Friday, November 7, 1997
Period piece goes beyond the pretty petticoat
FILM: With poise and charm, Helena Bonham Carter takes
flight
in her newest role
By Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
With "Lady Jane," "A Room with a View," "Howard’s End,"
"Hamlet," "Twelfth Night" and now "The Wings of the Dove" under her
belt, there’s good reason Helena Bonham Carter has been dubbed the
queen of period pieces. But look beyond the corsets and one will
find something more than beautiful costuming – interesting
characters.
"I love doing them and I love the parts," Carter says of her
numerous characters. "I find they’re all rather different although
they all seem to be dressed the same."
Indeed, Carter has embodied many characters, and in her newest
film, the British actress goes down yet another path in playing
Kate Croy, a character with a mean streak.
"When I was first sent (the script) I thought, ‘Can I afford to
do another corset film?’" Carter recalls. "I thought, well actually
what justifies it partially is (that) it was a very different kind
of character. In broad terms, it was a baddie, but then I thought
in order to play her I’m going to have to like her."
On the surface, some may not like Kate because she convinces her
lover Merton Densher, Linus Roache from "Priest," to seduce her
dying friend Millie Theale played by Alison Elliot ("The Spitfire
Grill"). The scheming is designed to get Millie to leave her
fortune to a penniless Merton who in turn can then live a
comfortable life with Kate after Millie’s death.
But Carter gives Kate depth and sensitivity, making the story
more than one about temptation, love and betrayal than pure
greed.
In preparation for the film, Carter had intended to read the
Henry James’ novel on which the film is loosely based.
"I tried to, but honestly it’s sort of impenetrable," Carter
admits.
She says that among the cast only Elizabeth McGovern, who plays
Susan, managed to finish the entire novel. Roache, on the other
hand, purposefully avoided the literature.
"When I came on board, they’d already got the script and really
taken the essence of the story and sort of got rid of a lot of
extraneous stuff," Roache says. "I felt that if I was to go back to
the book I would be in danger of trying to do the book rather than
do this film, which is almost like a fresh expression."
Book or no book, Carter is glad to have moved past the virginal
ingenue characters of her early career.
"As far as the ingenue is concerned I haven’t actually done that
many lately," Carter says. "I’m somewhat different now. Both in age
and in experience and certainly the virginal thing, god that’s some
light years away.
"I find it faintly irritating to sort of have this sort of
expectation of me, I guess," Carter continues. "But within the
profession, the sort of jobs that I get, the variety of scripts and
parts makes me feel at least within the profession there’s an
awareness that I’m not just incapable of doing more than those
kinds of roles."
Originally though, the film-makers weren’t sure Carter was right
for the role of Kate. They wanted somebody in her 20s.
"When I was first interviewed, (director Iain Softley) said, ‘Do
you mind screen testing?’" Carter remembers. "I found out why. They
didn’t tell me, but it was because they thought I might be too
old."
Carter says she thought that Kate should be older because she
was such a complex character.
"I think that (with) Kate, there’s a certain complexity that
belongs to somebody older, and I felt they wanted to girlify her
and ingenue her, put her through the ingenue machine."
Carter says her grandmother who was around Kate’s age during the
time of the film, was a very prominent liberal spokeswoman. And her
father was the prime minister at the time the film was set.
Carter’s grandmother wrote vividly and copiously and now her
family has published two volumes of her diaries. Carter has been
reading her grandmother’s entries.
"It is a great treat. It’s a great legacy to have since I didn’t
know her," Carter says. "By reading the novels and diaries in her
journal, (I get) to know somebody who I would otherwise not have
known intimately.
"It’s funny reading them because sometimes I come across a thing
like ‘I read "Howard’s End" today.’ She read a lot, and she read it
when it came out. And ‘A Room with a View’ too."
FILM: "The Wings of the Dove" opens in Los Angeles today.
(Left to right) Alison Elliott, Alex Jennings and Helena Bonham
Carter in Iain Softley’s "The Wings of the Dove."