Notes on a Scandal
by Richard Eyre
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DVD details
Actor: Cate Blanchett, Joanna Scanlan, Judi Dench, Michael Maloney, Tom GeorgesonDirector: Richard Eyre
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 92 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-17
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Notes on a Scandal
DVD Review: A gold star film
Summary: 5 Stars
This was not an easy movie to watch due to the subject matter, but the 2 actors featured give the most amazing performances.
Judi Dench is awesome in whatever she does, but the cunning manipulative spinster is taken to a whole new chilling level here.
Cate Blanchett likewise has a great talent, and here, she seems quiet, 'deer in the headlights', as Dench's character thinks, until she decides to fight back for what she wants.
Very clever and subtle throughout, with everything contributing to the shocking conclusion. The dead cat and trowel scene was something straight out of Hitchcock, with not quite so horrifying results, but still a very chilling film about the nature of [sexual] obsession/s.
DVD Review: Melodramatic Grace
Summary: 4 Stars
Notes on a Scandal was one film that I never thought would intrique me. It was suggested to me by a friend whose advice on film I respect so I picked up the film. I continue to respect that friend's film advice.
Never has a movie made me feel gritty, dirty, happy, angry, bitter, and more in a matter of five minutes. The story being told is one of the humans need to do whatever possible to obtain their utmost desire. We have Judi Dench as the nearly-retired school teacher whose obsession with younger teachers brings her into Cate Blanchett's character's new lease on life as she begins teaching again after caring for a family for years. Fortunate for Dench's obsession, Blanchett's character has a secret that will keep her in the hands of Dench's pitiful game.
The film's pace is very steady for a drama. We're also given subtly quirky side characters to please our front runners. And as for the front runners? Judi Dench captivated me with her performance. Most of the feelings I mentioned up top sprung from her decisions with her character, Barbara. She was obviously the antagonist, but in ways, I wanted to view her as the protagonist. And Blanchett's Sheba was portrayed with just the right amount of humanity. Should I despise her for what she is doing to everyone around her, or feel sorry for her because she just falls deeper into a portal of never returning?
Notes on a Scandal is definitely a tale of morality and trust, and for me, it hit every moment of that for me.
DVD Review: Excellent performances all round
Summary: 5 Stars
Really top class acting by all concerned. Judi Dench has it to a tea, the buttoned up school mistress, down to the way she smokes her cigarettes and deals with the death of her cat. A stellar performance.
Cate Blanchett doesn't get as much screen time, obviously, but when she does, all eyes are on her. She does an excellent job of the sensitive issue with her relationship with the young man-great acting job by Andrew Simpson.
Bill Nighy as the wronged husband is pitch-perfect.
A very serious subject, dark and repressed, if not depressed, but it ends on a high note with all having learned their lesson, except the sinister 'vampire' Judi Dench.
A gripping movie you should watch at least twice to get the full picture of every nuance.
DVD Review: "But, oh, but what marvellous intensity it is!"
Summary: 5 Stars
Notes On A Scandal packs action, intrigue, secrets and outstanding acting into a dramatic thriller to keep you keenly interested, to say the least. It's an excellent film; the script and acting combine to draw you into the plot, making you care about the characters to a degree that you normally don't. The choreography shines bright in crowd scenes and the scenes filmed inside the school; and the cinematography lacks nothing whatsoever. Notes On A Scandal is powerful; and it's not for the faint of heart nor is it a "family" film.
When the action begins, we quickly meet both Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) and Barbara Covett (Dame Judi Dench) who work at Saint George's School somewhere in England. Sheba is a new art teacher; and her youth and inexperience show through pretty clearly when the rather astute Barbara easily sizes her up. We also come to see that Barbara is a pretty tough cookie at the school who teaches no nonsense history classes. Barbara leads a rather lonely life since her last relationship with a woman named Jennifer ended; she lives with her old cat in an apartment and keeps a diary with lengthy entries and gold stars pasted into the diary as well. In addition, Barbara has her eyes on Sheba as a possible romantic interest although no one in the school is aware of this.
