![]() ![]() Most of the time he had to stay close to his subjects. A dirty ashtray, a beetle, a tide pool, a bird, a crab. Lee is the kind of director who likes to point the camera at details. Later, Mary gave an uncharacteristic but succinct accounting of her own feelings when she went to London to see Charlotte. The only bit of exposition in the film was Mary’s story about the figurines her mother (Gemma Jones) cleaned daily. Seeing her was like finding a brilliant flower growing from a rock in a sea of gray stone. ![]() We had to infer that Mary had a previous, failed relationship with Elizabeth Philpot (Fiona Shaw). We had to infer that Mary and Charlotte were growing attracted to each other based on glances, ways of breathing, slight squirms in a chair, or the placement of a hand. We had to infer that Charlotte was grieving a lost child. With almost no conversation, and no music to guide our emotions, viewers were left to infer and interpret based on the performances of Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan. Instead we heard the thudding of feet on wooden floors, the reverberating bang of doors, the crash of waves, the rattle of wooden wheels on cobblestones, the clatter of cups on hard tables. Certainly no words about emotions would be spoken aloud. For a film with a male director, the sex was strictly female gaze. The love scenes between them were actually planned and choreographed by the two actresses themselves. One of the few funny bits in the film was when all he found was some fossilized poop.Īfter a prickly beginning, Mary and Charlotte became lovers. Mary took Charlotte’s husband with her to hunt fossils one day. Her husband (James McArdle) thought the sea air and the companionship of a woman such as Mary would help her recover as he went off to hunt fossils. She was depressed after the loss of a child. ![]() While Ammonite repeats motifs found in other same sex love stories about this time period such as Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Gentleman Jack, this film is unique.Ĭharlotte was pushed into Mary’s life. The idea that Mary Anning, who never married despite her poverty, may have preferred the friendship of women is not without merit. That was how women survived their marriages and lives. The multitude of letters between women of that time speak of intense, often passionate, relationships. At that time in England, social norms often forced women to marry men they hardly knew and may not have even liked. Writer and directer Francis Lee easily justifies the romantic storyline. Second is the passionate romance Anning had with a younger woman, Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan). First is the brilliant work by Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) in the advancement of science, even as men stole away her recognition. She’s only recently come into the public consciousness.Īmmonite explores two topics. Because she lived in the early 1800s, the credit for her work was taken by men. ![]() Anning devoted her life to digging fossils of sea creatures out of the muck and mud around Lime Regis on the southern coast of England. Ammonite creates a fictional love story for real-life paleontologist Mary Anning. ![]()
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