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Christopher And His Kind [DVD]
 
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Christopher And His Kind [DVD]

Matt Smith , Lindsay Duncan    Suitable for 15 years and over   DVD
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
Price: £9.97 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Actors: Matt Smith, Lindsay Duncan
  • Format: PAL
  • Language English
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: ITV Studios Home Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 21 Mar 2011
  • Run Time: 90 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B003Y3B0TK
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 11,608 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)

Reviews

DVD Description

Based on the writer Christopher Isherwood’s critically acclaimed memoir, Christopher And His Kind, this landmark BBC adaptation gives a fascinating glimpse into the decadent and politically unstable world of 1930s Berlin. A young wide-eyed Christopher escapes repressive English society and arrives in Berlin at a time when the cabaret scene is in full swing. Launched into the thriving gay subculture, Christopher embarks on a seminal journey of self-discovery.

Written by acclaimed playwright Kevin Elyot, this dramatic love story is set against the vibrant backdrop of Berlin’s cabaret nightlife and the dark rise of Nazi politics.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By Guy Mannering TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
There is one aspect of Christopher And His Kind which none of the Amazon customer reviews has touched on, namely its relationship to the book of memoirs on which it's supposedly based. I first read the book some thirty years ago having purchased the paperback after reading some enthusiastic reviews, although my only experience of Isherwood until then was having viewed the movie versions of I Am A Camera and Cabaret. I'd forgotten just about everything in the book but after watching this BBC production, and having on the whole enjoyed it, I decided to dust down my yellowed paperback and read it once again. This TV production covers roughly the first half of the book, the Berlin years, and the first thing to strike me was the amount of compression that is perhaps inevitable when you're constrained by a 90 minute time slot. I couldn't help feeling that the Berlin years and some of the events immediately thereafter would easily have filled three one hour episodes with no loss of interest. The second thing to strike me was that this production was not particularly truthful to the events described in the book, the script writer embroidering Isherwood's reminiscences with the author's fictionalised version of events and characters from his Berlin novels. Jean Ross, for example, the inspiration for the exhuberant Sally Bowles, is quite a minor character in the book and there is no indication that she was a cabaret singer or anything resembling Liza Minnelli, rather she comes across as a sort of leftist free spirit. Sally Bowles is essentially a literary and cinematic creation and it's Sally Bowles rather than Jean Ross that you get in this BBC production. There are frequent tweaking of characters and events. Heinz, serious boyfriend number three, is first spotted by Isherwood sweeping the streets although this is not mentioned in the book. And Heinz is described in the book as having no close family but is portrayed in this film as living with a tubercular mother and a pro-Nazi brother. It was in fact boyfriend number two, Otto, who had the tubercular mum but neither Otto nor serious boyfriend number one, Bubi, appear in the film, being replaced by an invented boyfriend called Caspar. Isherwood later bumps into Caspar dressed as a Brownshirt ejecting customers from a Jewish-owned department store although in the book Isherwood merely says that it was one of the former rentboys from the gay bars. In the book, Isherwood doesn't meet Gerald Hamilton for the first time on a train, an event clearly borrowed from the novel Mr Norris Changes Trains in which Isherwood transformed Hamilton into Arthur Norris and there is no indication in the book that Hamilton was into sado-masochism. There are many other omissions, deviations and borrowings. The film, in truth, is a rather sly mix of fact and Isherwood's fiction loosely based on fact, but I realise that entertainment values are always a prime consideration in TV productions of this kind and a Jean Ross who resembles the fictional and cinematic Sally Bowles is probably what audiences want to see, and an ex-boyfriend who morphs into a Brownshirt and a Gerald Hamilton who enjoys a good flogging from a rentboy are more likely to keep your interest from flagging.

