Between Two Women (2000 film)
Between Two Women (2000) is a historical film by British writer-director Steven Woodcock.[1] It tells the story of Ellen, a factory worker's wife trapped in an unhappy marriage amidst the grime and industrial noise of north England.
| Between Two Women | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Steven Woodcock |
| Written by | Steven Woodcock |
| Starring | Barbara Marten Andrina Carroll Andrew Dunn |
| Cinematography | Gordon Hickie |
Release date | 2000 |
Running time | 92 minutes |
Plot
Working class Ellen (Barbara Marten) makes friends with her young son's middle-class schoolteacher, Miss Thompson (Andrina Carroll), and their growing lesbian relationship is tastefully explored as Ellen's marriage to the clumsy factory worker, Hardy (Andrew Dunn), gradually falls apart. In the end Ellen finds the strength to follow her true path and her marriage is pretty much over. Because of the stifling social attitudes of the 1950s she and Hardy seem like they'll pretend to still be together. The film closes on a happy note as Ellen catches a train away from the factory town where she lives, to spend time with Kathy.
Cast
- Barbara Marten as Ellen Hardy
- Andrina Carroll as Kathy
- Andrew Dunn as Geoff Hardy
- Bruce Alexander as Mr. Butterworth, Headmaster
- Genevieve Atlas as School Secretary (billed as Genny Atlas)
- Tony Barton as Tom
- Robert Beal as Postman
- Duggie Brown as Mr. Britchenor
- Benjamin Campbell as Britchenor
- Glenn Cunningham as Journalist
- Julia Deakin as Alice
- Anne Dobell as Woman in Guest House
- Dinah Handley as Landlady
- William Ilkley as Frank
- Pauline Jefferson as Mrs. Parkin, Teacher
- Eileen O'Brien as Mrs. Walker
- Margaret Pardoe as Cleaning Woman
- Alan Partington as Mr. Pugh, Teacher
- Eric Potts as Mr. Hathershaw
- Michael Rookledge as Man on Beach
- Paul Shane as Mayor
- Michael Wardle as Man in Guest House
- Lori Wells as Mrs. Britchenor
- Frank Windsor as Mr. Walker
- Edward Woodcock as Victor
Style
It's the stifling social conventions of the 1950s that are at the root of the movie's poetic and very understated style. Anybody with low concentration parameters could easily miss the lesbian aspect altogether. In the DVD documentary The Making of Between Two Women (only on UK DVD) Steven Woodcock says that Miss Thompson was originally intended to be a man but he couldn't get the story to work. He claims not to have based the story of the two women on anything that happened to him in real life but that it came as a flash of inspiration when he woke up one morning.[2]
The movie is in the tradition of the British northern-set kitchen sink drama and is a homage to the British New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s, being filmed in the same naturalistic way, drawing on Cinéma vérité methods, and using entirely real locations. Its main difference is that its theme of a lesbian relationship across the class divide in a gritty working class setting would have been considered too risky, had the film been made at the time of the original British New Wave movement. It's this that gives it, in the words of the British TV magazine the Radio Times, "a refreshing contemporary spin".[3]
Background and Production
The movie was shot mostly in and around Huddersfield and Rochdale during the summer and autumn of 1999. It has become an international cult movie, garnering many positive reviews and winning the Best Feature Film Award at the Hollywood backed New York Lesbian & Gay Film Festival soon after release.[4] It has been screened in Hollywood at the Directors Guild of America. It has been shown on British TV more than 250 times.[5] Although a very British film filled with well-known British actors, it was released on DVD by Image Entertainment in America before the UK, to some good reviews in Variety and the Los Angeles Times.[4]
US vs UK versions
The Region 2 UK version (79 mins) is shorter than the Region 1 US version (93 mins) and is the preferred version of the director. The UK version also contains the behind-the-scenes documentaries, giving nearly an hour of extras with the trailer. Some people prefer the longer version because greater character interplay is evident between the two women.
The second documentary on the UK DVD is about deleted scenes, and in it Woodcock explains why he remastered the movie in 2005 and cut it back by about 15 minutes for the 2006 British release because he thought these scenes of interplay between the two women worked in the novel but slowed the story down on screen.[6] The documentary also shows complete scenes and parts of scenes that were filmed but not included in either the US or UK versions of the movie.
Trivia
Ellen's son Victor was played by Edward Woodcock, the director's son in real life. He is on screen more than any other actor in the film.
The small grey car that Miss Thompson drives appears again in Steven Woodcock's next film The Jealous God. There is a deliberate cross-referencing between the films when Vincent (Jason Merrells) says that he bought the car from a woman school teacher - a direct reference to it being the same car in the previous film.
Andrina Carroll is (in real-life) married to Andrew Dunn.[7]
References
- British Council Brit Films catalogue.
- The Making of Between Two Women (Oddyssey Video, 2006)
- Radio Times review from first British TV screening in 2002. http://www.radiotimes.com/servlet_film/com.icl.beeb.rtfilms.client.simpleSearchServlet?frn=39032&searchTypeSelect=5%5B%5D
- British Council website cataloguing British film directors. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 November 2006. Retrieved 2010-01-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- It's the book of the film! Article in Huddersfield Daily Examiner. 9 December 2004. http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=14961533&method=full&siteid=50060&headline=it-s-the-book-of-the-film--name_page.html
- DVD documentary Between Two Women: Deleted Scenes. (Oddyssey Video. 2006.)
- "Dinnerladies actor Andrew Dunn - exclusive interview". northeastlifemag.co.uk. 20 February 2013. Archived from the original on 15 May 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2018.