I recently rewatched the 2010 romantic comedy-drama Letters to Juliet. I did so for the same reason I went and watched it in the cinema when it first came out. And that reason is Vanessa Redgrave.
Redgrave has long been one of my all-time favorite actresses, and I’ve written about her and her artistry many times at The Wild Reed (see, for instance, here, here, here, and here).
Now, 53 years later, Claire is given a second chance.
A lovely aspect of the film is that the older Lorenzo is played by Franco Nero, Redgrave's real life partner. The two had first met on the set of the 1967 film Camelot. She played Guenevere to his Lancelot. In 1969, they had a son, Carlo; but by 1971 they had amicably gone their separate ways. In 2006, just four years before making Letters to Juliet, Vanessa and Franco reunited and were married.
In 2007, Carlo Nero gave the following response when asked in an interview how he felt about his parents finally getting married.
It’s actually a wonderful, wonderful feeling, because, you know, I’ve witnessed since childhood a sort of very slow, long process by which they really were reunited, which is, I think, a wonderful thing. I mean, they’ve always had a love for each other, and despite the distance and differences. But, I mean, I think theirs is one of those wonderful . . . symbolic stories, really, of how people can reconcile and allow their love to grow and nurture it all along the way.
Roger Ebert, having interviewed both Nero and Redgrave on the set of Camelot in 1966, noted how much of the love story between their characters in Letters to Juliet is nearly autobiographical.
Following is a short 2010 interview with Vanessa and Franco in which they talk about their roles in Letters to Juliet and their similarities and connection to the journey of their own relationship. (For another interview with Vanessa from the same time, click here.)
I also find myself drawn to Vanessa’s Claire; to the way she portrays her. Claire talks and moves in a very calm and deliberate way. There’s an elegant detachment about her, one that can be discerned in Vanessa’s life as well. It’s a way of being in the world that, as I grow older, I find myself seeking to embody.
As conveyed in Vanessa’s portrayal of Claire, this way of being was remarked upon by film critic Amy Biancolli of the San Francisco Chronicle. In her review of Letters to Juliet, Biancolli described Vanessa’s performance as “elegant, clear-eyed and nurturing,” noting that she “commands the corniest dialogue to stand up and sound like poetry.” Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News also praised Vanessa, saying she brings “a lovely gravity to the lightweight proceedings.”
The film tells the story of the once-prominent Wellsley family, led by declining matriarch Lady Sarah (Redgrave), falling on increasingly hard financial times and being forced to grapple with the prospect of selling their stately manor and its bucolic surrounding property to a real estate developer.
Here’s what Andreas Wiseman of Deadline says about The Estate.
Synkronized has acquired worldwide distribution rights from IUVIT Media Sales to suspense drama The Estate, starring acting legend Vanessa Redgrave and husband Franco Nero (Django).
Directed and written by Carlo Nero (The Fever), the film charts the story of the Wellsleys, an aristocratic family confronting harsh contemporary realities. In the film, the family is desperate to save their ancestral property due to insurmountable debts. As they struggle to find a solution, a series of disturbing events occur, forcing the Wellsleys to confront deep injustices they and other landowners, past and present, have wrought.
“The audience loves a good whodunnit. Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero have an amazing chemistry,” stated Alex Cohen, CEO of Synkronized.
“The Estate is more than just a drama about a family of English aristocrats trying to save their home. It goes further by confronting the deeply rooted socio-economic injustices our whole world faces – and it offers a solution; one that does not conform to current conventional models,” added Carlo Nero, son of Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner Vanessa and Italian icon Franco.
In researching and writing this post last night, I came across a review by Mark Tinta that noted that instead of a theatrical release, The Estate was “dumped on Prime Video [in June] with zero fanfare.”
Hmm, that’s never a good sign. And sure enough, Tinta’s review is scathing (and also rather humorous), as the following excerpts attest.
For 112 of its 113 tortuous minutes, The Estate is an unbearable acting exercise for all involved. Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero (as Filippo, the loyal, long-serving head of the Wellsley servant staff) mainly hang back and watch the rest of the cast embarrass themselves with their hammy, playing-to-the-rafters histrionics. . . . Characters pontificate and soliloquize about real estate, property values, class struggles, and whatever else. The servants hang around outside, one smugly insufferable asshole strumming an acoustic guitar and randomly breaking into song. Everyone is terrible – yes, even Redgrave and Nero.
Redgrave’s Lady Sarah sees apparitions of field hands and settlers of generations past, a clunky bit of foreshadowing for when Carlo Nero turns The Estate into a Jordan Peele-esque horror movie for bankrupt aristocrats in the last minute.
Astonishingly pointless and insufferably self-indulgent, The Estate can barely qualify as a movie. It’s arguably the worst film Franco Nero’s been in and it’s definitely Redgrave’s worst. It seems Carlo has cast his mom and dad in several of his movies, and there’s a telling moment early on when Redgrave and Franco longingly look in each other’s eyes and you see a decades-long love still in bloom. Either that or they’re thinking “Jesus Christ, the things we do for our kid.”
See what I mean about scathing and humorous? Still, I’m going to give The Estate a shot by watching it sometime this weekend. . . . For Vanessa and Franco!
Plus, not all the reviews are bad. I'll close with this positive “user review” over at IMDb.
The cinematic work done on this film is beautiful. Cast is brilliant as children, grandchildren and staff of a 250-acre U.K. estate whose worlds are upended. Faced with loosing their legacy, the Wellsely family continued to expect their way of life to survive without taking any necessary steps to secure it.
Observations and commentary on “The System” (i.e. economy and housing sector) are spot on. Some characters are tedious but overall The Estate is good both as a film and as social commentary.
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Vanessa Redgrave: “Just Being Alive, Staying Human, I Think That’s Infinitely Precious”
• Vanessa Redgrave: “Almost a Kind of Jungian Actress”
• Vanessa Redgrave: “She Has Greatness”
• Celebrating Vanessa
• Letting Them Sit By Me
• Vanessa Redgrave: Speaking Out
• A Poem That Remains Painfully Relevant
• Happy Birthday, Vanessa! (2017)
