to instill some of those values
in his old friend, now living a country life having left the army, and the
episode ends without telling us whether he has been successful. It struck me
that if indeed a series did go down this sort of road, the conversation would
be more personal, more emotional. The
difference in Pierre is plain to see. At the earlier dinner where he ended up
challenging Denisov, Pierre was taut and fearful at once, Here he is enthusiastically
explaining his new idea for living yet engaging in discourse rather than arguing.
Suitably
this is also the episode where the Tsar and Napoleon sign a treaty and, as one
observing soldier drolly puts it, pin medals on each other. We all know of
course this is one new beginning that won’t live up to its promise.
Pictures from the 1972 Radio Times War and Peace Special magazine.
The Lonely
Sea
Following
recent tragic events, teenager Tom Allenby has abandoned the Earthstone which
gives him power over the elements. Yet he is soon drawn back into that world by
a threat from a three hundred year old menace long thought to be dead. As
powers centre around a Bronze Age tomb that is not what it seems Tom is thrown
into a spectacular confrontation with powers from both the Earth and the Moon. The
Lonely Sea combines epic adventure on land and at sea, ancient mysteries and
emotional journeys.
This is the
sixth novel in the Heart of the World series set in and around the remote
English village of Rooksbourne under which the world’s natural elemental energy
lies.
Available on
Amazon in print and Kindle ebook format via link below
The Lonely Sea: Amazon.co.uk: Connors,
John: 9798859399956: Books
For more stuff
on my other books there’s a website www.johnconnorswriter.com
No comments:
Post a Comment