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Wit (DVD)
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Genre | Drama |
Format | Multiple Formats, NTSC, Closed-captioned, Color, Subtitled, Dolby, Full Screen |
Contributor | Christopher Lloyd, Audra Mc Donald, Margaret Edson, Mike Nichols, Emma Thompson, Harold Pinter |
Initial release date | 2004-06-01 |
Language | English |
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Product Description
Product Description
Wit (DVD) Based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Margaret Edson, WIT features the Academy Award winning actress Emma Thompson in a movie directed by Academy award winning director Mike Nichols. Vivian Bearing is an English professor with a biting wit that educates but also alienates her students. With her teaching and life both rigidly under control, Vivian would never let down her defenses, until the day comes when they are taken don for her. Diagnosed with a devastating illness, Vivian agrees to undergo a series of procedures that are brutal, extensive, and experimental. For eight months her life must take an uncharted course. No longer a teacher, but a subject for others to study. Vivian Bearing is about to discover a fine line between life and death that can only be walked with wit.
Amazon.com
Deservedly hailed as one of the best films of 2001, Wit makes it clear why top-ranking talents seek refuge in the quality programming of HBO. Unhindered by box-office pressures, director Mike Nichols and Emma Thompson turn the most unglamorous topic--the physical and psychological ravages of cancer--into an exquisite contemplation of life, learning, and tenacious, richly expressed humanity. In adapting Margaret Edson's compassionate, Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Nichols and Thompson open up the one-room setting with a superb supporting cast. But their focus remains on the hospital experience of Vivian (Thompson), a fiercely demanding professor of English literature whose academic specialty--the metaphysical poetry of John Donne--is the armor she wears against the cruel indignities of her cancer treatment. While losing all that she held dear, she reassesses her life as an aloof intellectual, and Wit illuminates her bracingly eloquent and deeply moving struggle for dignity, meaning, and peace at life's ultimate crossroads. --Jeff Shannon
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
- Product Dimensions : 0.51 x 5.56 x 7.51 inches; 2.4 ounces
- Item model number : MFR026359178122#VG
- Director : Mike Nichols
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, NTSC, Closed-captioned, Color, Subtitled, Dolby, Full Screen
- Run time : 1 hour and 39 minutes
- Release date : June 1, 2004
- Actors : Christopher Lloyd, Emma Thompson, Audra Mc Donald, Harold Pinter
- Subtitles: : English, French, Spanish
- Language : Unqualified (DTS ES 6.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
- Studio : HBO Studios
- ASIN : B00005MKKV
- Writers : Margaret Edson
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #49,557 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #8,409 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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Vivian Bearing is a professor of English Literature, specializing in the work of Seventeenth Century poet John Donne. Hers is a scholarly life, and she is secure with her place in it; not yet fifty, she has achieved a level of comfort with herself, as well as her work, especially in the class she teaches on Donne. With her students she is a demanding taskmaster and does not suffer fools, nor students who opt for more immediate pleasures over Donne, refusing to accept youthful zeal as an excuse for academic impropriety. In her classroom, she insists that those in attendance rise to her level; she does not stoop to conquer.
Then, with the words of Dr. Kelekian, her world abruptly changes. At first, wrapped in intellectual armor, she finds at least some comfort and respite in her beloved Donne, but she soon finds that the pursuits of the mind, even leavened with a healthy ego, attain a diminished capacity within the environs of a ravaging disease. The eternity of the hospital affords her much time for reflection, and as her illness progresses she undergoes a change in perspectives; taking stock, she considers such things as the aloof manner she affected that served no purpose other than to distance her from her students. And she thinks about it now, not with regret, but differently; her intellectual acumen no longer separates her from her students, nor affords her a lofty perch from which she may sit in judgment. She understands, at last, that she is not so different from them after all. For as she discovers to her considerable dismay-- pain is the great equalizer.
