This film came out last year and I missed it, so I was delighted when we chose to screen it in January and it turned out to be well worth seeing.
I remember while I was studying A Level History the BBC screened a series about the Suffragettes called Shoulder to Shoulder. I'd already found the period interesting and so was hooked on the series. Inevitably the constraints of a feature film disallow extended narratives, so the story focuses on a fictional character, with the real figures in supporting roles.
I thought it worked really well, although it was a little unfair to Asquith's government as it did not mention any of the other pressures it faced nor any of its achievements (let alone the approach of war in 1914). Disclosure: if I had gone through to the second round of Mastermind my specialist subject would have been the life of H H Asquith.
But enough of me: here are my notes...
In 1912 Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan), a laundress becomes involved in the Suffragette movement led by Mrs Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), and after taking part in a protest is sent to jail. Her increasing involvement in the movement leads to the end of her marriage, and Maud takes part in further demonstrations culminating in a planned protest at the Derby in 1912, as a result of which Emily Davison (Natalie Press) is knocked down and killed by the King’s horse.
Here is the trailer:
I remember while I was studying A Level History the BBC screened a series about the Suffragettes called Shoulder to Shoulder. I'd already found the period interesting and so was hooked on the series. Inevitably the constraints of a feature film disallow extended narratives, so the story focuses on a fictional character, with the real figures in supporting roles.
I thought it worked really well, although it was a little unfair to Asquith's government as it did not mention any of the other pressures it faced nor any of its achievements (let alone the approach of war in 1914). Disclosure: if I had gone through to the second round of Mastermind my specialist subject would have been the life of H H Asquith.
But enough of me: here are my notes...
Suffragette
UK 2015 106
minutes
Director: Sarah Gavron
Starring: Carey
Mulligan, Anne-Marie Duff, Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson and Meryl
Streep
Awards
and Nominations
- Won
Best Actress (Carey Mulligan) and Best Supporting Actor (Brendan Gleeson)
at the British Independent Film Awards plus nominations for Best
Supporting Actress for Helena Bonham Carter and Anne-Marie Duff
- A
further 12 wins and 12 nominations
“While Abi Morgan’s
script for The Iron Lady
parked politics in favour of personal appraisal, this altogether more polemical
work provides a solidly researched and at times surprisingly grim primer on the
years leading up to Emily Wilding Davison’s still contested act of
self-sacrifice in 1913… Morgan intertwines socioeconomic detail with domestic
melodrama as Maud [Carey Mulligan] leads us from the fringes of the fight to
the firing line, her composite character providing a thumbnail sketch of
collective oppression into which Mulligan breathes admirable individuality. Meryl Streep provides a
fleetingly aloof cameo as Emmeline Pankhurst, rallying the troops from the
balcony before disappearing into the night, but the real firebrand is Helena
Bonham Carter as chemist Edith Ellyn, who provides the movement’s combustible
spark.”
Mark
Kermode
In 1912 Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan), a laundress becomes involved in the Suffragette movement led by Mrs Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), and after taking part in a protest is sent to jail. Her increasing involvement in the movement leads to the end of her marriage, and Maud takes part in further demonstrations culminating in a planned protest at the Derby in 1912, as a result of which Emily Davison (Natalie Press) is knocked down and killed by the King’s horse.
The film is based on
historical events and although Maud Watts and her family are fictional it also
portrays some historical characters. In 1903 Mr Pankhurst and her daughters had
set up the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) to promote its aims of women’s
suffrage through highly visible public campaigns. Asquith’s government had refused
to allow a vote on the issue so the WSPU initiated a campaign of violence to
publicise its aims, although many historians including Asquith’s biographer Roy
Jenkins agree this “clearly damaged the cause”. The campaign led to jail
sentences for many of those who took part and as a response the government
passed the Cat and Mouse Act in 1913, to allow the release of those whose
hunger strikes had made them ill, in an attempt to prevent the suffragettes
from gaining public sympathy. This led to an effective stalemate and it was
only the outbreak of war in 1914 that made Mrs Pankhurst end the campaign of
militancy in order to support the government’s stance against the “German
Peril”.
In 1916 the Speaker of
the House of Commons set up a conference to examine electoral reform and in
1917 presented its report which included a recommendation for limited women’s
suffrage. As Prime Minister Asquith had opposed women’s suffrage, but after
being ousted by Lloyd George he now supported the idea. In1918 Lloyd George’s
government gave the vote to women over the age of thirty and it was Asquith’s earlier
reforms to the House of Lords during the struggle to pass the People’s Budget in
1909 and 1910 that helped its passage through Parliament.
Screenplay writer Abi Morgan
started her career by writing for TV before moving into film where her work
includes the screenplays for Brick Lane
(2007), The Iron Lady (2011) and Shame (2011). Sarah Gavron started her
career making documentaries, but kept return to narrative filmmaking because of
her desire to tell stories. Her first feature film was Brick Lane (2007).
Suffragette
is the first film to be shot on location in the Houses of Parliament.
