Firelight
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- This article is about the 1997 drama Firelight. For the 1964 movie by Steven Spielberg, see Firelight.
Firelight (1997) is a period romance/drama film directed by William Nicholson.
Tagline: Passion has no limits
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[edit] Plot
In 1838, swiss governess Elisabeth Laurie agrees to bear a child for an anonymous Englishman in return for payment of her father's depts. The arrangement takes place on a lonely island hotel over three nights, where despite both's wish for detachment the two develop a deeply passionate connection during their lovemaking and covert conversations on the beach and at the hotel.
Nine months later, Elisabeth gives away the child, a daughter, as agreed. She is haunted by her one connection with the child, the sound of her cry and at first makes no attempt for reconnection, though she keeps a journal of watercolor flowers and plants, adding a page for each holiday and birthday she misses with her daughter.
The anonymous Englishman is one Charles Godwin, a landowner and struggling sheep farmer who must run his business to keep his philandering father's, Lord Clare, debtors at bay. Charles's wife, Amy Godwin, was victim to a terrible horseriding accident which has left her paralyzed and catatonic, but alive. Amy's sister, Constance runs his household and takes care of Amy. Seven years later after Charles's tryst with Elisabeth, he returns to his estate after a business trip to find that his daughter's new governess is none other than the mother of his child, Louisa. Elisabeth has finally tracked down her daughter and wishes to be a part of the child's life.
Thinking, Charles's rejection of the new governess to be one of an affectionate father giving in to his overbearing daughter, Constance insists that he give Elisabeth a month in order to find a new situation. Charles shows Elisabeth the catatonic form of his wife and forces her to swear never to reveal to Louisa the nature of her relationship to the child out of pity for his situation.
Elisabeth finds her child to be spoiled, ignorant, willful, foulmouthed, and unloved by anyone except her father. Though the father and daughter have a loving relationship, Elisabeth is appalled by the lack of control Charles has over Louisa and his refusal to use any forms of discipline in her upbringing. Unable to keep Louisa at her lessons, Elisabeth begins to lock the child in the classroom. Charles is furious. He roughly manhandles Elisabeth in an effort to extract the key to the schoolroom. He is shocked when Elisabeth appears to enjoy the experience, merely because he is touching her. Elisabeth makes a promise to him, she will never harm Louisa and whatever she does to her daughter she will do to herself.
Elisabeth makes picture cards with her watercolor paints to teach the seven-year-old how to read. Outside of class, Louisa spends all of her excess time in her "Lakehouse" a small belvedere on the estate in the middle of a lake which can only be reached by boat. Here, Louisa pretends she has a mother. At first, Elisabeth watches clandestinely from the boat docks while Louisa is in the Lakehouse. However, when she finds out that Charles swims there in the morning, she begins to go to watch Charles too, leaving before he can see her.
In the classroom, Elisabeth tells Louisa a tale about the firelight. That it is:
- "a kind of magic. Firelight makes time stand still. When you put out the lamps and sit in the firelight's glow there aren't any rules any more. You can do what you want, say what you want, be what you want, and when the lamps are lit again, time starts again, and everything you said or did is forgotten. More than forgotten it never happened."
She finds this helps Louisa concentrate in the classroom during the day, if they can have a time at the end of the day when there are no rules.
Increasingly attracted to Elisabeth, Charles meets her after Louisa lessons one day and asks her to promise him that they can never be close like they once were. Elisabeth is unable to make such a promise, and they begin their physical relationship once more. The firelight becomes a metaphor for their relationship as well as they only make love in the glow of the firelight in Charles's room.
During a visit from Charles's father and his father's mistress, Lord Clare confronts Elisabeth and confirms the intimacy of their relationship. He approves of Charles taking solace with a mistress. Louisa too begins to suspect that Charles and Elisabeth's relationship after catching them in bed together early one morning. She tries to seek solace in her Lakehouse, which is frozen over with thin ice. Louisa falls through the ice, but is rescued by Elisabeth. Struck by Elisabeth's fiercely maternal nature, Louisa investigates Elisabeth's room until she finds Elisabeth's illustrated journal dedicated to her "English Daughter". Elisabeth can not deny Louisa when she guesses that her governess is her mother.
As Lord Clares's mounting debts grow, Charles decides he must sell the estate. Secretly he also wishes to escape his life of duty and self-sacrifice by running away with Elisabeth where she can openly be a mother to their child. On a bitterly cold night, he consults his conscious and opens the windows of Amy Godwin's bedchamber. He removes her covers and allows the fire in her room to go out, leaving her to die of exposure. With Amy's death, her sister Constance expects to be Charles choice as a new wife. However, she concedes a dignified defeat when she realizes Charles's depth of feeling toward Elisabeth.
The film ends with the sale of the Godwin's grand estate. Charles, Elisabeth and Louisa leave on a snowy day to begin their new lives together as a family.
[edit] Cast
Sophie Marceau.... Elisabeth Laurier
Stephen Dillane .... Charles Godwin
Dominique Belcourt.... Louisa Godwin
Kevin Anderson.... John Taylor
Lia Williams .... Constance
Joss Ackland.... Lord Clare
Sally Dexter .... Molly Holland
Emma Amos .... Ellen
Maggie McCarthy.... Mrs. Jago
Wolf Kahler .... Sussman
Annabel Giles .... Amy Godwin
John Flanagan .... Robert Ames
Valerie Minifie .... Hannah
Diana Payan .... Mrs. Maidment
John Hodgkinson.... Carlo [1]
[edit] References
- ^ IMBd (Internet Movie Databse) /www.imdb.com/title/tt0119125/, 2006.
[edit] External Links
Firelight at the Internet Movie Database
[edit] Awards
British Society of Cinematographers
1998 - Nominated for Best Cinematography Award - Nic Morris
San Sebastián International Film Festival
1997 - Prize of the Jury - Best Cinematography - Nic Morris
1997 - Special Prize of the Jury - William Nicholson
1997 - Nominated for Golden Seashell - William Nicholson
