Suffragette

I finally got to see Suffragette this weekend and it is well worth seeing. Carey Mulligan plays Maud Watts, an East London laundry worker who gets caught up in the Suffragette movement of 1912. After 50 years of politely asking for the right to vote, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and her Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) decided that more militant tactics were required. Although they threw rocks and blew up mail boxes they were careful not to endanger any lives if possible. "Deeds Not Words" got many of them jailed and their treatment there was shocking to say the least.

Suffragette has a star filled cast including Anne-Marie Duff as a fellow laundry worker, Helena Bonham Carter as an educated activist, Romola Garai as the wife of a cabinet minister, Meryl Streep as Mrs. Pankhurst herself, it also has Brendan Gleeson as a police inspector and Ben Whishaw as Maud's husband.

I wish the film had been longer as we don't get quite attached enough to the characters and their stories as there is so much historical fact to cram into one feature length film. Still, it's a well done piece and absolutely worth seeing. Maybe a director's cut on the DVD would be an idea?

Here is the trailer. This is a story that needs to be told and a reason for all women to value and exercise their right to vote in every election no matter where or how small. Just think of the women who fought for our right.

Stay for the timeline of women's voting rights at the end of the film. Some countries still aren't there yet...

Suffragette Film October 2015!

I have been eagerly awaiting the trailer for the Suffragette film due out this October and wow was it ever worth the wait. I  have watched them three times now and I have cried each time. Give Carey Mulligan the Oscar now!




A who's who of British (and Irish and American) actors are in this. Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Romola Garai, Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson and Samuel West to name just a few!

I have never printed quotes before a film was released but here they are!

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Male voice over: Women should not exercise judgement in political affairs.

Male voice over: If we allow women to vote it will mean the loss of social structure.

Man: You work at the Glass House Laundry?
Maud (Carey Mulligan): I was born there. Part time washer from when I was 7, full time from when I was 12."

Mrs. Pankhurst (Meryl Streep): For 50 years we have laboured peacefully to secure the note for women. We've been ridiculed, battered and ignored.

Maud: All my life I've been respectful. Done what men told me. Well I can't have that anymore.

Maud: We break windows. We burn things. Cause war's the only language men listen to.

Maud: What are you going to do? Lock us all up? We're in every home. We're half the human race. You can't stop us all.

Judge: What would the vote mean to you?

Mrs. Pankhurst: Never underestimate the power we women have to define our own destiny. We have been left with no alternative. Defy this government!

Mrs. Pankhurst: We don't want to be law breakers. We want to be law makers!"

Edith New (Helena Bonham Carter): The only way is forward!

Violet Cambridge (Anne-Marie Duff): Votes for women!

Alice (Romola Garai): The power is in your hands!


Join me watching this in October. And bring your mother, daughter, friend and spouse!

Far From the Madding Crowd and other upcoming films!

Far From The Madding Crowd will be released May 1, 2015 and promises to be one of the best Period Dramas of 2015. It stars Carey Mulligan (Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby), Michael Sheen (The Queen, Masters of Sex) and from what I can tell, Carey Mulligan does her own singing. While I am waiting for this one, I may reread the Far From The Madding Crowd, the sad tale of Bathsheba Everdene by Thomas Hardy. Or perhaps see one of the film versions, either Julie Christie's from 1967 or the newer Paloma Baeza version from 1998. All are well worth revisiting.




There are a few films which should have been in wide release by now which are being held up in distribution. I am not amused!

Effie Gray, which stars Dakota Fanning, Greg Wise and Emma Thompson was released to mixed reviews in the fall in the UK but is supposedly making it across the pond on April 3, 2015. It concerns the odd relationship between artist John Ruskin and his teenage bride. Fingers crossed! I love Emma Thompson and she wrote this one so I still have fairly high hopes.

A Little Chaos has fared a bit better with reviewers, and yet has still had it's released pushed back to April 17, 2015. I hope they mean in North America, not just in the UK. Directed by Alan Rickman and starring Kate Winslet, Stanley Tucci and Rickman himself (not to mention newcomer Matthias Shoenaerts from Far From the Madding Crowd), it is an unlikely tale of two landscape gardeners competing to design a fountain at Versailles for Louis XIV.

And if you can wait until fall of 2015, Suffragette is about the early feminists fighting for equal voting rights in Edwardian England. This one is star studded, with Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst and Carey Mulligan (I love her!), Helena Bonham Carter and Anne-Marie Duff as some of the suffragettes. My readers will know that this is a topic which I think deserves more attention. Some of my post links are below:

http://janeaustenfilmclub.blogspot.ca/2013/05/suffragettes-in-film-deeds-not-words.html
http://janeaustenfilmclub.blogspot.ca/2011/02/mary-poppins-and-suffragettes.html
http://janeaustenfilmclub.blogspot.ca/2013/05/iron-jawed-angels-american-suffragettes.html

So it would appear that 2015 will be a wonderful year for Period Drama! And now if only some film maker would take on a Georgette Heyer adaptation. Fingers crossed!

Cheers!