British film and TV dramas have gone mad for coastal locations following the success of UK detective series Broadchurch, set in a seaside community torn apart by the murder of a child. We’re not talking Scotland, Wales or the English north here. These stories are always set on the southern English coast, usually with cliffs or other prominent landforms doing metaphorical duty. Witness, Hope Gap, On Chesil Beach and now Summerland and Ammonite, both released in January.
Kate Winslet in Ammonite
Ammonite stars Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan as Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison, two women slowly discovering a mutual attraction as they scour the beach for ammonites and other fossils on the Dorset coast near the town of Lyme Regis in the 1840s.
Mary (inspired by a real-life character) is a dedicated fossil-collector who lives off the earnings she makes from the geological shop she runs with her icicle-eyed mother (Gemma Jones). Charlotte is a visitor, unhappily married to a wealthy gentleman who appears more interested in acquiring Mary’s paleontological knowledge than in his clearly depressed wife. When Charlotte falls sick, he heads back to London, leaving his wife to be nursed back to health by...
While some readers will agree with film critic Lynden Barber that ‘Ammonite’ is a “slow, miserable film”, deserving 2-star rating, I feel that it is fair to note that ‘Ammonite’ earned 5-star rating by The Daily Telegraph publication with accompanying comment: ‘One of the finest films of the year’. ‘Sensational’ was The Guardian’s report accompanying 4-star rating, while ‘Exquisite’ was BBC Culture’s 5-star description.
The general tempo of ‘Ammonite’, based on historical fact, set in the 1840’s, would have been out of context had it been revved up to satisfy 21st century viewing.
Acting in her demanding role of a dour and complicated figure, Kate Winslet conveyed it superbly.
The general atmosphere of ‘Ammonite’s’ cinema-photography resembled something of the skillful technique of Ingmar Bergman for sensitive detail.
With my best wishes to the Limelight team for your brilliant publication.