Folie àdeux
-
- February
- 7
Money, it’s been said, can’t buy happiness. But boy, it can sure make misery comfortable.
Witness the late tobacco billionairess Doris Duke  one-half of the strange duet brilliantly played by Pound Ridge’s Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes in the fascinating new HBO film “Bernard and Doris” (8 p.m. Saturday).
Doris (Sarandon) seemed to have it all  blond good looks, a head for finance, an eye for aesthetics (and pretty men), plus oodles of cash and all the far-flung estates, exotic trips, sumptuous furnishings and finery and perks of power that money can buy. And yet for all that, she was a miserable, drug-addled, stroke-haunted woman whose closest relationship  at the end of her life, at least  seems to have been with one Bernard Lafferty (Fiennes), the Irish butler to whom she left control of her estate.
Bernard was as damaged as Doris  a not-quite-recovered alcoholic and lonely homosexual who liked to dress up in madame’s stuff. Perhaps that damage drew them together, misery loving company and all. Perhaps the strength of each buttressed the weakness of the other. Whatever it was, they appear to have been true soulmates. The beauty of “Bernard and Doris,” however  the performances of the leads; the coolly ironic direction by actor Bob Balaban, underscored by Cole Porter; and the script by Mark Olsen (come back, writers!)  is that it defies easy analysis.
Though we learn that Duke suffered two divorces, the loss of a child and the death of her beloved daddy  whose end was hastened by her greedy mama  Sarandon resists the cliché of the poor little rich girl. Her Doris is mean, stingy, impossible and yet, always intelligible. She’s the most difficult and dangerous of characters  a smart woman  who understands that the rich can never be sure if they’re loved for themselves. Hence, they must always be on their guard. In a sense, she’s like the orchids that obsess her in the greenhouse of her New Jersey estate (played by Old Westbury Gardens on Long Island)  capable of withering even dying, but always formidable and a little out of reach.
Fiennes’ Bernard only adds to Doris’ and our insecurity. Most stories about those who serve  whether it be Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” Melville’s “Benito Cereno” or Wodehouse’s “Jeeves and Wooster  tip the scales of power toward the servant. The master may have the law and the bank on his side. The servant has the brains. Here you’re never sure why Bernard stays to take Doris’ abuse. Is it love? The hope of real money? Or is it the satisfying knowledge that one of the world’s richest women couldn’t cope without him?
Given Bernard’s very real efficiency, it’s not all that surprising that she left him millions and control of the estate. A nitpicker, Doris probably figured he’d bring the same attention to detail to her will that he applied to dusty furniture. What comes as something of a kicker is the postscript, which informs us that Bernard did not outlive Doris by many years.
You really can’t take it with you.
Photo courtesy of HBO.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 5:05 pm by Georgette Gouveia.
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You might enjoy this audio interview with Bob Balaban, director of the HBO film “Bernard and Doris”: hhttp://tinyurl.com/29emsw .