August (1996 film)
| August | |
|---|---|
 DVD Cover Art | |
| Directed by | Anthony Hopkins |
| Written by |
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| Starring |
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| Music by | Anthony Hopkins |
| Distributed by | The Samuel Goldwyn Company (USA) |
Release dates | 9 August 1996 |
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
August is a 1996 British drama film directed by and starring Anthony Hopkins as Ieuan (IPA:j/əɨ/a/n) Davies, and featuring Rhys Ifans in a small role in one of his earliest films, as Griffiths. It is an adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, with the character Ieuan Davies taking over the title role from the play.
The film was Hopkins's first feature film with a full cast (he had previously directed the one-man-performance of Dylan Thomas: Return Journey in 1990). It would be over a decade before his next directorial effort would, Slipstream in 2007, which he also wrote and for which he also composed the score.
Adaptation and issues
The film adapts Uncle Vanya to a turn-of-the-century Welsh setting, emphasizing the hardships of Welsh industrial life in the slate quarries and Welsh-English turmoil as an English professor upsets normal Welsh life when he arrives at the Welsh estate which acts as his vacation home (at one point Ieuan states that he feels that he has been cheated by the Prof. Blathwaite, just as "the English have always cheated the Welsh").
Language
It is primarily in English, with a few lines in Welsh here or there - such as diolch yn fawr iawn ("thank you very much"), cariad (a term of endearment, meaning "love"), and iechyd da ("cheers").
See also
- Meibion Glyndŵr, on Welsh-English relations surrounding the English taking vacation homes in Wales.
- List of Welsh films
- Slipstream (2007 film directed by Anthony Hopkins)
External links
- August at the Internet Movie Database