Suffragettes (12A.)
Directed by Sarah Gavron.
Starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw, and Meryl Streep. 106 mins.
There is a line in the theme tune to Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads that goes, “The only thing to look forward to …. the past,” a line that could be taken as the motto of the British film industry. Costume dramas aren't always escapism but if they do try to tackle important contemporary themes, it is always with that comforting safety net. The idea of a star studded British film about the suffragette movement, with Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst, is something to be greeted with a sense of dread; it smacks of the worst kind of smug, self satisfied British film making, another undeserved pat of the back.
Suffragette is not that film. What you don't expect is a film with contemporary relevance but Suffragette throws up some uncomfortable modern day parallels. It looks back to our dealing in Northern Ireland and at the present day problems with Moslem extremism. The scenes where hunger striking suffragettes are force fed bear a striking resemblence to water boarding. Abi (The Iron Lady, Shame) Morgan's script concentrates on a composite figure Maud Watts (Mulligan) a working class girl working in a laundry who is radicalised by a co worker (Moss) and by the brutality of the police.
Suffragette doesn't escape all the absurdities of the costume drama. Gleeson's wise detective figure seems to have been sent back in time and occasionally the dialogue has the characters delineates their positions a little too clearly. Streep's Pankhurst is a cameo in which she appears to be channelling Dame Edith Evans, or maybe the Alec Guinness suffragette figure in Kind Hearts and Coronets. Overall though it is well played and well handed by Gavron, who made a pig's ear of Brick Lane.
It is a thoroughly depressing film, for any number of reason. We have the historical irony of a past where there is a hideous inequality and callous employers exploit the workforce both financially and sexually, and where the downtrodden believe it would all change if they just had the vote. In the film most people genuinely see the idea of women voting as an absurdity; and not because they were all inherently evil but because it seemed self evident to them. As you watch the state trying to crack down on this bunch of extremists, and in so doing so invigorate and make them stronger, there is a chilling revelation that beliefs that we hold to be irrefutable and eternal could be quite fragile and difficult to defend.
Directed by Sarah Gavron.
Starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw, and Meryl Streep. 106 mins.
There is a line in the theme tune to Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads that goes, “The only thing to look forward to …. the past,” a line that could be taken as the motto of the British film industry. Costume dramas aren't always escapism but if they do try to tackle important contemporary themes, it is always with that comforting safety net. The idea of a star studded British film about the suffragette movement, with Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst, is something to be greeted with a sense of dread; it smacks of the worst kind of smug, self satisfied British film making, another undeserved pat of the back.
Suffragette is not that film. What you don't expect is a film with contemporary relevance but Suffragette throws up some uncomfortable modern day parallels. It looks back to our dealing in Northern Ireland and at the present day problems with Moslem extremism. The scenes where hunger striking suffragettes are force fed bear a striking resemblence to water boarding. Abi (The Iron Lady, Shame) Morgan's script concentrates on a composite figure Maud Watts (Mulligan) a working class girl working in a laundry who is radicalised by a co worker (Moss) and by the brutality of the police.
Suffragette doesn't escape all the absurdities of the costume drama. Gleeson's wise detective figure seems to have been sent back in time and occasionally the dialogue has the characters delineates their positions a little too clearly. Streep's Pankhurst is a cameo in which she appears to be channelling Dame Edith Evans, or maybe the Alec Guinness suffragette figure in Kind Hearts and Coronets. Overall though it is well played and well handed by Gavron, who made a pig's ear of Brick Lane.
It is a thoroughly depressing film, for any number of reason. We have the historical irony of a past where there is a hideous inequality and callous employers exploit the workforce both financially and sexually, and where the downtrodden believe it would all change if they just had the vote. In the film most people genuinely see the idea of women voting as an absurdity; and not because they were all inherently evil but because it seemed self evident to them. As you watch the state trying to crack down on this bunch of extremists, and in so doing so invigorate and make them stronger, there is a chilling revelation that beliefs that we hold to be irrefutable and eternal could be quite fragile and difficult to defend.
