I think Elaine Cassidy is extraordinary in this film. I saw this version before the earlier version, and perhaps that's one reason I have felt that no other Lucy Honeychurch could ever be as fully engaged -- and engaging -- in this role as Cassidy is. She has wonderful timing and intricate variety of expression for showing us what a character is feeling. She looks the part exactly! Her scene with Timothy Spall (George's father) in the cottage near the end of the film is mesmerizing, a great duet, one could say, between two actors of genius! The careful pacing of the director and every detail of speech and demeanor is perfect. I hope this scene in particular will become known to more and more people who can appreciate its artistry.
The whole cast is wonderful, and I feel we see three especially powerful performers in Cassidy, Spall, and a magnificently confused Charlotte! (A woman named Sophie Thompson, I believe; even Maggie Smith is not her equal in this role.) I feel the early scene in the pension is beautifully composed and full of interest, the humor delicious. I'm not so sure about the flash forward in the opening of the film, nor the ending, which casts a pall of sadness over the story which is not right for it. Lucy's run to the swimming hole is thrilling, but the fast cut to a certain later scene may have more to do with male fantasy (as to the directors of the film) than anything else.
Considering, altogether, Cassidy's deep impersonation of Miss Honeychurch. I wish I could see this actor in other serious and artistic films.
The 2005 mini-series Fingersmith can still be seen, and that, too, is a remarkable show, full of careful, expressive faces and images somewhat like certain French films of old. Cassidy personifies the strange and interesting character Maud Lilly to perfection! She seems to live her characters every step of the way, and so we live them with her -- simply the mark of a great actor, perhaps. I'm sure she's fine all through the current series The Paradise, but I can't get much involved in so confused a narrative as that. For those in London I'm sure it is good to see this actress on stage in Turgenev and other plays.
On the whole, I'm not sure this is a wonderful world for film actors, especially women actors, in these days of violence in movies, cops and robbers galore, ugly intrigue — as if this is all of human life that's worth portraying. E. M. Forster knew otherwise, as did Dickens, i. e., and most of our other great writers. I expect Elaine Cassidy also has this knowledge and will persevere in finding roles that have meaning for her. ##
The whole cast is wonderful, and I feel we see three especially powerful performers in Cassidy, Spall, and a magnificently confused Charlotte! (A woman named Sophie Thompson, I believe; even Maggie Smith is not her equal in this role.) I feel the early scene in the pension is beautifully composed and full of interest, the humor delicious. I'm not so sure about the flash forward in the opening of the film, nor the ending, which casts a pall of sadness over the story which is not right for it. Lucy's run to the swimming hole is thrilling, but the fast cut to a certain later scene may have more to do with male fantasy (as to the directors of the film) than anything else.
Considering, altogether, Cassidy's deep impersonation of Miss Honeychurch. I wish I could see this actor in other serious and artistic films.
The 2005 mini-series Fingersmith can still be seen, and that, too, is a remarkable show, full of careful, expressive faces and images somewhat like certain French films of old. Cassidy personifies the strange and interesting character Maud Lilly to perfection! She seems to live her characters every step of the way, and so we live them with her -- simply the mark of a great actor, perhaps. I'm sure she's fine all through the current series The Paradise, but I can't get much involved in so confused a narrative as that. For those in London I'm sure it is good to see this actress on stage in Turgenev and other plays.
On the whole, I'm not sure this is a wonderful world for film actors, especially women actors, in these days of violence in movies, cops and robbers galore, ugly intrigue — as if this is all of human life that's worth portraying. E. M. Forster knew otherwise, as did Dickens, i. e., and most of our other great writers. I expect Elaine Cassidy also has this knowledge and will persevere in finding roles that have meaning for her. ##