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Features: DVD, Rated NC17, Unrated
A sensual and sheltered young woman grows up in the lush world of the Caribbean. An arranged marriage leads to seduction, betrayal and revenge. Starring Karina Lombard, Nathaniel Parker, Michael York, and Rachel Ward.
Editor's Note
Based on Jean Rhys' "prequel" to Charlotte Bronte's 1847 novel JANE EYRE, this haunting and beautiful film explores the mystery of Rochester's first wife, the tragic, attic-dwelling figure from Bronte's novel. When Rochester (Nathaniel Parker) marries Antoinette Cosway (Karina Lombard), a Jamaican woman, their fiery passion and her nightmarish visions of the past drive her to madness and him to withdraw in an attempt to regain his sense of self.
Plot Summary
WIDE SARGASSO SEA is based on Jean Rhys' feminist "prequel" to Charlotte Bronte's classic novel, JANE EYRE. Rhys' novel took JANE EYRE as its inspiration, and imagined a history for the mysterious first Mrs. Rochester. The novel is considered both a feminist masterpiece, and insightful in terms of its exploration of the European attitude toward race. On the island of Jamaica in 1844, amidst the political upheaval brought about by slavery's abolition, Antoinette Cosway (Karina Lombard), a free-spirited Creole, is forced to enter into an arranged marriage in order to inherit her dilapidated family's estate. At first she resents Rochester (Nathaniel Parker), her new husband; then, gradually, she falls in love with him. But Antoinette has many secrets that she cannot keep her husband from discovering. Soon the disturbed and suspicious Rochester, affected by the spell of Jamaica's "exotic atmosphere," brings the story to its tragic, and inevitable, conclusion.
| Features | NC-17 And R-Rated Versions | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: New Line |
| Release Date: 5/10/2005 |
| Running Time: 98 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1993 | | Catalog ID: 6325 | | UPC: 00794043632525 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...A most poetic film..." 04/16/1993 p.C6Variety
"...An exotic and erotic melodrama bearing notable literary pedigrees....[An] engrossing feature..." 04/19/1993 Chicago Sun-Times
"...The hothouse atmosphere permeates every scene....The story is complete in itself -- sad, haunted, inevitable..." 05/07/1993 p.44 James Berardinelli's ReelViews 5 of 10
Ultimately, it isn't that Wide Sargasso Sea is a bad movie; rather, it's a question of how powerful it could have been with lead performers who could bolster, rather than mute, their characters. After all, it's an interest in Antoinette and Rochester that pulls the audience through the story's less-engrossing segments. As things are, it too often seems that this film is just treading water. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
I have rarely seen a film that more effectively conveyed the climate it takes place in; the island is sunny and humid, the nights warm and damp, and sweat is allowed to glisten on the skins of the actors, instead of being mopped up and dusted down by the makeup artists. The hothouse atmosphere permeates every scene, creating an unhealthy climate in which young love is perverted, promises become lies, and jealousy is the strongest emotion. - Roger Ebert
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