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The Serpent's Kiss (1997)

Director: Philippe Rousselot

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From Time Out Film Guide

A misbegotten attempt to ring changes on the British costume drama, former cameraman Rousselot's directorial debut tells of a landscape gardener (McGregor) tumbling into a snake's pit of deceit and deadly intrigue when he agrees to create a new estate for wealthy landowner Postlethwaite and his wife Scacchi. The film founders on stilted performances (Grant's death throes are spectacularly risible), conspicuously artificial set design, and dialogue - half 'literary', half colloquially contemporary (including inappropriate modern profanities) - that makes much of supposedly sophisticated metaphor but barely makes sense. And there's another problem: it's all too clearly derivative of The Draughtsman's Contract, comparison with which only makes Tim Rose Price's screenplay seem even worse.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Philippe Rousselot

Producer: Tim Rose Price, Robert Jones, John Battsek

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Greta Scacchi, Pete Postlethwaite, Richard E Grant, Carmen Chaplin full cast

Genre(s): Period/Swashbucklers

Duration: 110 mins


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