Cousin Bette
March 2007 Reviewed by: Charlotte Meyer Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Cousin Bette is an early BBC miniseries that first screened in the United States in 1972. Like so many others, it was adapted from great 19th-century literature, in this case, a novel written in 1848 by the father of French realism, Honore de Balzac. Balzac set out to satirize the values, habits, and hypocrisies of the bourgeoisie of post-Napoleonic France. His output was enormous, more than 90 novels and novellas with more than 2000 characters. "I am not deep," Balzac once said, "but very wide." Perhaps that description fits this video production as well.

The plot is a wide web of deceptions and treacheries, devised by the title character Bette, played by BBC regular, Margaret Tyzack. Bette, unmarried, lives in genteel poverty as an embroiderer, yet her family is among the aristocracy. She is included in their festivities, dressed in the castoff gowns of her cousin Adeline (Ursula Howells), but behind her mask of gratitude, she is rankled by the indignity of her status. She befriends an impoverished young Polish exile, Count Steinbock (Colin Baker), and sponsors his career as a sculptor. The plot is set in motion when Cousin Adeline’s daughter (Harriet Harper) takes out after Bette’s young protégé and marries him. Bette secretly plots to bring down her entire family by using their individual weaknesses as weapons against them. She is assisted in her revenge by Valerie, a sensual blonde adventuress played by the 26-year-old Helen Mirren in her first miniseries. Valerie’s role, directed from the wings by Bette, is to seduce all the men in the family -- and Mirren’s character plays it out, man by man.

Compared to more recent BBC series, such as Mirren’s lushly produced Elizabeth I, Cousin Bette will seem low budget indeed. The sets are plain, the lighting harsh, the audio hollow mono, and the musical score sparse. On the DVD box is a disclaimer: the "occasional flaws in the image and the audio were beyond our ability to correct." It is only the fancy dresses and elaborate wigs -- Mirren’s in particular -- that qualify this as a classic BBC costume drama. Even with actors of the caliber of Tyzack and Mirren, the direction by Gareth Davies seems at times comically stagey; the characters may be many in number, but none is developed with much depth.

Given this, why even bother with this reissue of Cousin Bette? For one reason, Balzac’s intricate plot, nicely squeezed into five episodes by screenwriter Ray Lawler, gets very compelling -- so clever and ruthless is Bette’s drive for revenge. Best of all, though, is the treat of seeing Helen Mirren at the very beginning of her career. While the acting, including Mirren’s, is often stagey, she previews her future depth. You will watch in wonder as the young Mirren, nicely squeezed into the bodices of her low-cut gowns, throws herself into the role of the naughty, haughty seductress. Even in this early Mirren character, you will catch glints of her Jane Tennison and Queens Elizabeth I & II. She evolved from this early role into one of our major actors, and that makes this DVD worth the price.

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