Sheba, trying to be friendly and fit in with her new colleagues, invites Barbara over to her home for lunch one Sunday afternoon. Barbara meets Sheba's family: her older husband Richard (Bill Nighy), her daughter Polly (Juno Temple) and Sheba's son Ben (Max Lewis) who has Down's Syndrome. At first Barbara isn't completely sure how to approach Sheba to trap her for her own; but one night Barbara accidentally witnesses Sheba and a student named Steven Connolly (Andrew Simpson) sharing romantic time together. Barbara gets Sheba to confess all to her; Barbara now has all the information she needs to be able to bully, manipulate and possibly even blackmail Sheba into a more romantic relationship with her instead of Steven or her husband Richard.
The plot thickens. Although Sheba tries hard to end it with Steven; Steven won't take no for an answer and Barbara feels threatened and angry with Sheba for "betraying" her. Moreover, when Sheba goes to her son Ben's play instead of the vet where Barbara's cat is dying, Barbara looses her cool and finds a way to let another person from the school know that Sheba and Steven are a pair.
What will this all bring? So far, Sheba's husband, Barbara, Steven and even the man from the school all want a romantic relationship with Sheba. Who will Sheba choose--and what price will Sheba pay for having relations with an underage student? What about Barbara--does she find a way to force Sheba to give in and experience a romance with her? Will Sheba ever be able to tell Barbara off or get even with her? Watch and find out!
The DVD boasts some excellent extras. I particularly liked the "behind the scenes" featurette; and we get an optional running commentary by director Richard Eyre. There is another bonus entitled In Character with Cate Blanchett.
Notes On A Scandal reaches out to grab your attention from the word go and it never lets you go until the end. The superb acting enhances the quality of this motion picture all the more. I highly recommend this film for both fans of the actors in this movies and fans of thrillers with well thought out drama.
DVD Review: The great thriller of 2006 starring Dame Judi Dench & Cate Blanchett!
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the great thriller from 2006! It stars Dame Judi Dench,Cate Blanchett,and Bill Nighy. This is a must for thriller fans,92 incredible minutes! The DVD has a great widescreen transfer,a commentary,and some great featurettes!!! Recommended! A+
Description of Notes on a Scandal
Academy Award(r) winners Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett give wickedly entertaining, Oscar-nominated performances * ? one as a woman consumed by her colleague's guilty secret, the other, a victim to her own dark obsessions ? in this sexy, stylish thriller. Dench mesmerizes as Barbara Covett, a teacher who rules over her classroom with an iron fist, yet leads a desperate, solitary life outside it. That is, until she meets radiant new art teacher Sheba Hart (Blanchett). Although at first overjoyed with her newfound kindred spirit, when Barbara discovers that Sheba is having an affair with a teenage student, her jealously and rage spiral out of control.Gold stars to all for this taut psychological thriller based on Zoe Heller's novel that that gets more insidiously twisted as it unfolds. Oscar-nominated for her chilling performance, Dame Judi Dench gives a master class as schoolteacher Barbara Covett, a frumpy, friendless, and flinty spinster who lives with her cat. A formidable presence, Barbara is standoffish with colleagues and not one for students to trifle with (not that they'd dare). Cate Blanchett, also an Oscar nominee and winner of several critics society awards for her impassioned performance, costars as Sheba Hart, the new, overwhelmed art teacher who first becomes enthrall to Barbara after she steps in to help Sheba discipline unruly students. Barbara cultivates a friendship, and insinuates herself into Sheba's chaotic life, which includes her older husband (Bill Nighy), teenage daughter, and a son with Down's syndrome. Then, Barbara catches the reckless Sheba in a compromising position with a 15-year-old student (Andrew Simpson). Seizing her opportunity, the calculating Barbara does not turn her in. Rather, she wants to "help" her. "She's the one I've been waiting for," she writes in the journals she meticulously keeps, and which provide, in voiceover, her corrosive commentary. This all sounds very Fatal Attraction, but no boiling rabbits, please; we're British. Philip Glass's Oscar-nominated score accentuates the growing menace. Though there is little in these characters to admire, (one would think GLAAD would have something to say about the predatory turn Barbara's character takes), Notes on a Scandal is a compelling tour-de-force for its Grade-A cast. --Donald Liebenson
Notes on a Scandal Extras
 Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench on their characters in the film |
Beyond Notes on a Scandal
 Book to Movie Adaptations |  More Cate Blanchett Films |  What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal: A Novel |
Stills from Notes on a Scandal
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