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The Browning Version (1994)

Starring Albert Finney, Greta Scacchi, Matthew Modine, and Julian Sands.  Cinematography by Jean-François Robin. Editing by Hervé Schneid.  Produced by Ridley Scott and Mimi Polk Gitlin.  Written by Ronald Harwood.  Directed by Mike Figgis.

Andrew Crocker-Harris (played by Albert Finney) is the Greek and Latin professor at a prestigious English prep-school. The institution’s language department is undergoing a major reconstruction and no longer has a need for a classic language instructor.  So after almost twenty years of service Crocker-Harris is being replaced by the younger and more modern Tom Gilbert (played by Julian Sands).

This suits the students of the school just fine as Crocker-Harris is one of the most hated of the school’s faculty; a fact that the teacher is seemingly unaware of.  To make matters worse, his mandatory retirement comes at a time when Crocker-Harris is being forced to deal with the fact that his younger wife (played by Greta Scacchi) is having an affair. He ultimately finds inspiration and redemption in a young student named Taplow (played by Ben Silverstone) who offers him a departing gift that gives him more than he ever could have expected.

It is not uncommon in the filmmaking community for two production teams to be developing similarly themed projects at the very same time. In the early nineties Ridley Scott found himself in that type of situation while producing 1492:  Conquest of Paradise.  While shooting his film, Scott learned that the father/son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind was working on their own adaptation of the Columbus story titled Christopher Columbus:  The Discovery. 

It can only be seen as a bad stroke of luck, however, when the same thing happened to the same man two times in a row.  Scott’s next project was to be an adaptation Richard Preston’s true account of the Ebola virus in America called The Hot Zone:  A Terrifying True Story.  Slated to star Jodie Foster and Robert Redford, The Hot Zone’s production was troubled from the get-go. 

But to make matters fatally worse, Warner Brother’s was already committed to their own Ebola project titled Outbreak.  The Hot Zone was eventually dropped, leaving Scott available to focus on the projects being developed at his production company. A remake of the 1951 film The Browning Version would mark the first time in his career that he would act exclusively as a producer.

The Browning Version was originally written for the stage by Terence Rattigan in 1948. The play was a resounding success and was adapted to the screen just a couple years later by Rattigan himself.  The film version of the story earned its own acclaim and won Rattigan a best screenplay award at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival.

Almost fifty years later The Browning Version would find itself back at Cannes and in contention for the coveted Golden Palm. The Browning Version would become one of the more conservative and conventional projects in the filmography of director Mike Figgis who would later take on projects like Leaving Las Vegas, The Loss of Sexual Innocence, and Timecode.  The film is extremely dry and painfully slow at parts, but a patient viewer can find some redeeming qualities.

Budget: $???

Total US Gross: $464,423

Genre: Drama

Runtime: 97 Minutes

US Release Date: 10/12/94

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Awards:

Cannes Film Festival: 
Nominated for the Golden Palm.

Tagline: The Greatest Lessons In Life Are The Ones Learned By Heart.

Quote: “I'd rather have this present than anything else I can think of.”