Angels and Insects *** (1995, Mark Rylance, Patsy Kensit, Kristin Scott Thomas) – Classic Movie Review 1,702

Co-writer/director Philip Haas’s 1995 British drama, written with Belinda Haas, is an intriguing, involving and provocative oddity, based on A S Byatt’s intelligent 1992 novella Morpho Eugenia. 

Co-writer/director Philip Haas’s 1995 British drama film, written with his wife Belinda Haas, is an intriguing, involving and provocative oddity, based on A S Byatt’s intelligent 1992 novella Morpho Eugenia.

Mark Rylance enjoys a notable role as William Adamson, a timid English Victorian naturalist who studies insects and falls for and marries Eugenia (Patsy Kensit), the eldest daughter of a British aristocratic household who befriends him. He begins a study of garden ants with the household tutor, Matty Crompton (Kristin Scott Thomas).

The film is packed with plenty of weird atmosphere, good dialogue and resonant performances from a special cast, including also Kristin Scott Thomas as Matty Compton, Jeremy Kemp and Annette Badland (as Eugenia’s parents, Sir Harald and Lady Alabaster), Douglas Henshall, Saskia Wickham, Anna Massey and Chris Larkin.

This is the second feature for Philip Haas after The Music of Chance in 1993.

It is written by Philip Haas and Belinda Haas. Belinda Haas is known for Angels and Insects (1995), The Blood Oranges (1997) and Up at the Villa (2000). She is married to Philip Haas.

Music by Alexander Balanescu featuring the Balanescu Quartet.

Rated R for strong sexuality and graphic nudity.

Release date: 5 November 1995.

Running time: 116 minutes.

A S Byatt’s 1992 novella Morpho Eugenia, named after a butterfly species, was first published in complete form with The Conjugial Angel as Angels & Insects.

Films directed by Philip Haas: The Music of Chance (1993), Angels & Insects (1995), The Blood Oranges (1997), Up at the Villa (2000), Lathe of Heaven (2002), and The Situation (2006).

The Booker Prize-winning author and critic A S Byatt died on 16 November 2023, aged 87, peacefully at home, surrounded by her family.

Also known as Dame Antonia Byatt, the author won the revered Booker Prize for Fiction in 1990 for her novel Possession: A Romance, filmed in 2002 as Possession.

The cast are Mark Rylance as William Adamson, Kristin Scott Thomas as Matty Crompton, Patsy Kensit as Eugenia Alabaster Adamson, Jeremy Kemp as Sir Harold Alabaster, Douglas Henshall as Edgar Alabaster, Annette Badland as Lady Alabaster, Chris Larkin as Robin, Anna Massey as Miss Mead, and Saskia Wickham as Rowena Alabaster.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,702

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