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Simply A Masterpiece

hyped garbage

From my favorite movies..

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Rosina, the child of an Italian-Jewish father and a mother born on the Island of Sky. The warmth of the Sephardic Jewish household of the early 1840's is disturbed by the murder of the da Silva family's father. The headstrong daughter Rosina decides not to marry but seek domestic service. "All I need are a pair of white gloves and some humility and an answer to my advertisement." Her wish of stage acting becomes reality: the stage of the world. Aware that her Jewishness bars the door to any employment Rosina invents the governess Mary Blackchurch, a Protestant whose part-Italian ancestry explains her olive skin.while Mrs Cavendish lives a life in boredom her husband is absorbed in the pioneering studies of photography. Mysterious study of which the servant Cook says, that it has something to do with capturing the shadows of ghosts. Secretly she enters at night the study, looking around and seeing the box camera at the window and the 'ghost'-pictures. Next morning she positions herself outside the study, photo typed by Charles Cavendish, inviting her to come and join her in his work as assistant – partly released from her normal duties.. But how he tries: the pictures fade and vanish. Mary, following in her room the Jewish traditions, she celebrates Passover: by mistake she spills saltwater on a photo type on her bedside table, wiping it dry.Next morning she discovers that the picture has not vanished. She rushes to the study and Charles: "It is Salt solution, you clever girl." The mixture of sodium chloride he did not see: "how could I have been so stupid. It was starring me into the face." Rosina, conscious of the males dominance: "You should be proud of what you've done. You've made it possible to capture the essence of people, to fix memory, fix people, … lost people … in one's mind forever." When Rosita suggests after the salted picture discovery again a portrait (she asked before: "Have you ever recorded a photo type of a human face?") he agrees. Eventually both are unable to resist as man and woman; 'devoured' by the eager woman with her answering kiss – and his bad conscience: "How late it is." But too late for both. Charles says: "Your eyes are so huge.You devour me" to which she answers: "Then do not look at me. I've heard it said that the ancient Hebrews used to express love for each other entirely covered." Then: "Do I look different? You showed me how to be an inventor. And now I feel as though I could do anything. I want to understand everything about you. I want, I want to invent a way of fixing this moment for ever." Forgetting what her aunt said to her mother after her fathers death: "You never really know a man's true nature. It is all God's will." Rosina setts the pace, knowing what she wants, knowing a mans true nature – never forgetting the master and who the servant is: "Could we not … could you not", or: "Cavendish method. Cavendish Blackchurch method … or even the Blackchurch Cavendish method." Charles: "Are you trying to overtake me, Miss?" And then the forbidden moment when Rosina goes beyond the point of no return. Charles talks of his mothers and Rositas hair. While fiddling with it he falls asleep and Rosina sees her chance. She undresses him, arranging his left leg – on the developed photo type it is the right leg. Too late she discovers her mistake. Charles is unable to forgive her that she crossed the line. And when the Royal Society's Hewlitt comes, the idea of the salted pictures are his: "Science is not always an entirely rational being. These matters are not always of interest to the ladies." Rosina, hopes to wind back time, humiliates herself: "Charles, I know I have angered you. I know you do not like me to use the camera. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. It was just a gift to show my love. …. And our plans, what about the future? I will, I will not be so demanding. I promise you I won't. I will not talk of love. I will not speak of the future. I promise I will be whatever you want me to be. What do you want me to be? … Forgive me. I beg you, forgive me. I love you." But done is done and no forgiveness. After her halfhearted revenge with his son she leaves for London. Leaving she confronts the family at supper. Dressed in her Jewish outfit, Mrs Cavendish asks: "Have we a Christmas charades?" Rosina gives her the compromising photo type of her naked husband.Back in London Rosina becomes a well known, unmarried photographers for her own people. One day Charles is her customer, defeated as he is: "I'm in your hands Miss da Silva. Do with me what you will." She: "Could you turn your head a little more into the light? Still for a full minute." And he: "Are we done?" and she: "Yes, Yes, I think so. Quite done. If you leave your address with my sister," leaving him, "the print will be ready within a week." While he in the background he goes she stops. Last scene while working: "I think of Scotland hardly ever at all now. My images are much admired, and I am even to give a lecture at the Royal Society. They say I have captured the beauty of my father's people, and I am glad." Preparing a self portrait, looking into the camera:" My Mary Blackchurch days seem long gone now. I hardly ever think of what might have been, or why he came to find me, or why it is that you love most those who always seem to be turning away from you. Work is a wonderful restorative."

