"The Remains of the Day"
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
"The Remains of the Day" is a film of blind emotion and repressed love. Not a thriller by any stretch of the imagination, but a marvelous film.
How could a man so calmness when his father died; even the only women he loved in his own life tryst with another man a whole night, then he just said to her: "you must have a good night." This is the manJames Stevens, the main character in the film.
In a story that takes place largely between the two world wars. James Stevens, the perfect servant, is so focused on his work that he just about misses the growing romantic attachment of Miss Sally Kenton. In a British country house of the period, the head butler and the housekeeper would have been equals, roughly speaking, each supervising the two major realms of service. Miss Kenton is clearly attracted to the butler, but he is terrified of intimacy, and sidesteps it through a fanatic devotion to his work.
Stevens is a butler employed by Congressman Lewis, the new American owner of Darlington Hall after the death of Lord Darlington. Stevens has spent the best part of his working life serving Lord Darlington, the host of many prestigious international conferences in the 1930s...