Written by Nichols and Thompson, the screenplay is based on the play by Margaret Edson. The story unfolds like a living diary, as Vivian addresses the viewer directly, with a descriptive narrative that leaves little to the imagination. Graphically real and unrelenting, it is a riveting chronicle that will hold you in thrall from beginning to end and beyond-- because this experience does not end when the screen goes dark; it's something that is going to be with you for a long time afterwards, so be prepared. And the reason this will linger in your memory is that it's a contemplation of a reality that is horrendous beyond imagination. This is that thing that always happens to someone else, but never to "me," and to be put in the room with someone to whom the unthinkable has happened-- to be up close and personal with it-- is emotionally devastating. This is a true horror story beyond anything Stephen King could write, because this is "real." What happens to Vivian Bearing is something that happens to people all the time, and there has never been a film before or since that will put you more in touch with what it feels like, from the incredulity born at the moment of diagnosis to the acceptance of the reality of it. And it has nothing to do with courage; it is not about that at all. It's about knowing that you are going to have to do this thing that you least in the whole world want to do-- and that you have no choice in the matter.
This film is a veritable showcase for the incredible talent of Emma Thompson, who gives a performance that is so remarkable there are not enough superlatives to do it justice. Ineligible for Oscar consideration as this film was made for television (HBO), her performance nevertheless is as Oscar worthy as they come (even more impressive than her Oscar winning performance as Margaret in "Howard's End," which was nothing less than a study in perfection). As Vivian Bearing, Thompson is absolutely mesmerizing-- you simply cannot take your eyes off of her for even a moment. There are times when you want to look away, to avert your eyes because it's just too painful to watch, but you can't. Once you begin this journey you are bound to her for better or worse. You suffer with her through the physical pain, as well as through the base indignities to which she is subjected as a matter of course by the doctors and care givers who simply do not respond to the humanity of the person in their care; a sad commentary, to be sure, but so true.
What really marks Thompson's performance as so extraordinary, however, is the fact that as you watch the drama unfold, you forget this is an actor playing a role; rather, this is a very real person you are watching-- a person named Vivian Bearing who is dying of cancer.
The supporting cast includes Eileen Atkins (E.M. Ashford), Audra McDonald (Susie), Jonathan M. Woodward (Jason) and Harold Pinter (Vivian's Father). An emotionally absorbing drama that redefines empathy and compassion, "Wit" will make you feel alive like never before, and thankful for each and every day that you wake up healthy. It's a film that will enrich your life.
One would think that such a subject matter would be utterly depressing. Yet, it is oddly full of hope. And that is the genius of the film.
Donne's poetry is overtly referred to throughout the film. Yet in the scenes in which Bearing recalls her lectures on the subject, one learns little about the poetry. Donne's attempt to grapple with death is discussed in a superficial way by the characters. But the film's deeper meaning comes directly from Donne's writing.
Dr. Bearing has lived her life as woman who uses her intellectual prowess to avoid meaningful connections with people. As a result, she undergoes her long and painful illness with no companionship. Donne's famous line that "no man is an island" comes immediately to mind. When one turns to the meditation which is its source, one finds the following:
"When one Man dies, one Chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every Chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice, but God's hand is in every translation; and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again, for that Library where every book shall lie open to one another."
Wit is about Bearing's "translation." She has worn the mask of intellectual self-sufficiency for her whole life. In her illness, every shred of her self-dignity is stripped away. She loses her hair; she is treated as an object by the medical system; she suffers pain; and finally she confronts her death. The beauty of the film is that by the end, she has lost everything that she thought mattered to her - only to find that it doesn't matter at all. In losing her self-dignity, she has found the genuine dignity that belongs to us all by virtue of our humanity. Her death is not empty suffering, but rather a fitting conclusion to her life - as she finally absorbs the meaning of the poetry that has been her life's work.
We come to care deeply for a woman who is not very likeable. In doing so, we come to see the connection that we all share as human beings.
Wit is an extraordinary film. One of the best that I have seen in the last few years.
Something of Emma's face, when my eyes landed on it, arrested my attention. I was captivated by her portrayal of a woman diagnosed with and dying from ovarian cancer. The plot has been summarized before, so I'll just tell you how it made me FEEL.
