| Cousin Bette | | Cast : | Jessica Lange, Elisabeth Shue, Bob Hoskins | | Director : | Des McAnuff | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | June 12, 1998 | | DVD Released Date : | December 17, 2002 | | Language : | English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | March 11, 2005 | | Summary | Bad misfire | Content
 | I've never read the Balzac novel this movie is based upon, but if Balzac wrote a coherent story, it didn't make it to the screen this time around. The settings and costumes are glorious, leading one to expect somewhat high-brow entertainment, perhaps on the order of Merchant/Ivory. Not to be. A sophomoric joke repeatedly cropping up in the film is Elizabeth Shue's naked backside. Huh? Wouldn't the Gendarmes come running, in 1846 Paris? Sacre Bleu!
None of these people are very nice, but they don't deserve the mischief Cousin Bette inflicts upon them. And what is Jenny Cadine's motivation for letting herself be used in Bette's schemes. Nothing makes sense, and the whole movie was just bad misfire. Avoid if possible. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 11, 2005 | | Summary | Jessica Lange in a superb performance | Content
| COUSIN BETTE, based on the novel by Honore de Balzac, stars Jessica Lange in a delicious performance.
Elisabeth Fisher (Jessica Lange), known to her relatives as Bette, is a humble seamstress in a burlesque theatre in Paris. She has always been taken for granted by her rich relations, and has never enjoyed the love and affections of an admirer. Bette falls in love with the penniless artist Wenceslas Steinbach (Aden Young) and saves his life when he tries to commit suicide. Excerting a control over him, Bette believes that her feelings of love are mutual. But when Wenceslas falls in love with Bette's pretty young cousin Hortense (Kelly Macdonald), it gives way to a chain of events that will see all of Bette's grasping relations dealt with...
Elisabeth Shue plays comely courtesan Jenny Cadine, who becomes a powerful pawn in Bette's plan for revenge.
The entire cast is superb. Hugh Laurie, Geraldine Chaplin, Bob Hoskins and Jefferson Mays all turn in excellent well-rounded supporting performances. Elisabeth Shue is an eyeful as the flamboyant burlesque star Jenny; Aden Young a stridant yet naive as Wenceslas, and Kelly Macdonald is great as the selfish, indifferent Hortense.
Jessica Lange, quite easily the greatest actress of her generation, adds another amazing role to her canon. This is right up there with Frances Farmer and Blanche DuBois.
An must-see. This film is a black revenge comedy-drama with a twist! |
| Rating | | | Date | January 26, 2005 | | Summary | Please - before the 1972 videotape disintegrates! | Content
| Oh PLEASE - whoever has the rights to dub off the original 1972 Masterpiece Theater TV series of 'Cousin Bette' do so and make it available on DVD. This was one of THE finest shows ever created for television. Truly, it totally eclipses the 1998 movie version and now, 40+ years later, I fear it will soon not be physically possible to render this production to DVD. For the sake of one of the theater (and humanity's) most glorious theatrical efforts, PLEASE make the original TV version available! (BTW - I rate the ORIGINAL item at 5+ STARS!) |
| Rating | | | Date | August 30, 2004 | | Summary | Excellent drama about a hauntingly psychopathic villainess | Content
| Jessica Lange gives an absolutely mesmerizing performance as an extremely dangerous, shrewd, and mentally disturbed woman. In the drama Jessica, as Cousin Bette, saves a young artist from an attempted suicide and believes that his life belongs to her. Later Jessica's younger cousin steals the artist from Cousin Bette and there begins a tale of revenge. And revenge, as the Italian proverb states, "is a dish that people of taste prefer to eat cold". Jessica then plots how to destroy those who have caused her emotional pain. There are no limits to the events that she cleverly orchestrates in the background including murder. Jessica validates the saying that "Hell hath no fury as that of woman scorned". Jessica Lange won an Oscar for her performance in "Blue Sky"; however I believe her performance as "Cousin Bette" is even better. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 10, 2004 | | Summary | Absolute trash! | Content
| I'll never forget the Masterpiece Theater mini-series from 1971. It was a sheer delight. Jessica Lange's Bette is a defanged, declawed pussy cat when compared to Margaret Tyzack's fierce tigeress whose fangs and claws are lethally sharp and carefully concealed. I keep hoping PBS will rebroadcast the original series. Until then, forget the insipid movie. |
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