The Beginning of The End of The Affair
1999 BBC 50’
A fascinating film about Graham Greene, in which Oliver Walston investigates his mother Catherine’s intriguing and unusual 20 year relationship with the writer. Which first gave rise to Greene’s famous novel “The End of The Affair”, and was subsequently turned into two feature films, the second of which we follow as it is being filmed. Written and directed by Neil Jordan, it features Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore, all three of whom offer interesting and personal perspectives on the novel’s continuing resonance. During the documentary Oliver also compares notes about his mother’s notorious affair with other (often disapproving) members of his family and we see the many photos of Graham and Catherine preserved in the family album in Thriplow, near Cambridge, where Oliver still lives. We also visit the couples’ two main ‘love-nests’, in Achill, off the coast of Ireland and in Capri, off the coast of Italy, where Oliver meets the delightfully articulate US novelist Shirley Hazard, author of a personal memoir about her friendship with the writer “Greene on Capri”.