On the debit side, the film's evocation of early 1930s Berlin is not particularly convincing. I understand that many scenes were shot in Ireland, perhaps a tight budget precluded shooting in eastern European locations. And when Isherwood visits his old Berlin haunts twenty years later no one seems to have aged much (just sticking a moustache on Heinz to transform him from 17 to 37 won't do.) Matt Smith does a passable job as the young Isherwood and the supporting cast is top notch. I particularly liked Lindsay Duncan as Isherwood's snobby mum, clearly aware that she is a stultifying influence on her sons but blithely ploughing on regardless (in the book she's depicted rather more sympathetically); and Toby Jones is wonderfully seedy as the rather shifty Gerald Hamilton, although in the book Hamilton comes across as a far more complex character, a wheeler-dealer with a fascinating history who manages to diddle Isherwood out of the then enormous sum of £1000.

Despite the film's dodgy adherence to the events related in Isherwood's book I felt it was quite successful in preserving the spirit of his Berlin years and I enjoyed it as a piece of entertainment. I only regret that the filmmakers weren't more ambitious with this project and that the producton values weren't a tad higher.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By cartoon
Format:DVD
How disappointing , this is not the full film which was shown on bbc2 this year . I guess so it could get a 15 certificate . The sexy controversial bits at the begining have been cut out so it makes it all rather tame and more Brideshead than it actually was . What a let down . Still i suppose if you havent seen it before then it can be a light entertainment .
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
An Englishman Abroad 1 April 2011
Format:DVD
Just Wonderful! Matt Smith is delightful as Isherwood and Imogen Poots has all the zest of a dizzy independent woman in the 30's. The cast are all so suitable and the story has the same feeling as does the reading of an Isherwwood novel. Standing back from life but honest in the extreme. It is the personality of a rich kid with a strange family, indulging in his sexuality while being aware of the curse of society of that period and also today. Politics, guts and sex. How do we meander through conviction and selfishness; through commitment and avoidance. Mostly I find Matt Smith a talent I enjoy watching in the 4 roles I have so far seen.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Damn Good Read
I'd seen bits of it on TV and decided to watch the whole thing and am glad I did.
For those who are of tender heart, it's a bit graphip on occasion... that should sell it :-)
Published 6 months ago by M. Von Kobylinski
Top class drama
If you are hesitating weather to buy this or not when dont, just buy it now. its fantastic, brilliant casting. 10/10
Published 9 months ago by Lwells94
Amezzeng!
Hiiii my name is James. I love this DVD. It was amezzeng.... Tessaaaaaaaa would love it too, but she didn't watch it. Shame... she missed out! Read more
Published 12 months ago by RJR
below par
I actually watched this after I had placed it on my wish list, it was advertised on BBC2 and I was hoping for what could have been and should have been a good storyline; it was for... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Rudolph Hucker
Too bad, Chris, too bad
Christopher and His Kind has an arresting subject, although Elyot's script is fairly superficial on the man himself. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Colin Thurlow
Christopher and his kind - dvd
I bought this DVD as a gift. so therefore I can't comment on the film itself. I can comment on the great service and the speed in which the item was delivered.
Published 13 months ago by thomas s elliot
Matt Smith beyond the TARDIS........
In a space of just two years Matt Smith has gone from an upcoming (but still largely unknown) young actor to one of Britain's hottest commodities, thanks in no small part to a... Read more
Published 13 months ago by W. McRae
A Footnote to Cabaret
Christopher Isherwood apparently knew what he was doing when he destroyed his Berlin diaries and published his Berlin Stories instead. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ford Ka
Not Bowled Over
Crass, embarrassing and a disgrace to the BBC.

It is not only about the inevitable comparisons to Cabaret. Read more
Published 14 months ago by D. M. Grealy
Encapsulates the hedonism and harshness of thirties Berlin
I was looking forward to this drama, and on the whole, it doesn't disppoint. Matt Smith delivers a fine performance as Isherwood - an Englishman who escapes from the predictable... Read more
Published 14 months ago by ceriithomas
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