The House of Mirth

[yoloswegmaster]

First time on Blu-ray for Terence Davies’s acclaimed adaptation, newly remastered by BFI.

New York at the beginning of the 20th century. Lily Bart (Gillian Anderson), a young woman looking to make a good marriage, finds herself drawn into a downward spiral when her honour and her love for Lawrence Selden (Eric Stoltz) prevent her from accepting the advances of wealthy banker Gus Trenor (Dan Aykroyd) and bring her into conflict with the social machinations of Bertha Dorset (Laura Linney).

Adapted from Edith Wharton's classic novel and written and directed by Terence Davies, The House of Mirth features an Oscar-worthy performance from Anderson and deserves to be regarded as one of the finest British features of its era.

Extras:
Extras tbc

[The Curious Sofa]

That's one of my top-ten-most-wanted finally off my wish list.

[Sloper]

Same here, this has been a long time coming. I hope it sells well among the current generation of Gillian Anderson fans - I remember seeing it in 2000 and being (snobbishly) sceptical about her acting ability, having only seen her in the X-Files. By the end I was comparing her to Bette Davis.

[Calvin]

Fabulous news - one of two films I've long hoped the BFI would managed to licence from Film4. The other being Davies' The Neon Bible.

[The Curious Sofa]

Gillian Anderson gives one of my favourite ever performances in this, and as Terence Davies noted, she looks as if she has stepped right out of a John Singer Sargent painting. With a lesser actor, a character who makes one "wrong" decision after another could be frustrating, but Anderson's Lily Bart is deeply human and profoundly moving. She is well matched by Laura Linney, who makes for a chilling antagonist. It is one of the my favourite period films; Davies has a tight grip on the cruelty of that society without pandering to modern audiences. Then again, this is based on a favourite novel of mine and while Wharton leans more into satire, this plays as a tragedy.

[Sloper]

In the novel, Lily Bart is more 'unsympathetic' for the first half of the story - she's the sort of character who would have been a villain in a Jane Austen novel, or an anti-hero in Thackeray - but Edith Wharton carefully lays the groundwork to make us understand how she has been shaped by her circumstances, and to see her current crisis from her point of view. This means that when things go from bad to worse in the second half, we are very much on Lily's side, and we see how inextricably her 'flaws' are entwined with her integrity. She ends up being uniquely well-equipped to possess a deep insight into the corrupt 'house of mirth' in which everyone else is living, contrasted with the 'house of mourning' in which she increasingly finds herself.

I think Terence Davies makes a very wise choice in toning down some of Lily's less sympathetic qualities for the film, as it would be hard to replicate the effects Wharton achieves across hundreds of pages and with the help of an omniscient narrator. (I have mixed feelings about the narration in Scorsese's Age of Innocence, but I can see why it seemed necessary to guide the audience through some of the nuances of that story.) But yes, Davies still retains that central magic trick from the novel, making us empathise fully with a character who makes all the wrong moves - every time I watch it, I think I would have done the same thing as Lily at every turn.

[The Curious Sofa]

Well put. The Age of Innocence always left me a little cold. By focusing so much on the external trappings of that world, I feel the characters got slightly lost and for me at least, the casting works better in theory than on the screen. Despite Scorsese's virtuosity and his dutiful adherence the source material, the film never comes emotionally alive the way the Davies film does.

[Maltic]

That's one of my top-ten-most-wanted finally off my wish list.

One of four 2025 releases in the category for me, with Midnight, He Who Gets Slapped, and Dirty Work.

[Finch]

Final cover is thankfully much better.

[pistolwink]

I recall Davies saying (in an appearance at the Harvard Film Archive ca. 2000) that Anderson never said anything about the film to him after they made it/after the premiere, which he took to mean she didn't like it. Davies was famously self-critical so I have no idea if there's any truth to this.

Davies also said that some of his sisters attended the premiere and told him, "Terence, you've finally made a real movie!"

On other note from that apperance, which requires spoiler tags I suppose:

Spoiler

Davies was asked why he had Lawrence Selden say "I love you" to Lily Bart after she's died. His response: "What else was he supposed to say?!"

The last time I watched this I felt it was married by miscasting -- not just Eric Stolz (a major issue IMO) but Dan Aykroyd(!) and Anthony LaPaglia as well. But it has so much going for it despite that.

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

THE HOUSE OF MIRTH
A film by Terence Davies
Starring Gillian Anderson, with Dan Aykroyd, Eleanor Bron, Terry Kinney, Anthony LaPaglia, Laura Linney, Elizabeth McGovern and Eric Stoltz

Released on BFI Blu-ray, Apple TV and Amazon Prime on 24 November 2025

See the new trailer here

Adapted from Edith Wharton’s classic novel and written and directed by Terence Davies, The House of Mirth (2000) features an award-winning performance from Gillian Anderson and deserves to be regarded as one of the finest British features of its era. Now newly remastered by the BFI, it is presented for the first time on Blu-ray, released alongside the major BFI Southbank season Love. Sex. Religion. Death. The Complete Films of Terence Davies (running now until 30 Nov) and following its theatrical release (24 Oct) by BFI Distribution. Special features include a new audio commentary by Marc David Jacobs and a vintage audio commentary by Terence Davies.

In New York at the turn of the 20th century, Lily Bart (Gillian Anderson) is a young woman looking to make a good marriage. However, she finds herself drawn into a downward spiral when her honour and her love for Lawrence Selden (Eric Stoltz) prevent her from accepting the advances of wealthy banker Gus Trenor (Dan Aykroyd) and bring her into conflict with the social machinations of Bertha Dorset (Laura Linney).

Special features
• Newly remastered in 2K and presented in High Definition
• New audio commentary by Marc David Jacobs
• Vintage audio commentary by Terence Davies
• Deleted scenes (2000, 17 mins total): three deleted scenes with commentaries by Terence Davies
• Still Lives – The House of Mirth (2025, 18 mins): Caroline Millar analyses Wharton’s novel and Davies’ interpretation
• Featurette (2000, 7 mins): the cast and crew discuss the film
• On location footage (2000, 11 mins): a peek at the cast and crew at work on location
• Cast and crew interviews (2000, 27 mins): the director, producer and cast discuss Wharton’s novel and their approach to the material
• Gallery (2025, 4 mins): featuring a selection of drawings, plans, script pages and stills from the Terence Davies Archive, Edge Hill University
• NFTS Back Stories: Terence Davies (2021, audio only): Terence Davies discusses his career with Sandra Hebron
• Trailers
• **FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Lillian Crawford and Daniel Graham, an essay by and interview with Terence Davies by Philip Horne and a contemporary review by Kevin Jackson; notes on the special features

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1554 / 12
UK / 2000 / colour / 140 minutes / English language with optional descriptive subtitles and audio description / original aspect ratio 2.35:1 // BD50: 1080p, 23.98fps, DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio and LPCM 2.0 stereo audio (48kHz/24-bit

[Calvin]

I hear enquries were made regarding Boogie, the newly discovered short film from 1980 that will be shown as part of the Southbank season, but including it was sadly not possible.

[hearthesilence]

Definite buy for me. It's wonderful that most of his work (which thankfully grew substantially during the final 15 years of his life) is currently in-print on excellent physical media releases, with the notable exception of The Neon Bible and his earliest short films. To be fair, it looked much worse in the U.S. when what was available on DVD had to be imported (and back then I didn't have a PAL friendly region-compatible player), but I'm glad this all happened. I wish I had gone to see Davies more often when I had the chance - 77 years isn't young, but I still can't believe he's gone, especially when he had just finished writing another feature.