Films that remain vivid in the memory because of the emotions they convey

‘The Bridges of Madison County’ (1995) the tenderest, most romantic of love stories, is based on the bestselling book by Robert James Waller. The film looks back at four days in the summer of 1965 when Robert Kincaid, a National Geographic Magazine photographer (the ever so handsome Clint Eastwood) arrives in Madison County to take pictures of the region’s historic bridges. He drives up to a farm to ask directions of Francesca Johnson (the ever so attractive Meryl Streep) whose husband and two children are away at the Illinois State Fair. Their instant and mutual attraction deepens in touching scenes at the iconic Roseman Bridge and in the farmhouse kitchen and bedroom where the pair realise they are indeed a perfect match, true soul mates. Francesca decides she must remain with her family but vacillates at the very last minute. Driven down a rain-soaked street by her husband who is oblivious of her heartache, she grips the door handle of their truck threatening to escape when they stop at traffic lights behind Robert who finally moves off turning left out of town and out of her life.

Many of us read ‘Little Women’ by Louisa M Alcott when we were children; I remember crying under my pillow when Beth died. Director Greta Gerwig filmed the 2019 version in Concord Massachusetts, where Alcott wrote the book back in 1868. Here once again is Meryl Streep as Aunt March. Timothée Chalamet is a delightful Laurie Lawrence. The wondrous Saoirse Ronan is Jo and Florence Pugh is Amy; both actresses rightly won Academy Award Oscars for their performances. The sense of family and Jo’s unwavering ambition to get her book published are beautifully defined. Of the several TV and film versions I have seen this is by far the best.

Filmed in the palace of Versailles , Sophia Copolla’s ‘Marie Antoinette’ (2006) evokes the extravagance, exuberance and flirtatious frivolity of the period preceding the French Revolution. Kirsten Dunst stars as the ill-fated queen with Jason Schwartzman as Louix XVII, the last king of France, while our own Jamie Dornan appears as the seductive Count Axel Fersen. Copolla commissioned Milena Canonero to design the period costumes - powdery blue, soft blush and pale pink- offset with frills and flounces, pyramid wigs and pompadour shoes that set the tone for the film and earned Canonero an Academy award. Match all that with a sparkling soundtrack: Scarlatti and Couperin, The Cure and Bow Wow Wow, and you have a true cinematic treat.

Stephen McQueen’s award-winning film ‘12 Years a Slave’ (2013) is based on the book written by Solomon Northup. The year is 1841. Northup, an emancipated slave played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, is working as a violinist and living with his family in New York state when he is abducted and sold into slavery. He is forced to work on several southern plantations where he and many others, including the slave girl Patsey (Lupito Nyong’o), suffer unbearable cruelty and violence. In the twelfth year of his ordeal Solomon meets a Canadian abolitionist and his life changes for ever. The film was nominated for nine Oscars and won three including best adapted screenplay for John Ridley and best supporting actress for Kenyan born Lupito Nyong’o. Stephen McQueen, a former Turner Prize winner and director of ‘Hunger’ (2008) about hunger striker Bobby Sands is the first black director to win an Academy award for Best Motion Picture.

In 2019, Mati Diop made festival history when she became the first black female director to win the Grand Prix at Cannes for her film ‘Atlantics’. Set in the coastal city of Dakar, it is a tale of young love, migration, and the spirit world. Ada, a typically attractive Senegalese teenager has been promised to another but she is in love with Souleiman, a construction worker employed on the site of a modern city tower block. He and his co-workers have not received their pay for several months and some of them see only one solution, to head for Spain by boat. They drown at sea but their spirits return in the guise of their girlfriends to take revenge on the developer who failed to pay their wages. Surging seascapes and moody music by Yemeni composer Fatima al Qadiri add to the drama of this well-crafted film which is currently available on Netflix.

In these turbulent times we salute the ingenuity, talent and genius of creative artists such as these. We will be relying on them to show us the more caring, sharing side of our humanity and to help us heal and re-energise our world.

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