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"Cousin Bette" (1971) More at IMDb Pro »
12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
First rate dramatization!, 15 August 2000
Author: jward-5 from Berkeley, CA
After seeing the 1998 "stinker," I can't help longing for a video release of this outstanding production. Wry, bitter, and brilliant! Margaret Tyzack's performance as Bette is so beautifully nuanced and only underscores the terrible miscasting of Jessica Lange.
12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Classic Masterpiece Theatre!!, 31 December 2001
Author: tbob02 from Dozier, Alabama
I was so impressed with 1971's Cousin Bette that I based my senior term paper on its author, Honore de Balzac. (You should have seen my teachers' face when I told her who I was doing the paper on!!) Why this PBS treasure isn't on VHS/DVD after 31 years is a mystery to me!!
If you ever get a chance to see this 1971 mini-series, please do:
A classic never goes out of style!!
5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Be Careful Of Whom You Casually Scorn and Dismiss, 20 May 2006
Author: theowinthrop from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Margaret Tyzack was one of the lucky ones (with Martin Jarvis, Michael York, and Susan Hampshire) out of the original B.B.C. series THE FORSYTE SAGA. These four really managed to build careers not only on television but in the theater and even movies from their roles as Winifred Dartie, Jon Forsyte, Young Jolyon Forsyte, and Fleur Forsyte Mont in that early series. With Tyzack it led to a Tony Award for a comedy she appeared in with Maggie Smith over twelve years back. But long before then she had the central part in this series. It demonstrated her range a bit.
When she was Winifred, the understanding sister of the stiff Soames (Eric Porter), she was one of the few who realized that there were human feelings that were crushed in the man. You ended up liking Winnie, and sympathizing with her for her marriage to Montague Dartie, who was a colorful bounder. But Winifred had no bad side to her. Not so with Cousin Bette. Honore de Balzac enjoyed showing people as they really are, and showing how worms can turn or one can raise vipers who are less pleasant than we expect. In his PERE GORIOT (or OLD GORIOT) he updates the KING LEAR story by showing a loving father impoverishing himself for two unloving (and unlikeable) daughters. In COUSIN BETTE he has the central figure as a poor relation to a minor aristocratic family, who thinks she has a chance for happiness with a Polish aristocrat in exile, only to find the family pulling out the stops to snare the exile for the young daughter (who is of marrying age). As a result a furious Bette decides to destroy the family.
Bette is in a great position to do this - she knows the family weaknesses of the head of the family (Thorley Waters) for young ladies. She is also aware that the Polish son-in-law (Colin Baker) also has a wandering eye. There are also side relatives who can be pushed into positions that are either uncomfortable or even fatal (like one elderly uncle who Bette manipulates into being sent to handle a family business in some pest hole in North Africa). Soon things just go wrong, especially after Bette makes an alliance with an ambitious young woman who is perfect for snaring both Waters and Baker.
Does she succeed? Beyond her wildest dreams of course...but like all schemers there are problems that Bette does not count upon. The collapse of her plans turns on the behavior of people beyond her knowledge and control, who find their plans being interfered with by her schemes and act accordingly. In the end the threads of her plots unravel one by one. But she is able to give a final thrust back before the end.
Tyzack's "Bette" was malevolent and fascinating - a far cry from her Winifred. To see her in both performances, one after the other, is to understand why her career has been as successful as it has been.
Can't believe it!, 28 July 2008
Author: Richard Holden (Petrushka@cox.net) from Tucson, Arizona
This is a great series from BBC but there is a problem here. I can hardly believe no mention here of the star, Margaret Tyzack. As if she didn't exist. She has such a long career in TV and movies. As Cousin Bette her performance is remarkable. Now at age 77 or so she should have been given credit. I believed I saw this on PBS sometime during the 80s. I must be mistaken as it's dated 1971. But it could have been a re-run. It seems to have just come out on DVD so I just rented it. There exists another version with Jessica Lange. This arrived in 1998 but I have not seen it. I can't imagine any other Cousin Bette than Tyzack but when I finish watching all 5 episodes of this version I'll rent the Lange one.
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