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List Price: $17.98 | | Label: WideSight Entertainment Ltd./Intermedia Films
Salesrank: 11282
Released: May 31, 2004 |
| Our Price: $10.90 |
| Used Price: $10.04 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Asian exclusive DVD (NTSC/Region 0) of award winning 1997 film directed by William Nicholson & starring Sophie Marceau & Stephen Dillane. 'Fireflight' tells the story of a Swiss governess who has an affair with a British aristocrat to pay off her father's debts by having the Englishman's child. Original English dialog. 104 minutes.
Firelight Reviews:
Bad DVD 
2009-09-06 - I received a bad copy. The first part was excellent. The second part was very bad. I wasn't able to continue watching the DVD. The company promptly returned my refund. It's a beautiful and passionate love story. I've recently purchased another copy and I've viewed it many times.
Pretty good 
2009-06-19 - I watched part of this movie about a year ago on cable but had to leave before it was over so have been dying to know the ending. I also missed the very beginning. My memory of the movie was better than what it turned out to be. I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it was still very good but after all that expectation, I was a little let down by the ending. I almost feel like it was a set up for a series that never occurred. I loved Sophie but was a little surprised by the nude scenes which were apparently edited on the cable version I saw first. Didn't much care for the child's character as someone else mentioned in a prior review. The girl's father was also not quite the heart throb I remembered. He let his own father treat him so poorly and didn't seem able to make important decisions that counted. It was a little hard to believe he generated such feeling from Sophie's character. All in all it was still a good movie. If I was seeing it for the first time without all my expectations I probably would have given it a better review.
Titilating or Romantic? 
2009-06-13 - I had to laugh when I rented this from Netflix not long ago and discovered even they had stocked a Korean import. The movie is shamefully "out of print" and as such this is the only way to get it. Most movies shelved in a distant back room and forgotten about by the studio aren't worth importing, but this one is.
"Firelight" is a movie that most people love for many reasons. I personally like the controversial plot that is established with the opening scene -- in which a beautiful young woman, Elisabeth, is questioned by an unseen gentlemen in order to be considered "worthy" of bearing his illegitimate child. The man, whose name we later learn is Charles, has lost his wife in a terrible horseback riding accident, leaving her comatose. He is for all intensive purposes, trapped, both by his libertine father's mounting debts and his inability to remarry, but his principles refuse to allow him to take a mistress, and so he wants a child to provide him with the love and affection the rest of his family cannot provide.
Their first encounter is "business" in which she remains cold and withdrawn and he is understandably shy and distant. But somewhere between their curious conversations over the three days spent on the coast, and their second and third encounter, something sparks between them. Elisabeth is driven by remorse that she can never see him again, nor experience this kind of love for real, and he too takes delight in her. Seven years later, she turns up on his doorstep wanting to act as a governess to their daughter, and it all unfolds from there.
Movies like this must be cautious or risk offending their audience -- and even as we might morally question the actions of the characters, the writer/director has done such a tremendous job that we are fond of them, fond enough to forgive and understand even their most shocking actions. Casual intimacy that turns out to be not-so-casual after all is not the only thing to raise your eyebrows, since also involved is a murder... or a mercy killing, however you wish to look at it.
Everything about this production is exquisite. Gorgeous exterior shots, beautiful colors in the house contrasted with the bleak English countryside, lingering glances across lavish drawing rooms. The dialogue is marvelous, from his tentative observation that the light of the fire gives off more illumination than he expected to their passionate arguments. The performances are also flawless and have incredible chemistry. When they finally tenderly kiss, it is more erotic than most graphic love scenes. Which brings me to the love scenes... all things considered, they are not as graphic as one would expect. In fact, more movies would do well to learn something from them, because it is filmed as a union as much of mind as body, rather than one filled with explicit movement or moaning, and that, in my opinion, is what makes it so sexy.
I saw this many years ago and then recently, and had to purchase the import because I love it so much. So suspend your disbelief, forgive its few faults, and become enraptured with a "Jane Eyre"-esque Victorian Gothic Romance.
Love this movie!
2009-06-02 - I decided to buy this movie for my collection after watching it the first time. What's a heart touching story! Love everything about it...music, characters, especially the story
Firelight DVD
2009-05-31 - I am 100% satisfied with this DVD. Quality is excellent. Really good romantic movie. Nice chick flick.
