Travels with My Aunt (1972)
- General info
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- Synopsis:
At the funeral of Angelica Pulling in London, her staid, straight-laced and joyless banker son, Henry Pulling (Alec McCowen), and her eccentric sister, Augusta Bertram (Maggie Smith), ostensibly meet for the first time. Henry had heard stories from his mother about his Aunt Augusta, who he had assumed had long passed. Information from Augusta about his "mother" and an action by Augusta's Sierra Leonean friend Wordsworth (Louis Gossett Jr.) convince Henry to agree to Augusta's request to accompany her on an imminent trip to Paris, despite Henry never having done any international traveling. It isn't until they are well on their way that Henry learns that the purpose of Augusta's trip is not to sight-see as he had assumed he would do, but rather to save the only true love that she has ever had in her unusual and unique life, an Italian by the name of Ercole Visconti. As Augusta's task takes her and Henry far beyond just Paris and as they get into one adventure after another in Augusta's often less than above board actions, Augusta and Henry will either be torn apart by their fundamental differences, or brought closer together as they begin to understand the need to be a little more like the other, the only real family they have left in the world. For Henry, what happens is also the result of coming to a realization of what Augusta's information about his mother and father really means. - Actors:
- Maggie Smith, Alec McCowen, Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Stephens, Cindy Williams, Robert Flemyng, José Luis López Vázquez, Raymond Gérôme, Daniel Emilfork, Corinne Marchand, John Hamill, David Swift, Bernard Holley, Valerie White, Antonio Pica
- Directors:
- George Cukor
- Writers:
- Graham Greene, Jay Presson Allen
- Others:
- Anthony Powell, John Box, Douglas Slocombe, Gil Parrondo, Robert W. Laing
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Comedy, Drama
- Collections:
- Acting Up: British Actresses at the Oscars, Remembering Maggie Smith
- Awards:
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Reviews (1) of Travels with My Aunt
Underrated Greene comedy. - Travels with My Aunt review by Steve
The Graham Greene source novel was a joyful, optimistic affirmation of life and the film gloriously conveys those emotions on to the screen. At his mother's funeral, a naive, mundane middle aged bank manager Henry Pulling (Alec McCowen) meets for the first time the capricious Aunt Augusta (Maggie Smith) who initiates him into an adventure incorporating her many, varied and usually eccentric or criminal associates and friends scattered across the more glamorous cities of Europe. Henry is shaken out of his complacency and led to the unsurprising conclusion that it is the impulsive and resourceful Agatha who is his real mother, and not the conservative woman who brought him up. And he begins to discover the Agatha dormant within. This is a feelgood experience, set in beautiful locations and gorgeously acted by its eclectic cast, particularly Smith and McCowen. It's surprising to me that this film has such a poor reputation. It feels like mainlining nirvana. Unsentimental optimism is a rare commodity on screen and this picaresque, secular pilgrimage delivers its surge of serotonin with a lot of style and wit.