This extraordinary period piece was breath taking and at times painfully real. Rosina (Mary Blackchurch) becomes interested in her employer's experiments with photography fixation and subsequently falls in love (while pursued by her employer's son). Rosina's first experience with love is tumultuous and passionate. Rosina's employer, played brilliantly by Tom Wilkinson, shared her passion but was unable to embrace the new emotions awakened within. Charles Cavendish, like his castle, was at times dim and hollow. Rosina (Minnie Driver) tries to bring life to an otherwise cold and lifeless environment. Some viewers have wondered why the Rosina character would fall for the older man, when the son (Henry) was obviously smitten. Considering the immature and bizarre behavior of Henry Cavendish (played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), should anyone wonder at all? The senior Cavendish despite his shortcomings possessed a mysteriously masculine allure that would charm any young woman looking for both a lover and a father figure. Unfortunately, in this story the viewer will witness that love (alone) is not always enough to sustain a relationship. This film is well done and worth watching.

I usually glean valuable insights into films from the user comments at IMDB, but reading the critiques of `The Governess' I feel that many of the commentaries are colour-blind, missing the fine detail--how many ways can I say the same thing--there's more to this period piece than seems to have met the common eye. It's not just a sepia-and-white romantic snapshot, as some commentators allege, but a moving picture in subtle hues.In the main, many seem to have missed the driving force behind the unusual alliance at the core of the film: why Rosina falls for the older Cavendish and not his fair-faced but very green son. It's obviously not for his looks or his years-notwithstanding Rosina's grief for her suddenly deceased father, and all the Freudian implications of her being `floated' above her bed.It's self-evident in the film's unfolding that the sparks catch where they do because of a common pursuit and a shared passion, and one that is especially exciting to these two people because it gives them the sense they are innovating and creating something valuable. Rosina is lonely, bereft, and far from home, in many different senses. When she finds herself suddenly welcomed and valued, drawn toward fixing beauty and expressing herself, it's natural for her gratitude and sense of being closely connected to flower into erotic love for the man who opens that opportunity for her. Had her nasty and narcissistic `mistress' been the creative and welcoming one, rather than her `master', things could have been quite different and less socially explosive (and made for much less interesting cinema.)I'm not without quibbles about this movie-I think the governess has far too much `free' time and is far too able to get herself into trouble in the heart of this remotely situated family, without being caught. She's also far too unworried about being caught. A young woman in her circumstances would have to be afraid of social ruin (and a lot more careful about her fertility) than Director/writer Sandra Goldbacher's main character. But this is a special film, notwithstanding its anachronistic feminism. The special flavour of the Jewish woman's culture and the prejudice of English society against it, the photographic odyssey of Rosina and Cavendish, the believable pleasures and pain of the characters all make for a real find in a film not given due attention.

Minnie Driver is cute and photogenic. While the male characters are charming, she is the main draw. My own observation is that Driver was a bit mature to be playing a naive young virgin forced out into the cold, cruel world, but she is fetching and made for this part.Now that that is out of the way, I found the film unsatisfying. The title character is largely unsympathetic. A spoiled rich girl forced to find gainful employment after the death of her father, Driver embarks on an elaborate deception. She pretends to be a Christian so that she may service - in more ways than one, it turns out - a remote, conservative British family. That this is somewhat fanciful (perhaps there were jobs closer by that paid more than 20 pounds a year?) draws a romance novel aura right from the start.Once ensconced in the busom of her employer's family - passing herself off as being of Italian descent when the other characters all but give her knowing winks - our heroine proceeds to: a) seduce the married patriarch (she is hardly a victim) who is disturbingly reminiscent of her own beloved papa; b) betray him with his emotionally immature son; c) photograph him sleeping nude without his knowledge or consent, which he later makes clear invaded his privacy; d) actively seek to break up his family by having him run away with her; and e) publicly expose (!) him to his family using her misbegotten photographs. Perhaps he had it coming because his qualms arose too late, but he winds up the most sympathetic figure, victim of an avenging poseur with no sense of responsibility for her actions.The governess winds up having the presence of mind upon leaving to steal the new-fangled photography idea (which she has improved despite having no background in it - plucky girl!) and to go into business for herself, becoming (of course) a huge success. Can't have a romance tale without the big success-is-the-best-revenge payoff, I suppose, especially at the what-goes-around-comes-around expense of the fellow who hurt her.The character of the patriarch is nicely, if stiffly, played by Tom Wilkinson. Once he ends the affair, he loses all color and interest - he becomes part of the scenery, as he was before the affair began. The son is played in an annoyingly bratty fashion by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. The other female characters are largely ciphers, except for some cute scenes by little Florence Hoath. The overall effect is that everyone is filtered through the governess' perspective and her changing emotional priorities, in keeping with the romance novel attitude.Driver's characterization is a bit erratic. After maintaining a cool, calculating exterior, the governess incongruously explodes into a fit of sobbing passion some time after being rejected - then just as suddenly resumes her passionless, predatory behavior. More time devoted to her emotional development would have been useful.While by nature your standard bodice-ripper - Driver quite literally rips off her own bodice - I term this a proto-feminist film. The caveats are that the "feminist" impulses arise in a catty and under-handed context and the heroine seems more driven by spite and desire than by intent. She encounters adversity, then adventure and romance, then betrayal and bitter revenge, then brilliant success - yes, I think I've seen that plot before.