Angels & Insects

Kristin Scott Thomas and Patsy Kensit star in this period drama set in Victorian England about a young naturalist woman who becomes involved with an aristocratic family., Mark Rylance is a Victorian self-educated naturalist who, working for a aristocrat, falls for his eldest daughter but can love conquer the class divide?, The chaotic lives of an aristocratic mid-19th century British family are subtly contrasted with the well-ordered lives of insects to exemplify the Darwinian aspects of the British class system in this unusual drama. The esteemed Reverend Alabaster, an elderly intellectual, is having a spiritual crisis after reading Darwin’s recently published theories on evolution and natural selection. Alabaster is an insect collector and amateur naturalist, and has given shelter to the homeless and impoverished collector, William, after the young man lost his invaluable Amazon collection in a shipwreck. William is in love with the reverend’s eccentric daughter Eugenia, who pays him no mind until her fiance mysteriously kills himself. William then proposes, and she accepts. Later William and the brainy Matty Crompton, a relative of the Alabasters, begin secretly collaborating on a scientific project involving ant behavior. Meanwhile, Eugenia begins bearing William’s children. Eventually the reason for the late fiance’s demise is revealed and William discovers that there are better things in life than being an aristocrat., Victorian England… An impoverished naturalist is taken in by an aristocratic family and falls for their daughter. While the man of science studies the social order of the insect world, the humans around him appear increasingly eccentric., Erotic tale, set in Victorian England, about an entomologist who unleashes unbridled sensuality in a wealthy family after moving in with them. Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott-Thomas. Eugenia: Patsy Kensit. Alabaster: Jeremy Kemp. Co-written and directed by Philip Haas. Based on the novella by A.S. Byatt., British period drama about an explorer who marries into a wealthy family, only to discover that there are dark secrets lurking under the surface. William Adamson (Mark Rylance) is a penniless naturalist who returns from the Amazon and finds support from Reverend Harald Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp). While he is staying at the Alabaster manor, where he is researching the local insect population, William falls under the spell of the Reverend’s daughter Eugenia (Patsy Kensit) and is thrilled when she accepts his proposal of marriage. However, William soon begins to sense an erratic form of behaviour in his new wife – and, with the help of her impoverished relative Matty Crompton (Kristin Scott Thomas), he makes some alarming discoveries about the Alabaster household.