
Out on DVD is
John Huston's final film,
The Dead (Lionsgate). Based on a
James Joyce story, this elegant 1987 masterwork is set on a snowy night in 1904 Dublin at a dinner party that stirs the embers of memories and regret. With a fine screenplay by
Tony Huston, exquisite camerawork by
Fred Murphy, the film is elegiac as it is incredibly moving. And the cast is peerless --
Dan O'Herlihy,
Helena Carroll,
Donal Donnelly and
Anjelica Huston are all extraordinary. There is a moment when Anjelica Huston stops on the staircase while a man is singing upstairs and seems caught in a trance, which she later reveals to be the memory of a young boy who died for her, and it is just mesmerizing.