Brother Cadfael, Set 3 (The Rose Rent, A Morbid Taste for Bones, The Raven in the Foregate)

Customer Reviews:

Beautifully Filmed, Superb Acting.......2007-08-10

I've loved and admired Derek Jacobi as an actor since his terrific turn as Claudius in "I Claudius." In the Cadfael series, Jacobi is Brother Cadfael, a smart Welsh priest in Medieval times. He's also a healer and sleuth with a mysterious past. In "A Morbid Taste for Bones," which is one of my favorites, a delusional Brother has visions and is simply a nutcase. However this is the days of old so the visions have meaning, especially to a self-serving church that needs money. Based on a wrong interpretation of one of these visions, the priests decide that a young Welsh saint lies uneasy in her grave and set out to dig her up and take her bones to the church. Of course they have ulterior motives because relics such as bones bring the churches favor and money. I don't want to give away any of the great plot, so I'll only state that a murder occurs. Brother Cadfael must bring peace between the Welsh people who have the saint buried in their town and the priests who greedily want her bones removed and taken for their own sake. He must also solve the murder so an innocent is not executed. There are delicious twists to the story and a wonderful ending that has everyone happy......and deceived. Only Brother Cadfael and two others know the truth. This series is so unusual in it's time setting and characters that it is one of a kind. It's also beautifully done. Ellis Peters would be very proud of how they interpreted her books to film.

Brother Cadfael, Set 3.......2004-12-03

The Rose Rent

"We have this moment for good or ill"
The Rose rent is a great mystery and in the course of being solved leads people to evaluate what has worth in life. A young widow must now face the fact that she may have killed her husband and also plan the rest of her life.
I was going to print the quote from the back cover; yet as usual the person who wrote the blurb could not have seen the film or have read the book.
Of course people die and Brother Cadfael uses forensics to determine who the murderer/s are and the motive/s. You get more then sufficient clues on the way.
My favorite quote is in the morning as they are ringing the morning bell; someone asks Cadfael, "Are you awake?" and Cadfael staggering "No. But I am out of bed."
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A Morbid Taste for Bones

"A man may step out of his nature"

A monk has the ability of sight. While he is being bleed he gets a vision. With the help of Jerome he realizes that it is St. Winifred whose body is lost in Wales and wants to be here so people can visit. A retrieval expedition is launched against Cadfael judgment.

This is one of the best Father Cadfaels as it has meaning and story on many levels. True the ending is not exactly the book ending. But the feel is still there. The point that I like best is that the language is common but the cultures as dissimilar.

Although there is no Hugh Beringar (Sean Pertwee), this film contains one of my favorite actors John Hallam who plays the lord Richard. He has been in many popular movies including "4.50 from Paddington" where he gets to play a similar character as Cedric Crackenthorpe.

I leave you with this thought:
"Those that seek to lay hands on St. Winifred are apt to perish."
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The Raven in the Foregate

"Truth and justice are often at odds."

It is said, "All that evil needs to flourish is for good men to nothing." And this film has a few good men that do nothing. So once again it is up to Brother Cadfael to sort out the mystery and if separate mysteries are related. I will not go thought the story blow by blow, as that is part of the intrigue in watching these films.
A part of the back cover paraphrased:
Father Ailnoth, the new parish priest in Shrewsbury, earns the scorn of his entire parishioners. After refusing to absolver a parishioner for carrying an illegitimate child, the priest is found dead in the river. There are plenty of suspects but a shortage of clues.
Too bad back covers are not clear and strait forward however the story is more complex and the acting is superior.

wonderful clean and interesting.......2004-11-30

We now have all of the Cadfael movies and have watched them in order, love them, and our youngest daughter has been bitten by the mystery bug. Good clean movies with a wonderful twist to them, something the whole family can watch. Very entertaining.

It keeps getting better.......2004-01-27

When I viewed the first set in this series I was drawn in by the wonderful acting, sets, costumes, music, and more. I immediately ordered the rest the sets and the third set showed up before the second. I couldn't wait to watch it and so I watched it out of order. It really doesn't matter I think what order you watch them in other than some of the background, whose King, politics, etc. might be clearer if watched in order.

Be sure to read the review "Successful TV dramatization and the role of Sir Derek's life" by themis_athena from Santa Monica, CA, USA. An excellent review and I dare anyone would have a hard time doing better. My only additional comment is I like Sheriff Hugh Beringar in the first series a little better. Eoin McCarthy in this series does not have quite the depth of Sean Pertwee.

This set includes the standard extras found in this series. Quite honestly these sets are a bargain for this price.

