The British Empire flowers; exotic India colors English imaginations. Becky Sharp, the orphaned daughter of a painter and a singer, leaves a home for girls to be a governess, armed with pluck, a keen wit, good looks, fluent French, and an eye for social advancement. Society tries its best to keep her from climbing. An episodic narrative follows her for 20 years, through marriage, Napoleonic wars, a child, loyalty to a school friend, the vicissitudes of the family whose daughters she instructed, and attention from a bored marquess who collected her father’s paintings. Honesty tempers her schemes. No aristocrat she, nor bourgeois, just spirited, intelligent, and irrepressible.
Release Date: 1 September 2004Runtime: 141 min
Stars:
- Angelica Mandy
- Charlie Beall
- Deborah Findlay
- Gabriel Byrne
- John Franklyn-Robbins
- Jonathan Rhys Meyers
- Kate Fleetwood
- Lillete Dubey
- Paul Bazely
- Reese Witherspoon
- Rhys Ifans
- Roger Lloyd Pack
- Romola Garai
- Ruth Sheen
- Tony Maudsley
Director: Mira Nair
