The Buccaneers

Finally I watched this miniseries! I've been looking for it for ages ever since I saw a preview for it on some of my other BBC-miniseries DVD. And finally I got it at my favourite bookshop (they have quite a selection of undubbed English movies for a reasonable price there) but the DVDs lay sadly on the shelf gathering dust because I had absolutely no time for them. However, Labour Day weekend and sick leave (coincided) finally gave me an opportunity to unwrap the CDs and put them into the player. And I must say I watched it practically non-stop: the first two parts up to midnight on Sunday and the rest two on Monday morning right after breakfast (just squeezed in between breakfast and visit to a doctor!).

The story focuses on four young American girls coming across the Atlantics for a London season and marrying into English aristocracy. From the preview I expected it to be more of a comedy focusing on courtships, but it has a deeper tone and was truly dramatic as it focuses mainly on marriages that turned out to be unhappy. The settings and costumes were absolutely beautiful, with that the end of the 19th c. luxury flavour, but the feeling I had after watching it was that I'm happy to live now when women have more rights whatever beautiful dresses and luxurious homesteads I might have had I lived in 1870s. The performances were really powerful, and the only "real" gentleman was played by Greg Wise, the villain from "Sense and Sensibility" (1995). I did not recognize any other actors and it was nice because nothing like familiar faces distracted me from the performance. On the whole, a highly recommendable series (the complicated live and tensity of feelings made me think of the recent Forsyte Saga).It made me want to check out the book by Edith Wharton (left unfinished like Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters -there's a wonderful miniseries based on that novel too!), but alas it's not easy to be found here! Some publicity shots of Annabelle (Nan), the most romantic and innocent of "the Buccaneers".

Nan and her (creepy in my opinion) husband the Duke (the marriage was a complete disaster!)
Nan and Guy, the only gentleman in that story (played by Greg Wise), the do eventually end up together.