Firelight
| Firelight | |
|---|---|
 Firelight movie poster |
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| Directed by | William Nicholson |
| Produced by | Brian Eastman |
| Written by | William Nicholson |
| Starring | Sophie Marceau Stephen Dillane |
| Music by | Christopher Gunning |
| Cinematography | Nic Morris |
| Editing by | Chris Wimble |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista International (Austria) GmbH Buena Vista International Spain S.A. (Spain) Buena Vista International (Germany) Eurozoom (France) Miramax Films (1998) (USA) |
| Release date(s) | 14 September 1997 (Deauville Film Festival) 4 September 1998 (USA) |
| Running time | 103 minutes |
| Language | English French |
| Box office | $785,482 |
Firelight is a 1997 period romance film written and directed by William Nicholson and starring Sophie Marceau and Stephen Dillane. Written by William Nicholson, the film is about a governess who agrees to bear the child of an anonymous English landowner in return for payment to resolve her father's debts. When the child is born, the governess gives up the child as agreed. Seven years later, the woman is hired as governess to a girl on a remote Sussex estate, whose father is the anonymous landowner. Firelight was Nicholson's first and only film as a director.[1]
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[edit] Plot
In 1838, Swiss governess Elisabeth Laurier (Sophie Marceau) agrees to bear a child for an anonymous Englishman. In return, the Englishman will pay all of her father's debts. They meet over three nights at a lonely island hotel. Despite their wish for detachment, they develop a deeply passionate connection during their lovemaking by firelight. Their feelings grow after they converse on the beach and at the hotel.
Elisabeth gives birth to a girl, Louisa, nine months later. As agreed she gives the child away, but never forgets her. She begins to keep a journal of watercolor flowers and plants, adding a page for each holiday and birthday they are apart.
The anonymous Englishman is Charles Godwin (Stephen Dillane), a landowner and struggling sheep farmer. He can barely keep the debtors of his philandering father, Lord Clare, at bay. Charles's wife, Amy Godwin, is paralyzed and catatonic due to a horseriding accident. Amy's sister, Constance, runs the Godwin household.
Never having forgotten the voice of her daughter at birth, Elizabeth manages to track her down seven years later, and gets herself hired as Louisa's new governess. Charles rejects Elisabeth, and demands she leave immediately. However, Constance insists that he give the new governess a month in order to find a new situation. Showing Elisabeth the catatonic form of his wife, Charles forces Elisabeth to swear never to reveal to Louisa or anyone the nature of their previous relationship.
Louisa is spoiled, ignorant, willful, foulmouthed, and unloved by anyone except her father. Though the father and daughter have a loving relationship, Elisabeth is appalled by the lack of control Charles exercises over Louisa. He refuses to use any forms of discipline in her upbringing. Unable to keep Louisa at her lessons, Elisabeth locks the child in the classroom. Charles is furious. He roughly manhandles Elisabeth in an effort to extract the key to the schoolroom. While Charles wants his daughter to enjoy life as much as she can before she comes to understand how awful it really is, Elisabeth is determined that her daughter will learn to behave in such a way that she can be loved by others, and that she will have an education so she can determine her own path in the world. To convince Charles to allow this discipline, Elizabeth promises she will never harm Louisa, and whatever she does to Louisa she will also do to herself.
Outside of class, Louisa spends all of her spare time in her lakehouse, a small belvedere on the estate in the middle of a pond, which can only be reached by boat. Here, Louisa pretends she has a mother. At first, Elisabeth watches clandestinely from the boat docks while Louisa is in the lakehouse. However, when she finds out that Charles swims naked there in the morning, she begins to go to watch Charles too, leaving before he can see her.
In the classroom, Elisabeth paints picture cards to teach the seven-year-old how to read. She also tells Louisa a tale about the firelight:
It's a kind of magic. Firelight makes time stand still. When you put out the lamps and sit in the firelight's glow there aren't any rules any more. You can do what you want, say what you want, be what you want, and when the lamps are lit again, time starts again, and everything you said or did is forgotten. More than forgotten it never happened.
Elisabeth finds that this helps Louisa concentrate on her lessons, knowing there is a time at the end of the day when there are no rules.
Increasingly attracted to Elisabeth, Charles asks her to promise him that they can never be close like they once were. Elisabeth is unable to make such a promise and they renew their physical relationship. The firelight becomes a metaphor for the secret nature of their relationship together, and of Elizabeth and Louisa. Charles talks of the three of them leaving together, but Elizabeth says she knows it is impossible, as he has obligations to his estate, family, and wife.
Suddenly Charles announces that the entire estate is being appraised for sale, purportedly to cover overwhelming debts. On a bitterly cold night, Charles consults his conscience as to whether his wife, Amy, would want him to release her from her prison of ten years. He opens the windows of her bedchamber, removes her covers, and allows the fire in her room to go out, leaving her to die of exposure. With Amy's death, her sister Constance expects to be Charles's choice as a new wife. However, she concedes a dignified defeat when she realizes Charles's depth of feeling toward Elisabeth. Elizabeth confronts Charles, and asks him if he killed her, which he admits. They both feel strong guilt, but no regret.
Louisa pokes through Elisabeth's room and finds the illustrated journal dedicated to "My English Daughter". Louisa confirms that her governess is her mother.
The film ends with the sale of the Godwin's estate. Charles, Elisabeth, and Louisa leave on a snowy day to begin their new lives together as a family.
[edit] Cast
- Sophie Marceau as Elisabeth Laurier
- Stephen Dillane as Charles Godwin
- Dominique Belcourt as Louisa Godwin
- Kevin Anderson as John Taylor
- Lia Williams as Constance
- Joss Ackland as Lord Clare
- Sally Dexter as Molly Holland
- Emma Amos as Ellen
- Maggie McCarthy as Mrs. Jago
- Wolf Kahler as Sussman
- Annabel Giles as Amy Godwin
- John Flanagan as Robert Ames
- Valerie Minifie as Hannah
- Diana Payan as Mrs. Maidment
- John Hodgkinson as Carlo[2]
[edit] Reception
- 1997 British Society of Cinematographers Best Cinematography Award (Nic Morris)
- 1997 San Sebastián International Film Festival Prize of the Jury Best Cinematography (Nic Morris)
- 1997 San Sebastián International Film Festival Golden Seashell (Nic Morris)[3]
[edit] References
- ^ "Firelight". International Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119125/. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
- ^ "Full cast and crew for Firelight". International Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119125/fullcredits#cast. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
- ^ "Awards for Firelight". International Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119125/awards. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
[edit] External links
- Firelight at the Internet Movie Database
