This month we watched Suffragette, released in the UK in 2015. 

​Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Plot: “The foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State.”
Characters: Maud Watts, an ordinary and anonymous working woman (Carey Mulligan), Maud's friend Violet (Anne-Marie Duff), Edith Ellyn (Helena Bonham Carter), Maud’s husband (Ben Whishaw).
Location: Set in 1912 London.
Other: Suffragette is a solid historical drama, that tells an important social story that graphically illustrates how much the world has changed, for the better, in a hundred years.  The film concludes with the astounding fact that Switzerland only gave women the vote in 1971.

Review: All appreciated this movie, although some found it quite emotionally challenging.  Although not overt, there were several issues raised.  Women could work, but did not have a voice; women did not have rights, only men; women were mothers or wives, possessions not people.  The question was raised as to whether we still fall in to the trap ourselves, identifying ourselves as our roles.  We see Maude’s inner conflict over whether to “do as she was told”, or to think for herself.  Thinking for herself was labelled as “not right in the head” – a sickness.
During the movie the lighting changed from sombre to brighter as the time for women gaining the voter came closer.  Even the costumes seemed to become lighter and brighter.  Of interest was the list at the end of the movie showing the years that many countries gave women the vote.
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​Our April session is on 12 April.  We plan to watch the movie Hunt for the Wilderpeople, starring Sam Neill and Julian Dennison.  To allow time to discuss the movie, we start the movies sharply at 1:00pm.

With all the movies we watch we can look at them as literature – literature in a different medium, that of film.  This helps to focus the discussion, covering ideas around genre, characters, plot, but also adding the aspects that relate to film, such as cinemascope, music and atmosphere.

*Message from Judith Borthwick:   Unfortunately I somehow missed including the Film and Literature report in the March newsletter.  It has been forwarded to group members by email; included here on the website and will be included in the next newsletter along with the latest report.  My apologies.  Judith Borthwick (Acting Newsletter Editor)
 
Judith Borthwick

​Our March session is on 8 March, International Women’s Day, so we plan to watch the movie Suffragette.  This is a biography around the fight  by women in Britain in the early 20th century to gain support for their right to vote.  The movie is over 100 minutes, and to allow time to discuss the movie, we will start the movie at sharply at 1:00pm.

This month we watched The Ghost and Mrs Muir, based on the 1945 novel by R. A. Dick, the pseudonym for Josephine Leslie. 
 
Genre: Romantic fantasy
Plot: an early 1900s story of a young widow who moves to an English seaside village despite the disapproval of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law.  She rents Gull Cottage, with a reputation for being haunted.  Here she takes up residence with her young daughter and her maid.  A friendship forms between the ghost, and the young widow.  She meets an author who captivates her, but she finds he has a wife and children.  On her death, the Captain returns.
Characters: Lucy, the widow (Gene Tierney), Captain Gregg, the ghost (Rex Harrison), Anna, the daughter (Natalie Wood), Martha, the maid (Edna Best), Miles Fairley, an author (George Sanders).
Location: Set in a seaside village in England, although filmed in California.
Other: Filmed in 1947 in black and white.
Review: On-line reviews differ in discussion around the genre of the film.  One review suggested it covered a range of genres – thriller, comedy, drama, romance, fantasy.  We decided that perhaps romantic fantasy best described the movie.  We all agreed that it was a good portrayal of the period, the early 1900s, with the expectation that the young widow would live with family, not move out on her own.  The music was atmospheric, and the scenery spectacular.  Although much of the movie was filmed in America, one member thought the scenery was typical of Cornwall.  We also had a brief discussion as to whether we notice mistakes in movies, and whether they matter.  The answer to both questions was NO.  The reason for the question was because in one scene in the movie, a kettle seems to magically move from the left of the stove to the right.  No-one else noticed this.
 
An enjoyable movie, appreciated by us all.
 
With all the movies we watch we can look at them as literature – literature in a different medium, that of film.  This helps to focus the discussion, covering ideas around genre, characters, plot, but also adding the aspects that relate to film, such as cinemascope, music and atmosphere.