The House of Mirth – Gillian Anderson’s performance is luminary (Blu-Ray restoration)

Released by the BFI on a special Blu-ray restoration of The House of Mirth (2000), for the 25th anniversary of initial cinematic release; Terence Davies’ adaptation of Edith Wharton’s classic novel starring Gillian Anderson.

The adaptation follows the travails of Lily Bart (Gillian Anderson) who as an impoverished socialite who ends up shun by high society owing to her gambling debts leading to an eventual addiction to morphine and falling into poverty.

Davies’ work consistently looks at the past to bring to mind the current predicament of the present – using long shots (not takes) to elicit the slow passing of time but also that this moment should not be forgotten any time soon.

A long lost sister film to Scorsese’s Age of Innocence; this is grandeur on a huge scale and Davies’ stab at a Merchant Ivory film. It boasts an eclectic and unusual cast – Anthony LaPaglia, Laura Linney, Eric Stoltz and Dan Akyroyd – which begs the question why didn’t Davies like Mike Leigh ever be given the blank cheque his talents so deserved.

Anderson in a post-X Files performance is luminary, holding our attention throughout with such assuredness. Her character is much like many people from nowadays – someone with social aspirations but no ambition to work hard, merely the hand of marriage will be enough to satisfy the materialistic urges within her so.

Davies combines his love of opera and stateliness, those prim and proper mores to great effect creating an evocative moving portrait of a film.

The new release features a 2K remaster in High Defintion with amongst others an audio commentary by Marc David Jacobs; a vintage commentary by Davies himself and his dulcet tones, 17 minutes of deleted scenes; critical visual essay by Caroline Millar on Davies’ interpretation of Wharton’s novel; on location footage; cast and crew interviews and an audio only track of Davies talking about his career with Sandra Hebron from 2021.

The House of Mirth is out now from BFI on Blu-Ray and available to stream on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime