And as a working-class queer filmmaker, I’m very obsessed by class and this idea of patriarchy and gender.Īnd at the same time, I read some research about female-and-female relationships of the 19th century, which are really quite well-documented through letters to each other, these really wonderful, passionate, loving letters that women would write that kind of illustrated these deep, emotional, passionate relationships. And so I started to read about her and I was instantly drawn to her because she was a working-class woman, born into a life of poverty in a very strict, patriarchal, class-ridden society where she rose to being the leading paleontologist of her generation, but totally unrecognized because of her gender and because of her class. So I was looking for a birthday present for my then-boyfriend and he really liked polished stones and fossils, and every time I looked for a fossil this woman’s name kept coming up, Mary Anning. It’s just that they’re in the 19th century.ĭid you do research into paleontology and the women of that era? How did you come to have the real-life figures of Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison be part of the movie? So again I am exploring this idea of relationships and what have you. With “Gods Own Country” I was exploring this idea of relationships and what it feels like to fall in love and what have you and “Ammonite” is a very personal film in terms of the emotional scope of it and those characters. Lee: Well, the thing with “God’s Own Country” is that it’s not autobiographical in any way, shape or form, apart from the landscape where I grew up and where I live. What was the inspiration for the story of “Ammonite”? As you were talking about “God’s Own Country” it often came up that it was based on your life. And I’m nervous obviously, but I’m more excited. And so I am quite protected from any kind of noise around the film, but I’ve been really excited and thrilled that people are really looking forward to seeing it. I don’t go to film parties or anything like that, because obviously I live very far away from anything.
And I’m very lucky because I live very remotely, on the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere, in a wooden hut that has no cell reception. Has that put any added pressure on you in finishing the movie?įrancis Lee: This is only my second film.
There’s been such anticipation since a first image of Kate and Saoirse together was released over a year ago. Earlier in the week Lee spoke on the phone from his home in Yorkshire, England, about the film. The film finally had its world premiere on Friday night as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. “Ammonite” was selected to be part of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and also the Telluride Film Festival in the fall, both of which were subsequently canceled. Winslet, along with her best actress Oscar win for “The Reader,” has six other Academy Award nominations. Lee, an actor turned filmmaker, won numerous prizes for his 2017 debut feature “God’s Own Country,” a queer romance set on a sheep farm. The film brings together three celebrated artists. After Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) is unceremoniously left behind by her husband to convalesce in Anning’s care, the two women find themselves drawing closer, both brightened by the relationship. There the paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) spends her time mostly alone by the seaside looking for fossils.
Written and directed by Francis Lee, the film is set in 1840s Dorset, England. After a number of pandemic-related delays, the period romance “Ammonite” has been uncovered at last.
0 kommentar(er)
