My Favorite Movies

i urge everyone to see this movie, not just cos heath ledger has died, but because it is a great movie. i wept buckets full of tears when i first saw it at the cinema in january 2006.

the theme of this movie is universal, despite the so-called idyllic nz setting, domestic abuse can and does happen anywhere and everywhere.

very realistic, and it even has adam ant in the disco!

i read the book this was based on and there was a lot left out: imagine if princess diana had to live with prince charles and camilla while he fathered 2 children to his mistress, then when she wanted a divorce wasnt allowed; but was banned from seeing her children for 2 years because she had a child to her lover (which she was not allowed to raise.)

these were the days when the aristocracy didnt talk to people who earnt their own living, and it was the height of bad manners if you had to ask for condiments to be passed at the dinnertable, but women had no rights if their husband didnt want them to. it was all about producing a (legitimate) male heir, which is in fact something only the father determines as women produce XX chromosomes, men produce X and Y .

i caught this movie by chance on tv yesterday afternoon, and it was fabulous:) there are several parallels with "the duchess" (a loveless aristocratic marriage, betrayal of a friend with the husband, many of the same names and locations of 18th century english society) but this romantic melodrama also has fortune telling, highwaymen, murder etc, and features some of the leading actors and actresses of the era. highly recommend it!

i stayed up until nearly 2am watching this last night on more 4! it was superb: a stellar cast, and showed how awful life was for fallen women in 18th century london. it was occasionally interspersed with news bulletin voiceovers from the 21st century which were pertinent to the unfolding drama, and brilliantly demonstrated that the squalor, alcoholism, drug addiction, degradation, exploitation, poverty, disease, starvation, death and everything else associated with the sex trade are still with us.