Inspiring movie - Possession
I've just finished watching Possession (2002) a lovely film starring Gwyneth Paltrow, which I found not only entertaining, but also inspiring. It was beautifully directed and the cinematography is stunning. It was on television as today's midday movie.
QUICK TAKE:
Drama: Two contemporary literary scholars travel in the footsteps of two Victorian poets and end up falling under their own romantic spell while trying to discover what happened to their 19th century counterparts and their secret romance.
PLOT:
Roland Michell (AARON ECKHART) is an American literary scholar working in London as a research assistant for Professor James Blackadder (TOM HICKEY). With it being the centennial celebration of Randolph Henry Ash (JEREMY NORTHAM), the poet laureate for Queen Victoria, Roland is researching the love letters from the reportedly faithful man to his wife Ellen (HOLLY AIRD).
He gets the idea, however, that Ash's letters weren't written to his wife, but instead to fellow Victorian poet Christabel LaMotte (JENNIFER EHLE). Needing more information, Roland goes to visit stuffy British academic Maud Bailey (GWYNETH PALTROW) who's been doing her own research on LaMotte who was a distant relative of hers.
Maud believes that Roland's theory is rubbish, particularly since she knows of Christabel's lesbian lover, Blanche Glover (LENA HEADEY). Nevertheless, she eventually but reluctantly decides to assist him in his literary detective work, and the two end up finding more letters that begin to confirm Roland's theory.
As they continue their work and try to circumvent Maud's former boyfriend, Fergus Wolff (TOBY STEPHENS), from beating them to the punch of getting to the bottom of this potential historical scandal, they begin to develop feelings for each other, much like Ash and LaMotte who we see in various flashbacks that parallel the contemporary story.
More here It has really got my creative juices flowing and made me think of a story I started almost a year ago and then the creative energy faltered, and now the characters from that are talking to me again. I must have scored some kudos from the universe by inspiring Cassi recently
QUICK TAKE:
Drama: Two contemporary literary scholars travel in the footsteps of two Victorian poets and end up falling under their own romantic spell while trying to discover what happened to their 19th century counterparts and their secret romance.
PLOT:
Roland Michell (AARON ECKHART) is an American literary scholar working in London as a research assistant for Professor James Blackadder (TOM HICKEY). With it being the centennial celebration of Randolph Henry Ash (JEREMY NORTHAM), the poet laureate for Queen Victoria, Roland is researching the love letters from the reportedly faithful man to his wife Ellen (HOLLY AIRD).
He gets the idea, however, that Ash's letters weren't written to his wife, but instead to fellow Victorian poet Christabel LaMotte (JENNIFER EHLE). Needing more information, Roland goes to visit stuffy British academic Maud Bailey (GWYNETH PALTROW) who's been doing her own research on LaMotte who was a distant relative of hers.
Maud believes that Roland's theory is rubbish, particularly since she knows of Christabel's lesbian lover, Blanche Glover (LENA HEADEY). Nevertheless, she eventually but reluctantly decides to assist him in his literary detective work, and the two end up finding more letters that begin to confirm Roland's theory.
As they continue their work and try to circumvent Maud's former boyfriend, Fergus Wolff (TOBY STEPHENS), from beating them to the punch of getting to the bottom of this potential historical scandal, they begin to develop feelings for each other, much like Ash and LaMotte who we see in various flashbacks that parallel the contemporary story.
More here It has really got my creative juices flowing and made me think of a story I started almost a year ago and then the creative energy faltered, and now the characters from that are talking to me again. I must have scored some kudos from the universe by inspiring Cassi recently