Finally arriving on our shores following a premiere as part of the Cannes 2020 selection – albeit at TIFF – Francis Lee’s sophomore effort following his hugely impressive debut, God’s Own Country, Ammonite is a much bigger affair: a wonderous, coastal-set romantic drama based around of one Britain’s most famous palaeontologists, Mary Anning.
To say I was a fan of Francis Lee’s debut movie is a bit of understatement. I managed to catch it at an international festival, Transylvania in Romania, back in 2017. My memory of experiencing the film as an event is almost as memorable as the feature itself. I saw it with an audience, of many nationalities, a film about my own country seen in a foreign land, in a small cinema, and then, in addition, with the director in attendance. My experience of Ammonite, couldn’t be any different; at home on a much smaller screen, and alone, which is a shame as this is arguably a film made for the big-screen definitely to be seen with other people.
At the heart of the film is a love story, not a biopic, but an interpretation of what might have been on a southern English coast some near-two hundred years ago. Kate Winslet is Anning, a very single fossil hunter trawling the beaches of Dorset and living with her mother in the small town of Lyme Regis on the western border of the county. It is there where she meets married Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan), who is fated by her husband to stay with Anning for a duration of time for health reasons. Unwilling at first, Anning agrees to allow Charlotte to accompany her as she plies her trade on the wind-swept, wave-bashed beaches where a romance starts to blossom between the two.
The first thing that grabs you about the film is how amazing it looks and sounds. The marvellous, though murky beaches of Lyme are captured beautifully by cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine whose previous work includes everything from Captain Fantastic to Jackie. The sound too, is heavily detailed, particularly during the beach scenes, the deafening sounds of the waves crashing on the floor subsiding enough now and again to hear the beautiful birdsong of the south coast. You can tell that the aural work has so much depth that hundreds of hours of work has gone into its creation. Being a period piece, the production and costume design are also superb, so on a technical level, it’s hard to fault.
In terms of performance? Well, Kate Winslet is simply fantastic. She has never been better as Anning, while Ronan matches her as Murchison, while also continuing on her cinematic quest to help put the Dorset coastline on the global map following her solid work in On Chesil Beach (set just a few miles east) a couple of years’ back. The two give naturalistic, believable performances; beautiful in their staging and execution. Lee must be applauded for his detailed writing as well as his wonderful direction here; a hugely ambitious film on a larger canvas that is a very strong second piece.
While it doesn’t quite hit the dizzying heights of God’s Own Country, Ammonite is still an exceptional work and I really took to it, even watching it by limited means. It stuck with me for some time after my initial viewing, but I couldn’t help but wonder what level it could have been elevated to should it have had its chance to screen on that massive screen in front of a 2300-strong crowd at the Palais des Festivals on the Cannes croisette. What an occasion that would have been.
Ammonite is released on premium home rental from 26th March.
Ammonite
Summary
Francis Lee delivers an exceptional second feature, an engrossing, mesmerising take on one of England’s most important historical figures. At times very slow-paced, but its wonderful staging and exceptional acting makes it one of THE must sees of the year.
