List Price: $29.98You Pay Only: $24.99 You Save: $4.99 (17%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9780790766126
Format: Closed-captioned, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0790766124
Label: BBC Video
Manufacturer: BBC Video
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: BBC Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 30, 2002
Running Time: 300 minutes
Sales Rank: 17075
Studio: BBC Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2001
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Editorial Review:
Video Description:
The Way We Live Now captures the turmoil as the old order is swept aside by the brash new forces of business and finance. Based on the novel by Anthony Trollope, this satire of Victorian society contains all the dynamic elements that made him one of the most celebrated and popular novelists of his day--the trials and tribulations of young love, the pettiness of the upper class life, the raw energy and excitement of the most powerful city the world had ever seen, and the greed and corruption that lay just below its glittering surface.
Episode 1: When infamous financier Augustus Melmotte (David Suchet) mysteriously appears in London, the city's impoverished aristocrats greedily court his favor. Felix Carbury, a charming but lazy young baronet, is one of the many gentlemen swarming around Melmotte's rich heiress daughter, Marie. Meanwhile, Felix's independently minded sister, Hetta, falls in love with a bright young engineer, Paul Montague, who is in town to approach Melmotte with an ambitious business propostion. Complications soon arise in business and love.
Episode 2: While Paul Montague throws himself into the booming railway business with Melmotte, the presence of his mysterious American friend in London threatens to jeopardize his chances with Hetta. Felix is forced to desperate measures to secure his future with Marie when he learns that her father is planning her marriage to a rival suitor.
Episode 3: Paul visits Mexico to have his worst fears about the railway construction confirmed. Returning to London he decides to confront Melmotte and resolve his romantic situation. Melmotte involves himself in increasingly ambitious business schemes while Felix gets himself into further trouble and Hetta recieves some devastating news.
Episode 4: Melmotte reaches the highest echelons of London society but the wolves are beginning to gather at his door. Paul takes his chance to act and Felix comes face to face with some tough opposition, while Hetta contemplates settling for second best. Climaxing in love lost, love gained, a death and some just desserts.
Amazon.com:
First screened on BBC in 2001, The Way We Live Now will surprise those who know Anthony Trollope through the subtleties of his Barsetshire novels. This story of ambition centers around Augustus Melmotte, an Austrian Jewish financier who takes the London money markets and social scene by storm in his efforts to become an 'English country gentleman.' His rise and fall is followed with remorseless logic by Trollope, and David Yates's direction keeps this in focus against a wealth of subplots and character interaction.
The cast is a strong one, with David Suchet's Melmotte gripping in his recklessness, climaxing in the theatrical magnificence of his departure in disgrace from the House of Commons. Shirley Henderson is magnetic as his put-upon daughter Marie, courted by the cream-of-society bachelors for her dowry rather than her person. Cheryl Campbell gives a good account of the feckless Lady Carbury, writing vacuous novels to support her family, with Matthew MacFadyen relishing the part of her rakish son, Felix. Paloma Baeza is sympathetic as her daughter, Hetta, whose on-off relationship with entrepreneur Paul Montague, ably taken by Cillian Murphy, provides the main love interest. Douglas Hodge impresses as the loyal and sincere but insipid Roger Carbury.
The series consists of four generous episodes, each lasting 75 minutes. This is an absorbing production of what isn't the most subtle of Victorian novels, but which surely remains among the most relevant. --Richard Whitehouse
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - No
I thought this would be really good but it is not for my taste I really like 1800 movies and this is not up to it.
Rating: - Those who speculate risk winning....or losing it all
David Suchet is a dastardly swindler with magnetic voice and convincing speeches... he will draw you into this film and keeps you there. This delightful film is rife with humor and a little bit of romance, while never straying from the premise of what social climbers will do to themselves and each other.
You will love to hate some of the characters and find yourself wondering if they get what they deserved. All the aristocrats have intertwining storylines - you find yourself laughing and judging; engrossed in their antics and troubles. Everyone wants to BELIEVE something.... Believe they are justified in their actions, or believe in the "Mexican Railway scheme", or believe that they CAN marry for love over money...... who will be crushed by reality and who will overcome?
The costume is wonderful and the actors are excellent. However, I would have given the film 5 stars if it were not for Miranda Otto's forced "southern belle" accent. But do not let that deter you from this excellent production! It is a wonderful film with equally amusing and dark moments - Those involved rationalize the changing of the times as 'the way we live now.'
Rating:  - Don't Buy This DVD!
The promo's for this DVD are very deceiving! It makes it seem like this movie is so romantic and intriging! It is not!! It was a real frustrating movie to watch. If you know any thing about Anthony Trollope you will stay far away from anything that has been adapted from his novels. They are all downers. The man only writes about disappointments and depressing subject matter. His stuff is not uplifting at all. If that is what you are into than by all means buy, but if you are looking for romance and happy endings don't go in for his stuff.
Unfortunatly the way they advertise his adaptations are really deceiving. This movie was not anything at all what I expected and it was VERY EXPENSIVE! I don't reccomend buying it because you won't watch it a second time because it is not enjoyable to watch period!
Sorry to be such a downer but that's the truth!
Read Anthony Trollope, don't watch it!
Rating:  - The Cash Nexus
I believe it was Freud who said that the two great motivators in human affairs are money and sex. But the only motivator that is on display in Anthony Trollope's THE WAY WE LIVE NOW is money. Ok, that is not entirely true. There are at least four characters who are motivated by higher things. But, by and large, the message writ loud and clear in this novel and series is that money is what moves people to do what they do and the pursuit of personal fortune is the engine that drives men to build empires.
Perhaps no one is more aware of Freud's observation than Lady Carbury. Though the Carbury's are a noble family, they are also a family that has fallen on hard times. In an attempt to swell the dwindling family fortune Lady Carbury begins writing pulp historical fiction with titles like The Wicked Women of History. Even though she is nobility her literary taste and talent are strictly Grub Street as are her social mores and in order to solicit publisher Mr. Brown's interest in her book she is willing to solicit herself to Mr. Brown. Lady Carbury has two children, Felix and Henrietta (Hetta). Felix is a fop and a wastrel who gambles, whores, and drinks; while Hetta is a pure soul driven only by genuine love. Felix, like his mother, has few scruples and is also driven by the desire to land a fortune using any means necessary. When Felix discovers that the internationally famous financier Melmotte has an unmmarried daughter named Marie, Felix, assured of his own irresistable charms, sets ... Read More
Rating: - Fabulous!
This is an excellent production. The acting by both Matthew McFadden and David Suchet along with a brilliant supporting cast is amazing and a joy to behold. The movie is full of laughs but also a bit unnerving at times by all the greed and malice. It is a true delight to watch. This is one of the best BBC productions to date.
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