Laurent Anonyme

No one should view this film without also seeing the preceding version, directed by Anthony Asquith. But this is not a re-make, this is a fulfillment of the play which would have made it famous, on its own. It is a scandal, an agreement against cinema and a bargain in restraint of trade, for Amazon to enter into a transaction depriving millions of viewers of purchase access to a DVD of this masterpiece, just to possess the rights to rent screenings of it to the bandwidth-privileged majority in internet-served urban areas. In the distribution of art, Amazon has committed itself first and foremost to the cultivation of shame. It has earned it. One day, a government will crush these vicious practices, either by compelling the distribution of broadband from corner to corner of its borders, or by fining the living daylights off the parasites of its irresponsible inaction.