Tender Is the Night

The BBC adaptation of Scott Fitzgeralds 'Tender is the Night' (1985), on a script by Dennis Potter, ranks among those top period dramas that only BBC could make some 30-40 years ago, such as Fortunes of War (1987) or Cambridge Spies (2003). I first saw this in 1987 on TV, but recently found a second-hand DVD ('Zärtlich ist der Nacht') issued in Germany. The DVD quality is not what one can expect these days when older TV series are re-issued after intelligent processing, but I nevertheless enjoyed seeing it again because it is such an excellent series, and fully deserves its high ranking on iMDB.

It was shot on location in Switzerland (Lausanne evidently substituting for Zurich), Paris and the Côte d'Azur in a setting that reflects perfectly the 1920's, Fitzgeralds 'jazz age'. Contrary to the novel, where the earliest scenes in the sanatorium are a flashback, Potter opted for a linear story, starting in 1917 when Dick Diver (Peter Strauss) is an army doctor who first meets Nicole (Mary Steenburgen) as a patient when he visits his friend Franz, a colleague (Jürgen Brügger) in his clinic. But otherwise the script is faithful to the novel, Fitzgerald's last one, published in 1934. The story reflects the writer's own decline due to alcoholism, his wife Zelda's struggle with mental health, and the opulent lifestyle of his moneyed friends (Gerald and Sarah Murphy, who were reportedly not happy with the book).

After the war, Dick marries Nicole, who is rich. They move to the Riviera, where they meet movie actress Rosemary Hoyt (Sean Young) on the beach. Also on the beach are Abe North (John Heard), who resembles Cole Porter, Tommy Barban (Joris Stuyck), and a group of English tourists. As time goes by, Nicole's fragile nature becomes clear. It complicates Dick's role as doctor/husband/gentleman, who drinks more and more and falls in love with Rosemary, though he does not want to leave Nicole. But as Nicole grows close to Tommy and becomes more indepentent of him, Dick's life falls apart.

Fitzgerald's works have suffered almost as badly as Faulkner's in movie and TV adaptations, but this miniseries captures the inconsolable sadness of his most moving book. Mary Steenburgen's extraordinary performance not only makes Nicole comprehensible (which she wasn't always in the novel, where we see her through her husband's eyes) but lends her a warmth and sweetness that make her fate almost unbearable. It's a pity this isn't better known.

Scott Fitzgerald drew on his own experience of his marriage with Zelda to paint this haunting and often frightening portrait of a relationship foundering on the rocks of social and financial success. Peter Strauss gives a career best performance as Dick Diver, a successful psychiatrist, who can't do a thing to prevent the alcohol-fuelled mental decline of his wife (Mary Steenburgen). There are moments of sheer Fitzgerald brilliance, for example, the speech given by Diver to friends at a candle-lit dinner party in front of his Cote d'Azure villa. The supporting cast is fine, including a then little known Jean Reno who's since gone on to do worse things.

I really enjoyed this series (but then I am Fitzgerald buff). I remember being a bit disappointed that Mary Steenburgen didn't quite look like the Nicole I imagined in my head, but it was well done nonetheless. It seems that I'm not alone in wanting to own a copy but as its 20 years old I don't suppose we'll ever be gratified by its availability again (or even a repeat on the telly!). The original was a long book with a complex storyline; the book starts kind of in the middle of the story and skips to past and future .....whereas I remember this being somewhat rearranged into strict chronology, which, to some extent, ruined the effect of the literary version which started with the sparkling pinnacle of the Divers life before exploring how they got there and how they ended up. Despite all this it was a pretty good version...... Maybe Hollywood should make this story again..... for the third time ...