Great adaptations of a fun series.......2003-01-28

You can enjoy these Cadfael videos if you have not read the books, but if you are already a fan of the series they are even better.

Customer Reviews:

Beautifully Filmed, Superb Acting.......2007-08-10

Brother Cadfael, Set 3.......2004-12-03

wonderful clean and interesting.......2004-11-30

It keeps getting better.......2004-01-27

This set includes the standard extras found in this series. Quite honestly these sets are a bargain for this price.

Great adaptations of a fun series.......2003-01-28

You can enjoy these Cadfael videos if you have not read the books, but if you are already a fan of the series they are even better.

Amazon.com

A medieval Benedictine monk with a penchant for solving mysteries using deductive reasoning, Brother Cadfael, as expertly portrayed by actor Derek Jacobi in a series of programs produced for British television, tackles a murder case that grows out of a search for the bones of a martyred saint. Traveling from the Abbey of Shrewsbury to Wales after a young monk claims to have had a vision of the martyred St. Winifred, Cadfael and his fellow monks locate the holy relics, which they hope to return to their own abbey. The locals, however, insist that their beloved saint's bones shall remain in Wales, and the monks find themselves being thwarted by a proud Welsh lord who is soon found murdered. The suspicious locals point fingers at the English monks and at a young man in love with the lord's daughter. Cadfael, with the help of a beautiful and plucky heroine (played by Anna Friel), finally figures it all out and justice is ultimately done. The plot has some intelligent and unexpected twists, and fine acting from the supporting cast provides a solid complement to Jacobi's understated performance as the detective monk. Also worth noting is the artfully rendered historical ambience that makes this film, like others featuring Brother Cadfael, worthwhile even for those who don't generally watch mysteries. --Robert J. McNamara

Customer Reviews:

A Truly Rare Benedictine........2004-10-28

When the decision was made to produce for TV several episodes from her mystery series about Brother Cadfael, that 12th century crusader turned herbalist monk turned detective who has been, ever since his creation, one of the most compassionate and unusual sleuths of literary history, novelist Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) was not entirely happy. In fact, according to this series's star, Sir Derek Jacobi, Ms. Peters had very mixed feelings about giving up her brain child and entrusting it to other people who went about cutting and adjusting everything, from the storylines themselves to the way the protagonists speak and even the sequence of the stories, to the necessities and limitations set by the new medium. But she eventually acquiesced and at one point promised that "the next one I write, I'll make sure it's easier for you all to film."

While the thirteen episodes that were eventually produced are, thus, not entirely true to the individual Chronicles they are based on - and "A Morbid Taste for Bones" certainly is no exception in that respect - they are closer than many other movie or TV versions of famous works of literature. Most importantly, they maintain not only the core storylines but also the historical authenticity, atmosphere and spirit set by Ms. Peters's books in a marvelous fashion; portraying, like the novels, vividly and with great care for detail medieval monastic life as well as a society caught in the middle of a civil war (that between Empress Maud and King Stephen for the throne of England), with shifting allegiances, intrigue, favoritism and again and again, innocent victims caught between the front lines. And Sir Derek Jacobi brings both the wealth of his experience and skill and all of his own shrewdness, intelligence, sense of humor and empathy to the role of the medieval Benedictine sleuth and thus truly becomes Cadfael - for the thousands of new fans who are discovering the series through its enactment for TV just as much as for us who loved the books before they were ever transposed to a visual medium: Due to his experiences as a crusader endowed with a keen sense of reality, a certain world-weariness and a deep sense of morality alike, he not only understands the letter of the law (both divine and worldly) but more importantly, also the deeper implications of the same, and always finds a way to apply the church's teachings in a truly Solomonic manner, and to arrive at solutions that are as just as they are compassionate and pragmatic. - A tremendous cast of supporting actors rounds out an overall excellent production; to mention just a few, Julian Firth as the ambitious and narrow-minded Brother Jerome and Terrence Hardiman as Abbot Radolfus (as well as, in other installments of the series, Sean Pertwee and later Eoin McCarthy as Under-Sheriff Hugh Beringar, who joins Cadfael in his investigations whenever, as is so often the case, these transcend the world of monastic life and require the administration of secular justice as well as clerical insight).

"A Morbid Taste for Bones" is actually the first Chronicle of Brother Cadfael; the TV adaptation, however, is set somewhere between "The Virgin in the Ice" (the sixth Chronicle, which brings some unexpected insights into Cadfael's past), "The Devil's Novice" (the eighth Chronicle), "The Raven in the Foregate" (the twelfth Chronicle) and "The Rose Rent" (the thirteenth Chronicle).

The story opens with a number of visions experienced by young Brother Columbanus (Nick Patrick), who claims to have had encounters with St. Winifred, in her earthly life a girl from a remote Welsh village decapitated by an evil-spirited nobleman. The saint, Brother Columbanus claims, has told him that she is unhappy with the lack of care and dedication her grave receives from the local village folk, and wishes to be relocated nowhere else but to Shrewsbury's very own Saint Peter and Saint Paul. After a heated discussion over the appropriateness and dangers of such an excursion, the monks decide to mount an expedition to Wales to save the maiden saint's bones. Predictably, they are anything but welcome - not only are they emissaries from an English abbey, which in itself would be bad enough already; they also seek to take what village folk consider their greatest treasure and, more importantly, the village's holy protectress. When wealthy squire Lord Rhysart (John Hallam), who has led the village in opposing the monks' mission, is found murdered, they quickly find themselves implicated. Cadfael, of Welsh descendance himself but now part of a mission from an English abbey, ends up between all lines of allegiance in trying to find Rhysart's murderer; but find the murderer he must, to ensure the success of his brothers' mission and their safe return home. And more than ever, it takes all his world-wisdom *and* all his understanding of the divine to unravel the mystery.

An amazing visit to the 12th Century.......2002-07-20

I enjoy a good murder mystery of the classical type, and the Brother Cadfael series is particularly good. The author Ellis Peters (Edith Pargiter, 1913-1995), like Agatha Christie, Nagio Marsh and Dorothy Sayers, was popular during the mid-20th Century and wrote prolifically during that time. There are some 20 Cadfael books. The film A Morbid Taste for Bones, based upon the book of the same name is incredibly authentic and colorful. The different orders of society: nobleman, servant, military man, tradesman, artisan, abbott, monk, and priest are carefully wrought to produce a period piece with more detail and clearer dialogue than a Shakespearean play. It would be a wonderful way of introducing young people to history.

The setting of the story is 12th Century England, a period of particular turmoil. Henry I had died without a legitimate male heir, and he had designated his daughter Matilda as his successor, binding his nobles by oath to support her. Although many of them did, including her very able half brother, an illegitimate son of Henry made an Earl by his father, many of them threw their support behind her cousin, Steven. Matilda, or Maud as she is referred to, was a granddaughter of William the Conqueror and no push over herself. She fought her cousin from a base in coastal France, where the family held land in fief of the King of France and where marriage alliances had placed her as wife of Geoffery, the Duke of Anjou. With her Norman support in France and her loyal factions in England, she made enough of a threat to Steven's rule to ultimately obtain a guarantee of succession to the English throne for her son Henry, ultimately Henry II. Until that time, warfare turned most of England into a battle ground and life for everyone a matter of ceaseless uncertainty. Added to this was the rancour still apparent in the social divisions between the largely Saxon population and their Norman rulers. The fall of the Saxon monarchy was only a hundred years previous and hostility still existed.

Cadfael, the central character of the series, is a Dominican monk and herbalist, and Dereck Jacobi is the perfect personification of him. He has a presence which suggests strength, wisdom, and compassion. Unlike most of the other brothers, Cadfael had spent most of his life in the secular world where he participated in the crusades, had adventures, fell in and out of love, and took his order after finding the ways of the world wanting. He comes from a different culture, that of Wales, and sees that of England through an outsiders more objective eyes. His experience with life and the motives of men and his keen awareness of detail makes him the perfect sleuth, and when murder is committed, the civil authorities, often personified by Hugh Beringer (Eorin McCarthy), are more than willing to have him clear things up for them.

In A Morbid Taste for Bones, a young priest begins having ecstatic seizures in which he believes he is being directed by a Welsh saint, the martyred St. Winifred, to go to Wales to obtain her bones for the Abbey of Shrewsbury. The people of the town are loath to give up their saint, and in the process of convincing them of the divine direction of their mission, the monks end up suspected of the murder of a townsman. Cadfael, a Welshman himself, begins the process of sleuthing out the culprit before they and their mission become victims themselves.

A thoroughly real and well researched visit to the Middle Ages.

Not a really faithful adaptation.......2002-03-17

This review is geared toward considering the episode in terms of its quality as an adaptation of the original story, rather than as an independent entity, so if that doesn't interest you, shoo. :)

The basic plot and some of the major subplots of the original novel have been adapted faithfully, but in moving the story several years forward in time (several years after Heribert's abbacy ended), several of the characters have been replaced or altered greatly.

