Ammonite (2020)
Country: GB/AUS/US
Technical: col 117m
Director: Francis Lee
Cast: Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Jones, Fiona Shaw
Synopsis:
A celebrated Dorsetshire fossil hunter finds herself playing nursemaid to the wife of an amateur palaeontologist, and an unexpected bond grows between them.
Review:
Coming in the wake of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, this rightly or wrongly drew comparisons for its story of a queer awakening between artisan and society females. Suddenly everyone was effusing about the 'frankly impassioned sex scenes' between Winslet and Ronan, although for those familiar with the director's God's Own Country this aspect came as little surprise, (similarly the casting of a Romanian in the role of a mid-nineteenth century doctor - the actor appears in both films). The present film is far more about the humble living conditions of a woman the scientific community has sidelined, and whose working class origins make her doubly incompatible with male dominated society. Her amorous ardour is second only to her professional pride, but it is the anaemic and impractical Murchison who brings her on. Both characters are based on real figures, though the young wife is made less worldly and more needy, perhaps for reasons of balance. The rhythms and details of life at the time are well caught, though more detail on the fossils would have been welcome.
Country: GB/AUS/US
Technical: col 117m
Director: Francis Lee
Cast: Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Jones, Fiona Shaw
Synopsis:
A celebrated Dorsetshire fossil hunter finds herself playing nursemaid to the wife of an amateur palaeontologist, and an unexpected bond grows between them.
Review:
Coming in the wake of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, this rightly or wrongly drew comparisons for its story of a queer awakening between artisan and society females. Suddenly everyone was effusing about the 'frankly impassioned sex scenes' between Winslet and Ronan, although for those familiar with the director's God's Own Country this aspect came as little surprise, (similarly the casting of a Romanian in the role of a mid-nineteenth century doctor - the actor appears in both films). The present film is far more about the humble living conditions of a woman the scientific community has sidelined, and whose working class origins make her doubly incompatible with male dominated society. Her amorous ardour is second only to her professional pride, but it is the anaemic and impractical Murchison who brings her on. Both characters are based on real figures, though the young wife is made less worldly and more needy, perhaps for reasons of balance. The rhythms and details of life at the time are well caught, though more detail on the fossils would have been welcome.
Country: GB/AUS/US
Technical: col 117m
Director: Francis Lee
Cast: Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Jones, Fiona Shaw
Synopsis:
A celebrated Dorsetshire fossil hunter finds herself playing nursemaid to the wife of an amateur palaeontologist, and an unexpected bond grows between them.
Review:
Coming in the wake of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, this rightly or wrongly drew comparisons for its story of a queer awakening between artisan and society females. Suddenly everyone was effusing about the 'frankly impassioned sex scenes' between Winslet and Ronan, although for those familiar with the director's God's Own Country this aspect came as little surprise, (similarly the casting of a Romanian in the role of a mid-nineteenth century doctor - the actor appears in both films). The present film is far more about the humble living conditions of a woman the scientific community has sidelined, and whose working class origins make her doubly incompatible with male dominated society. Her amorous ardour is second only to her professional pride, but it is the anaemic and impractical Murchison who brings her on. Both characters are based on real figures, though the young wife is made less worldly and more needy, perhaps for reasons of balance. The rhythms and details of life at the time are well caught, though more detail on the fossils would have been welcome.