HOUSE OF GUINNESS
Type: dramatic, historical
Direction: Steven Knight. With Anthony Boyle, Louis Partridge, James Norton, Emily Fairn, Niamh McCormack, Fionn O’Shea, Dervla Kirwan, Danielle Galligan. On Netflix
There is all the tried and tested skill of the British in constructing costume dramas at the basis of House of Guinnessseries in eight episodes; even if the production is Irish (and the difference with the British, the former occupying power, emerges as one of the cruxes of the entire series), we are faced with a product which, due to its rarefied atmospheres, reconstruction of aesthetics and charm of lost times, recalls other successes such as Peaky Blinders (the creator is the same, Steven Knight).
We are in Dublin at the end of the 19th century and the funeral procession of Arthur Guinness is taking place in the streets of the capitalfounder of the brewery of the same name and father of the most famous dark beer in the world, attacked by the Fenians, the Catholics who dream of revolution and independence from London.
Louis Partridge as Edward Guinness (photo © Netflix).
Against the backdrop of the social upheavals of the time, we witness episode after episode the power struggle of the patriarch’s children to secure their inheritance, leadership of the company, personal ambitions.
Although fictionalized, House of Guinness And a cross-section of a crucial historical period for the fate of that piece of Europebut also a no-nonsense look at a powerful family struggling with its own survival.
For those who love costume dramas and Irish settings.
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED