The dramatically beautiful seaside of Lyme Regis is, of course, also the setting of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, yet another story of a scandalous affair from a previous century. The background sounds are as perfectly devised as the images, which range from the crystalline brightness of the shore and sky to the shadowy, candlelit rooms in the small house Mary shares with her mother. She combs the lonely beach and rocky cliffs for fossils, her clothes and fingernails muddy, while the sea rages and the wind howls. Lee depicts Mary and her world in rich detail. However, Ammonite, with its heroines based on real historical figures, takes place on a larger social canvas. That elegant style was established in his first film, God’s Own Country (2017), about two gay men on a farm in northern England. Lee’s style is more poetic and suggestive, as he takes advantage of an earlier era’s restraint to create a slow-burn love story. Fiery passion between the women does not emerge until well into the film. If you have seen the film’s trailer, best to shift your expectations. Five stars for Charlie Kaufman’s latest We can add to that list Francis Lee’s exquisite Ammonite, with Kate Winslet as the 19th-Century fossil collector Mary Anning and Saoirse Ronan as Charlotte Murchison, whose husband travels abroad and leaves her to recover her health by the sea in Lyme Regis. Or, from last year, the two 18th-Century women who fall in love in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Think of Holly Hunter in Jane Campion’s classic, still-stirring The Piano, walking on the beach in her flowing 19th-Century dress, and rushing off to see her rough-around-the-edges lover (Harvey Keitel). Forbidden passion in period dress has been the source of some visually stunning, emotionally enduring romances.
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