Tye Justis Reviews Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- A few words on Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Kind hearts and Coronets is a classic dark comedy from the British Film factory that produced some of the greatest cinema classics ever made in any era. Kind Hearts is a not so simple revenge story that in no small way highlights the protagonists wanton desire for revenge, his rightful place in society and his freedom from the sexual repression that his initial circumstances cuckold him into. This is achieved with cold, calculating familial dispatch with a twisting old world gentility and a dry wit that makes the viewer cheer him on against the arrogant, elitists whos lack of any fellow feeling have triggered the protagonist, Louis, to take a course of murderous action to reclaim what is rightfully his... and it is hilariously satisfying.
Disowned, disinherited and denounced for falling in love with the wrong man, Louis' mother and essentially Louis himself, once he is born out of the forbidden wedlock, must survive on her own as a single mother once her loving husband dies suddenly. Growing up essentially poor but wealth adjacent seeing that his rich relatives live and thrive all around him, Louis is well aware of the disparity and shame his mother faces from day to day, punished by being shunned by her family simply for love. This builds a distinct hatred for his kin that boils over in Louis once his mother dies prematurely, stoking his burning desire for revenge against the family that essentially sent his mother to an early grave.
Louis after losing his job because an arrogant relative, who more than likely had no idea who he was, for something trivial, the stage is set for his revenge against them. This inciting incident being a stark and instant reminder that without any position in his society, he is completely powerless to defend himself, especially at the turn of the twentieth century in England. Louis plans out the best way to begin, with his first victim being the clueless family member who lost him his only means of support in a local clothing shop.
As he makes him way through the family, after successfully, abet clumsily dispatching the relative who abruptly ended his career in women's clothing, the object of his desire, the cunning, manipulative Sibella, is even further out of his grasp. In love with her since they were children together there is no way she would lower herself to be with him and this only adds to Louis' frustration and resolve to ascend the family tree and obliterate all who stand in his way to the top. Only when he begins reaching his goals does he gain the confidence to win Sibella before he wonders if he even wants her anymore. That's when another woman, Edith enters and turns this narcissistic two-some into a more complicated love triangle that may destroy Louis before he can reach his ultimate goal of total bloodline domination.
Through the workings of his maniacal yet comically passive inner monologue, expressed through a calm voiceover throughout the film, the audience gets to experience the motivations and justifications Louis goes through to attain his goals. Though technically a serial killer who runs through his family with a chilling ease, Louis' lighthearted inner musings and description of each relative help the audience understand his reasoning, no matter how disturbing the outcome. Never handled in any gruesome way, Kind Hearts and Coronets is a delightful satire that illustrates the impact of social status, the absurdity of classism in the modern age more than glorifying familial slaying. Murderous allusions aside, Kind Hearts is at it's core a scathing, hilarious rebuke of English aristocracy that at the time of the original novel's writing, the book this film is based on, was still riding high at the onset of the Edwardian era. While when the film was made almost fifty years later, those so called "Edwardian values" had collapsed and were nothing more than a quaint, phantasmagorical memory. The film ties together the murderous elements of the novel it was based on by Roy Horniman, and the humor of the signature Ealing comedies of the late nineteen forties. Kind Hearts at the end of the day is about comic slayings and the temperament of the aristocracy of a bygone era. One mocking look back at a society which placed lineage, no matter how ridiculous over just about all else, making poets like Alfred Tennyson, who witnessed this era write "Kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood." A rebuke that still rings true today.
Tye Justis April 2021
Quite simply the best British film ever made.
Hard to argue that point. It was peak English filmmaking, amazing cast, perfectly executed and performed. It's lasted this long for a reason.
I bought the 7oth anniversary Blu ray collectors edition last year and loved it
It's a wonderful edition, glad you got it!
Brilliant ☺️☺️☺️
Well done Tye!
Such a great movie ☺. Frequently hilarious and darkly unexpected.
I was surprised it was that good and in the driest, most straight forward, British way possible. Such a classic!
great review, on a great film. i always thought it was Tiger by the toe
Thank you. I always did too, watching it here really changed my perspective on that old rhyme.
Excellent review, but the capitulation, and it is a capitulation, to PC post-modern judgmentalism is risible - and typical.
Well done Tye!
Thank you so much!
Well Tye, should we expect your memoir soon? I can a sure you the villain will pay in the end. Oh bye the way, my given name is Dexter Morgan😈😈.
Lol, not anytime soon for sure! Maybe not ever, too many cameras, haha
😆
In the British version Louis has still left a full confession behind in his prison cell so does he 'get away with it?'
Seeing that he remembers gives him the chance to get to it before anyone else, I would suppose.
@@tyejustis Not really. He doesn't remember until he's left the prison's front entrance. I don't think they'd let him back in just to collect personal stuff.
@@eddhardy1054 That's a good point though an innocent man could probably make any excuse, like leaving something small behind to get back in for a moment. Depending on the staff.
@@tyejustis Surely an innocent man wouldn't need an excuse since there'd be no incriminating evidence to leave behind...QED.
@@eddhardy1054 Good point.
Green hornet sent his regards