_A Morbid Taste for Bones_ is the first book in the series, which follows a linear chronology (i.e., each book happens some time after its predecessor, so the characters change accordingly, and the events in the world around them track what actually happened in history). Revising the scripts to change the order of the stories consequently has inherent problems.

Rather than Abbot Heribert, Radulfus is in charge, which results in a different interpretation of several other characters. Unlike Radulfus, who's in his prime, Heribert at this point was elderly, and nearing the end of his tenure. Prior Robert took it for granted that he would be the next abbot, while others had motives to try to displace Robert so they could step into the abbot's shoes later. Removing those possible motives changes the balance of the story.

The visionary Columbanus has been reinterpreted. His visionary fits here are bluntly interpreted as near-insanity, rather than offering any possible interpretation as a calculated pose. When Brother Cadfael considers that Columbanus might be trying to build a reputation for holiness as a lever into the abbot's mitre, he questions Columbanus openly about it rather than entertaining it as a private theory early on. Consequently, the stage for Columbanus' last vigil and vision in Gwytherin is arranged somewhat differently than in the original.

Brother John, Cadfael's first assistant, who entered the order after his girl dumped him, has been eliminated, along with the subplot concerning his vocation; instead, we have Brother Oswin, as usual in the adaptations (who is portrayed as an amalgam of Brother Mark and the original Oswin, without the wisdom of the former or the heartiness of the latter).

For the supporting players: the Welsh villagers look far more downtrodden than I would have expected (everyone except Rhysiart and his daughter is wearing an institutional shade of blue); the Shrewsbury villagers don't get that treatment when the monks are on their home turf. Cadfael's role as translator is eliminated, as everyone magically speaks English (OK, I'll grant that one for the sake of translation to film.) But to give him an equivalent role as a buffer between the monks and the villagers, Cadfael is presented as the only member of the monastic party with common sense - and if you think Prior Robert was politically naive in the books, think again. In fact, Robert's original problem was that he was *too* worldly-wise, and underestimated local affection for Saint Winifred.

85 Minutes Doesn't Do Brother Cadfael Justice.......2001-11-01

I'll readily admit, my expectations were rediculously high. As a fan of both the Brother Cadfael chronicles and actor Derek Jacobi, I assumed that like the actor, this DVD would be a perfect combination of style and substance. I wonder if this might be one of the TV series' weaker episodes.

Jacobi is perfectly cast as Cadfael and carries the role very well. While there are other good performances, some are a bit overdone, and some are a bit wooden. Author Ellis Peters did a wonderful job of interweaving multi-leveled storylines together in her books, but that sense was impossible to capture in this episode's condensed 85 minutes. Though the show moves swiftly and conveys all the key points, it ended up feeling a little flat.

On a technical note, the DVD picture is remarkably clear. The "extras", however, left me wanting. There are only 10 - 15 production stills, and not much background on either the making of the episode, characters, or actors. There is one very nice touch: an audio track of Derek Jacobi speaking candidly about his portrayal of Brother Cadfael.

A man may step out of his nature.......2001-08-04

A monk has the ability of sight. While he is being bleed he gets a vision. With the help of Jerome he realizes that it is St. Winifred whose body is lost in Wales and wants to be here so people can visit. A retrieval expedition is launched against Cadfael judgment.

This is one of the best Father Cadfaels as it has meaning and story on many levels. True the ending is not exactly the book ending. But the feel is still there. The point that I like best is that the language is common but the cultures as dissimilar.

Although there is no Hugh Beringar (Sean Pertwee), this film contains one of my favorite actors John Hallam who plays the lord Richard. He has been in many popular movies including "4.50 from Paddington" where he gets to play a similar character as Cedric Crackenthorpe.

I leave you with this thought:
"Those that seek to lay hands on St. Winifred are apt to perish."

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DVD info:
The first thing that struck me was how clear the picture is. Maybe some of it is the tape was worn yet I never noticed that that Brother Jerome had freckles. Unexpectedly they (whoever they are) put all the DVD goodies on this except a running commentary. Of course there are interactive menus, which make navigation easy. Then there is a scene index of which I seldom use. An Exclusive audio comments by Derek Jacob, has pictures of him with Ellis Peters as he explains that a one and a half hour program just can not pack the elaborate plots and number of characters in to do justice to the book readers. The Ellis Peters biography and book list is written on the screen (Sorry you have to read some of this.) The production scrapbook has about 10 stills showing the film being made. I have not tried the captions for the hearing impaired. What is not mentioned is a list of the productions that Derek Jacobi has done.
Want to see something eerie, look at the picture of Derek next to Ellis. They could be related.

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