Truly, Madly, Deeply
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the film Truly, Madly, Deeply. For the song see Truly Madly Deeply.
| Truly, Madly, Deeply | |
|---|---|
 Reproduction movie poster for Truly, Madly, Deeply |
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| Directed by | Anthony Minghella |
| Produced by | Robert Cooper |
| Written by | Anthony Minghella |
| Starring | Juliet Stevenson Alan Rickman |
| Music by | Barrington Pheloung |
| Cinematography | Remi Adefarasin |
| Editing by | John Stothart |
| Distributed by | Samuel Goldwyn |
| Release date(s) | 3 May 1991 |
| Running time | 106 min. |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Truly, Madly, Deeply is a British romance film, made in 1990 for the BBC's Screen Two series.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
The film was written and directed by Anthony Minghella and stars Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman, both up-and-coming performers at the time of its production. Minghella has said he wrote the script specifically as “a vehicle for [Stevenson] to express all her talents. She plays piano, likes dancing and has a quirky side to her which she usually can't express in the classical parts she is asked for”.[1] The title comes from a word game played by the main characters, in which they challenge each other to by turns repeat and add to a series of adverbs describing the depths of their mutual affection.
[edit] Plot
Nina, an interpreter, is beside herself with grief at the recent death of her boyfriend, Jamie, a cellist. When it appears that she is no longer able to cope with life, Jamie reappears as a "ghost" and the couple are reconciled – either in Nina's imagination or in an actual reunion: it is up to the viewer to decide. Nina is of course ecstatic, but Jamie's behaviour – turning up the central heating to stifling levels, moving furniture around and inviting back "ghost friends" to watch videos – gradually infuriates her, and their relationship deteriorates. Although happy and able to return to a somewhat normal state, Nina's relationship with Jamie is put under strain by his erratic behaviour. She meets Mark (Michael Maloney), a psychologist, to whom she is attracted, but she is unwilling to become involved with him because of Jamie's continued presence. Over Nina’s objections, Jamie decides to leave to allow her to move on. A common interpretation is that Jamie’s return was to remind Nina that he was not perfect and drive this point so far that she could let go of him. This is supported by the scene at the end of the movie in which Jamie watches Nina leave with Mark and one of his fellow ghosts asks, "Well?", implying a “Did we do it?”, and Jamie responds, "I think so. Yes."
[edit] Themes and motifs
As the title suggests, the main theme is love, often defined as caring more for another than for oneself, perhaps best illustrated by Jamie overcoming his own feelings to return and help Nina get over him.
Another theme is communication. Nina is a professional interpreter, working in a language agency and surrounded by people who often fail to make themselves understood to each other; the ghost of Jamie reveals he has been spending his time learning Spanish, and sometimes speaks to her in a "terrible" accent; at one point Nina goes to Mark's workplace and communicates with him with hand gestures through a window; Jamie and Nina's relationship ultimately suffers because they fail to communicate with each other.
A repeated visual motif is clouds – when Nina and a language student go out walking they talk about clouds; Jamie refers to a metal cloud mobile he gave Nina; Jamie and Nina play a game in which they interpret cloud shapes as pictures; and the clouds themselves refer to heaven and Jamie's death.
The characters also have social and political concerns. Nina first meets Mark in a cafe where a waiter, an illegal immigrant, explains to her he is being underpaid by his boss, and she intervenes in the argument (and translates for the waiter). Jamie also says: "That capacity to love that people have – what happens to it? I blame the government." When Nina asks him what he means he says, "I hate the bastards" and claims he still attends Party meetings, despite being dead.
Stylistically the film makes several nods to magic realism and metaphor, in the sense that some of the scenes depicted are not actually happening except in the characters' imaginations. This is principally demonstrated through Jamie "returning" to live with Nina. Elsewhere, action is depicted by showing a subjective and imaginative version of the events rather than by describing them in mundane detail, such as the cafe scene in which Mark intervenes in the dispute and resolves the argument by appearing to perform a magic trick in which, à propos of nothing, he moves to throw a book which turns into a flying dove.
A somewhat darker inrepretation of the film's central relationship is hinted at throughout the picture, and supported by Minghella's subsequent film Mr. Wonderful, in which a divorced man helps his ex-wife find a suitable new partner. Nina and Jamie do not seem to have been an especially happy couple: their ecstatic reunion behind them, they follow the late-stage pattern of many couples—they stay indoors and gripe. It's interesting to note that Jamie died of complications to a throat ailment (it's as if the affair silenced him), and that his return to the flat is literally stifling to Nina. They appear to have been a mismatch. Jamie, who'd been a performer, an entertainer by profession, himself seems quick-witted and funny; Nina rather dogged and socially drab. Mark—who, like Nina, has a career devoted to "good works"—is himself socially colorless. Jamie's return offers a helpful reestimation to a relationship that has become overvalued by nostalgia; Jamie, with posthumous chivalry, has returned to prod Nina to break up with him. Their troubles in the flat (Nina dislikes his hours, his ghost friends, his preoccupations), softly nudge Nina towards a release for them both. Significantly, Jamie's spectral associates clap him on the back as Nina embraces Mark outside the apartment window; the camera remaining with Jamie suggests his visitation has been "real," and intended for this purpose.
[edit] Reception
The film was very successful, winning several awards including a BAFTA for best original screenplay. Its combination of serious themes with comic scenes and music and strong performances from the actors made it extremely popular. Ian Hislop included the film in his list of disliked things in the UK TV series Room 101.
[edit] Comparison with other films
Although often referred to as the British Ghost (most famously by Hislop, who described it as "Ghost for people who can do crosswords"), its plot really bears little resemblance to that of the Hollywood movie.
The 2000 Charlotte Rampling film Sous le sable (aka Under the Sand) also features a woman whose partner dies and then imagines he has returned, before embarking on a new love affair.
[edit] Awards
[edit] Won
- Australian Film Institute's Best Foreign Film Award
- BAFTA's award for best original screenplay
- Rickman and Stevenson won Best Actor and Best Actress awards from the Evening Standard British Film Awards
[edit] Nominated
- Rickman and Stevenson were nominated for best actor and actress by BAFTA
[edit] References
- ^ Mees, Jaap. Anthony Minghella. Talking Pictures. Retrieved on 2008-04-08.
