#1336 Ammonite

[Kasi Mir]

"Ammonite" - the second movie by British filmmaker Francis Lee - is based on real people, but not necessarily on real events. You can read about Mary Annings life and work on Wikipedia, where you will also find an article about fellow geologist Roderick Murchison, plus one about his wife Charlotte, who later in life also became a geologist. Also, it is documented that the three became acquainted when the Murchisons visited Lyme, and that Charlotte and Mary became lifelong friends; plus, the film correctly depicts the financial problems that plagued Mary Anning throughout her life, and mentions the contributions the made to the field of paleontology, namely the study of fossils.

But the historical record pretty much ends there; much of what transpires in "Ammonite" is pure speculation at best. Plus, Charlotte was not a young woman when she first met Mary Anning - she was actually more than a decade older than her. So, while the film may be compelling as a romantic drama, it is most notably not a historical account or a biopic. To be fair, writer Francis Lee never claimed his film to be one, though it's always tricky to create an essentially fictional work about real people.

Here's the trailer:


And how did you like this film, which was definitely slow, with long stretches without (or almost without) any dialogue? How did you like the performances, first and foremost of course by Kate Winslet (who just turned 46) and Saoirse Ronan (who is half a year older than our sneak, i.e. 27) as Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison? And - as I heard them mentioned by attendees afterwards - did you see #1090 "Carol" and/or "Portrait de la jeune fille en feu", and if so, how would you compare "Ammonite" to them? Just tell us what you thought about "Ammonite" in a reply to this posting.