A “brilliant” black comedy period film starring Claire Foy is now available to watch in UK cinemas today (5 June). Savage House stars Foy and Richard E Grant as a married couple, Lady Savage and Sir Chauncey Savage, who aim to better their social standing in Georgian Britain as they face bankruptcy.
It’s not such an easy task amidst a smallpox outbreak and a Jacobite uprising, but it is one they take on gladly when the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire invite themselves to a dinner at their crumbling country estate.
The official synopsis continues: “It is not without a tinge of irony that their family name is the Savages, for this is a Savage House indeed. Filled with duels, decadence, and bloodshed, this is a madcap play on class and power.”
Paramount Pictures
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Alongside Foy and Grant, the cast also includes Bel Powley (A Small Light), Kila Lord Cassidy (The Wonder), Jack Farthing (The Lost Daughter), Richard McCabe (Napoleon), Vicki Pepperdine (Poor Things) and Pip Torrens (The Iron Lady). Savage House is American director Peter Glanz’s second film following his 2014 romcom The Longest Week, starring Jason Bateman and Olivia Wilde.
Reviews for the film have praised it, with The Times calling it a “brilliant black comedy”. Foy and Grant’s performances also earned a lot of positive reviews, as The Guardian described them as giving “black-belt performances”, while Variety said they gave Savage House “much of its vim, as well as a very slender sliver of humanity”.
As for why he decided to make the film, Glanz told Variety that it “feels criminal to not make a film that’s saying something, that’s shining a spotlight on inequities and inequalities, on the growing class divide and power dynamic”.
Paramount Pictures
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“But you never want to be prescriptive or academic; that’s why I love period films,” he continued. “They allow us to be a step removed, to look in the mirror and see ourselves (and hopefully laugh at ourselves) without the preconceived baggage of modern life.
“In 1715, we had a deadly epidemic, a disputed king, extreme inequity (far worse than today), and a polarized society taking to the streets in protest and riots. It felt like a fitting as a backdrop for biting satire and cautionary tale of greed and social climbing.”
Savage House is now available to watch in UK and US cinemas.
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