LETTER:In praise of 'Four Weddings'

Sir: Three hearty cheers for Gerald Kaufman's comments on the Bafta awards for Four Weddings and a Funeral. I saw the film on video last night for the first time and was appalled that this amalgam of superficiality, bad taste and coarse language should have been considered the "most successful British film ever".

The only genuine emotion appears in the funeral oration; otherwise relationships are banal and degrading. The institution of marriage is ridiculed and the hero and heroine after leading what can only be described as promiscuous lives decide against it. I refuse to believe that the heroine's catalogue of conquests is anything other than out of character and unrealistic. Such behaviour degrades the character and it is perverse to present the feminine mystique in such a way.

This year, my parents celebrate 58 years of happily married life and my parents-in-law 59. They took their vows seriously and have entered into the rewards of a long-term, maturing relationship. There are those of us who believe this is still possible in 1995.

Yours sincerely,

DAVID R. J. EVANS

The Rectory

Uckfield, East Sussex

26 April

The writer is the Assistant Bishop in the Dioceses of Canterbury, Chichester and Rochester.