I felt I had a better understanding of the fear someone in her situation feels. I felt overwhelming empathy for what it is to look back on your life with regret in your final days, when nothing can be done to go back in time and live your life differently. I felt the merciless cold of what it would be to die without family or friends at your side. I felt the uselessness of her wit to spare her from her suffering and death, or to become the arms she desperately needed wrapped around her during her last months of life.
Emma is spectacular in her role as the unfeeling, off-putting, robotic, intellectual elitist who comes too late to know what it is to really feel the absence of humanity and love in her life. The cancer that is robbing her of her life is a terrible sight made worse by the inhumanity of the healthcare system. For me what was worse than her physical pain from her cancer was watching someone die completely and utterly alone.
Before you watch Wit, think of something fun you'll do afterwards. You'll need it.
Trust me.
Top reviews from other countries
Die äußere Handlung ist schnell erzählt: Vivian Bearing, eine angesehene Professorin für englische Literatur, erhält (in der ersten Szene, im ersten Satz) die Diagnose Eierstockkrebs im fortgeschrittenen Stadium. Ihr Arzt schlägt ihr vor eine experimentelle und hoch aggressive Chemotherapie zu versuchen, worauf sich Vivian ohne lange zu überlegen auch einlässt. Im Rest des Films passiert 'nichts weiter' als die Behandlung ihres Krebsleidens im Krankenhaus. Sie begegnet dabei Ärzten, Studenten und einer sehr einfühlsamen Schwester, die für sie eine wichtige Bezugsperson wird. Dazwischen dürfen wir in einigen Rückblenden auch etwas aus der Vergangenheit der Protagonistin sehen, und sie dabei ein Stück besser kennen lernen.
Die äußere Handlung ist einfach, aber um Äußerlichkeiten geht es nicht in diesem Film. Es geht nicht um spektakuläre Wendungen in der Geschichte oder um Spezialeffekte. Dieser Film erzählt in geradezu dokumentarischer Art eine Wahrheit - ohne Schminke, ohne Schnörkel. Er lässt uns in minutenlangen Kameraeinstellungen teilhaben an der Gedankenwelt einer todkranken Frau und zeigt uns in ebenso langen Einstellungen mit aller Brutalität ihr körperliches und seelisches Leid. Er zeigt das Leben eines Patienten im Krankenhaus so wie es (zum Teil) wirklich ist, und er zeigt Typen von Ärzten die es so wirklich gibt. Letztere werden im Übrigen bei näherer Betrachtung durchaus ambivalent dargestellt, also nicht nur gut oder nur böse. Der Fokus liegt aber immer auf der Erzählung aus der Sicht der Protagonistin, untermalt in perfekter Symbiose mit Versen des englischen Literaten John Donne - das Spezialgebiet und das Feld der Begeisterung von Viviana Bearing.
Die Hauptdarstellerin, Emma Thompson, vollbringt dabei eine wahre Meisterleistung. Ich habe ohne Übertreibung noch nie eine solch überzeugende schauspielerische Darbietung gesehen. Wenn man es nicht besser wüsste, man könnte glauben sie würde das Gespielte wirklich durchleben. Wäre der Film im Kino gelaufen, dann hätte Frau Thompson für ihre Leistung mit Sicherheit einen Oscar bekommen.
Für wen ist dieser Film nun empfehlenswert? Wie zu Beginn angedeutet ganz allgemein für all jene, die Filme mögen welche zum nachdenken anregen, auch wenn sie schwer oder sogar sehr schwer zu verdauen sind. Im Speziellen ist er für all jene empfehlenswert, die sich mit dem Thema Sterben und Tod - aus welchen Gründen auch immer - befassen wollen. Er ist zu empfehlen für all jene, die im Verwandten- oder Freundeskreis jemanden haben der eine Chemotherapie über mehrere Zyklen hinter sich gebracht hat. Insbesondere ist er meiner ganz persönlichen Ansicht nach Pflichtprogramm für alle im Krankenhaus arbeitenden Berufsgruppen. Letztlich bin auch ich so vor einigen Jahren über diesen Film gestolpert, und dafür bin ich bis heute sehr dankbar. 5/5 Sternen.