IMDb > The End of the Affair (1999)
The End of the Affair
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The End of the Affair (1999) More at IMDbPro »

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The End of the Affair (1999) -- On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix has a chance meeting with Henry Miles, husband of his ex-mistress Sarah...
The End of the Affair (1999) -- US Home Video Trailer from Columbia Tristar
The End of the Affair (1999) -- Virgin.net Movies - Trailer (WMP)

Overview

User Rating:
6.9/10   9,385 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 46% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers (WGA):
Graham Greene (novel)
Neil Jordan (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for The End of the Affair on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
10 December 1999 (Canada) more
Genre:
Tagline:
The end was just the beginning.
Plot:
On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix has a chance meeting with Henry Miles, husband of his ex-mistress Sarah... more | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 22 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(16 articles)
The Notable Films of 2010: Part One
 (From Dark Horizons. 15 December 2009, 7:47 AM, PST)

The Notable Films of 2010: Part One
 (From Dark Horizons. 15 December 2009, 7:47 AM, PST)

User Comments:
beautiful romantic film more (151 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Ralph Fiennes ... Maurice Bendrix

Stephen Rea ... Henry Miles

Julianne Moore ... Sarah Miles
Heather-Jay Jones ... Henry's Maid (as Heather Jay Jones)
James Bolam ... Mr. Savage
Ian Hart ... Mr. Parkis
Sam Bould ... Lance Parkis (as Samuel Bould)
Cyril Shaps ... Waiter
Penny Morrell ... Bendrix's Landlady
Simon Fisher-Turner ... Doctor Gilbert (as Dr. Simon Turner)

Jason Isaacs ... Father Richard Smythe
Deborah Findlay ... Miss Smythe
Nicholas Hewetson ... Chief Warden
Jack McKenzie ... Chief Engineer
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated R for scenes of strong sexuality.
Runtime:
102 min
Country:
Language:
Colour:
Colour (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Neil Jordan wanted his longtime collaborator, composer Elliot Goldenthal to do the film, but Goldenthal was committed to score Titus (1999) for his companion, Julie Taymor. John Barry was considered, and he wrote a demo theme for the film, which ended up on his 2001 solo album "Eternal Echoes," but Jordan eventually settled on Michael Nyman. more
Quotes:
Maurice Bendrix: You have to understand. I'm jealous of everything that moves. I'm jealous of the rain! more
Movie Connections:
Featured in Behind the Passion (1999) (TV) more
Soundtrack:
The More I See You more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
40 out of 42 people found the following comment useful.
beautiful romantic film, 24 July 2000
Author: Roland E. Zwick (magneteach@aol.com) from United States

One of the great joys in movie watching lies in stumbling across films that, by their very nature, should be nothing more than clichéd, hackneyed versions of stories we have seen a thousand times before yet, somehow, through the insightfulness of their creators, manage to illuminate those tales in ways that are wholly new and unexpected. Such is the case with Neil Jordan's `The End of the Affair,' a film that in its bare boned outlining would promise to be nothing more than a conventional, three-handkerchief weepie centered around the hoary issue of romantic infidelity, but which emerges, instead, as a beautiful and moving meditation on the overwhelming force jealousy, love, commitment and passion can exert on our lives.

Ralph Fiennes stars as Maurice Bendrix, a British writer living in 1940's London, who has an affair with Sarah Miles (Julianne Moore), the wife of Maurice's friend, Henry (Stephen Rea). Based on a Graham Greene novel, the film achieves far greater intellectual and emotional depth than this skeletal outline would indicate. Part of the success rests in the fact that both the original author and the adapter, writer/director Neil Jordan, have devised a multi-level scenario that utilizes a number of narrative techniques as the means of revealing crucial information to the audience regarding both the plot and the characters. For instance, the film travels fluidly back and forth in time, spanning the decade of the 1940's, from the initial meeting between Bendrix and Sarah in 1939, through the horrendous bombings of London during World War II to the `present' time of the post-war British world. This allows the authors to reveal the details of the affair slowly, enhanced by the even more striking technique of having the events viewed from the entirely different viewpoints of the two main characters involved. `Rashomon' – like, we first see the affair through the prism of Bendrix's limited perspective, only to discover, after he has confiscated Sarah's diary, that he (and consequently we) have been utterly mistaken as to the personal attributes and moral quality of Sarah all along. Thus, as an added irony, Bendrix discovers that he has been obsessing over a woman he `loves' but, in reality, knows little about.

The authors also enhance the depth of the story through their examination of TWO men struggling with their overwhelming jealousy for the same woman and the complex inter-relationships that are set up as a result. In fact, the chief distinction of this film is the way it manages to lay bare the souls of all three of these fascinating characters, making them complex, enigmatic and three-dimensional human beings with which, in their universality, we can all identify. Bendrix struggles with his raging romantic passions, his obsessive jealousy for the woman he can't possess and his lack of belief in God, the last of which faces its ultimate challenge at the end. Sarah struggles with the lack of passion she finds in the man she has married but cannot love as more than a friend, juxtaposed to the intense love she feels for this man she knows she can never fully have. In addition, she finds herself strangely faithful, if not to the two men in her life, at least to two crucial commitments (one to her wedding vows and one to God) yet unable to fully understand why. Henry struggles with his inadequacies as a lover and the strange possessiveness that nevertheless holds sway over him. Even the minor characters are fascinating. Particularly intriguing is the private investigator who becomes strangely enmeshed in the entire business as both Bendrix and Henry set him out to record Sarah's activities and whereabouts, a man full of compassion for the people whom he is, by the nature of his profession, supposed to view from a position of coldhearted objectivity. (One plot flaw does, however, show up here: why would this man, whose job it is to spy on unsuspecting people for his clients, employ a boy to help him who sports a very distinctive birthmark on one side of his face?).

`The End of the Affair' would not be the noteworthy triumph it is without the stellar, subtly nuanced performances of its three main stars. In addition, as director, Jordan, especially in the second half, achieves a lyricism rare in modern filmmaking. Through a fluidly gliding camera and a mesmerizing musical score, Jordan lifts the film almost to the level of cinematic poetry as we sit transfixed by the emotional richness and romantic purity of the experience. `The End of the Affair' takes its place alongside `Brief Encounter' and `Two For the Road' as one of the very best studies of a romantic relationship ever put on film.

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Couldn't stop the tears Zoey22
How graphic is this flick? rockerforpunk
Who thinks that Bendrix really died? Hylton-Stark
So Boring... ? aleisterw
Which Cemetery thewickermanuk
Comic relief MonicaCarol
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