Ladies in Lavender (Judi Dench, Maggie Smith)

(Amazon UK link)

We watched the gentle and moving film ‘Ladies in Lavender’ first in 2006, and remembered liking it, but not much more. So we watched it again last night.

Judi Dench and Maggie Smith star as the elderly sisters Ursula and Janet. Although they look quite different, they have excellent rapport, and it was easy to think of them as being related. Janet, the older sister, is sensible and practical, while Ursula is more dreamy and emotional.

Their ages were not given. The actresses are almost exactly the same age, and were approaching seventy when this film was made in 2004. Ursula could easily have passed for sixty-five, or even younger. But it didn’t much matter. The film is set in 1936, in a small fishing village in Cornwall; most of the inhabitants look fairly elderly.

The two women are spinsters who lost their father fairly recently. Janet, as we learn later in the film, had a love affair in her younger days but lost her young man in the war: presumably World War I. There are hints that another war is on the horizon, and there’s a great deal of suspicion about ‘foreigners’, particularly Germans.

Into Janet and Ursula’s peaceful lives come a young man, washed up on the shore. He is unconscious, but alive and they gradually nurse him as he recovers from a traumatic experience; again, no details are given but he was evidently in a shipwreck of some kind, presumed the only survivor. His name is Andrea, and he speaks no English at all. He is fluent in German but in fact is Polish.

Andrea recovers slowly and demonstrates an incredible talent for the violin. The story, such as it is, involves moving apart, taking risks, and some unrequited (and inappropriate) love. It’s rated 12 in the UK because of one instance of ‘strong’ language and minor violence in a scene involving a jealous villager. There’s some gentle humour, mostly involving the ladies’ maid-of-all-work Dorcas, but overall we thought it poignant, and beautifully done.

The DVD has an extra entitled ‘Soundbites’, which turned out to be brief comments from members of the cast and film crew interspersed with text. It was a bit distracting to watch, but we were interested in what the main three cast members said about each other and the filming.

We were startled to learn that Daniel Brühl, who plays Andrea, did not in fact play the violin nor speak Polish when he was given the role. He learned a little of each, and mimicked passionate violinists so well that we had no idea that someone else was playing the sound.

It's the kind of film that could easily have been based on a true story, but it wasn't. Instead, apparently it was based on a short story by William Locke, written in 1908.

It’s not particularly exciting, and there isn’t a great deal of plot; but we enjoyed seeing it again, and I look forward to seeing it in another ten years or so, by which time I shall be around the same age as Ursula and Janet…

Recommended in a low-key way.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews