Adapted from Graham Greene’s novel set during and after World War Two, The End of the Affair tells of Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes), a writer who is attempting to reconstruct the events which saw the ending of his affair with Sarah (Julianne Moore) two years earlier. Hiring a detective (Ian Hart, in his third film for Jordan) to help him uncover the truth, he finds himself confronted not by another lover but by her pact with God, in which she had promised that she would end the affair (she is married to Stephen Rea) if he survived apparent death during an air raid. Jordan continues to explore the theme of belief in the supernatural, familiar from his other films and The Miracle in particular. The film is also a meditation on the act of writing (it begins with a close up of a typewriter) and sets up a contrast between the worlds of the cinema and the church. There is also the obligatory trip to the sea, this time to Brighton.
U.S.A.-Germany, 1999. Colour. Dolby digital stereo. 108 mins.
Plus
Not I, Jordan’s highly cinematic contribution to the ‘Beckett on Film’ project.
Ireland-U.K., 2001. Colour. Dolby digital stereo. 14 mins.