NEWS
EVENTS
LFF review: Ginger & Rosa
Monday 15th October 2012 | Angie
Premiered at the Odeon West End on 13th October 2012 as part of the BFI London Film Festival
The year is 1962, and the world is going to end. In a Cold War era London, 17-year old Ginger, as played by theatrical wunderkind Elle Fanning, is becoming increasingly unravelled by the reality that at any moment the whole world could be catapulted into annihilation in a burst of Soviet-American rivalry (reference to the metaphorical pissing contest that was the Cuban missile crisis). The best friend since birth of our ginger heroine is the eponymous Rosa (newcomer Alice Englert). As they grow they are pulled in opposing directions, Ginger to become the radical pacifist determined to save the world, and Rosa to submit to rather than resist annihilation and leave it all in the hands of God. It is through this painful maturation that they discover the strength of even the strongest of friendships can be tested.
Ginger and Rosa are spiritual twins, making the most of their liberated youth experimenting with boys, drinking, smoking and shrinking their jeans in the bath, and both indulge in a mutual feeling of maternal revulsion. Fanning portrays a character who is ultimately a fighter, and yet her fragile poetic soul leaves her incredibly vulnerable to the pressures life presents to her. Englert’s Rosa is a more flawed character, who’s ill-judgement and displaced paternal hunger feed the inherent tensions of the girls' lives. Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks and Alessandro Nivolo adopt the parts of Natalie and Roland – the parents of Ginger – loosely bound in a tainted marriage, whilst Timothy Spall and Annette Benning take on the roles of Ginger’s support and protection in the characters of Mark and May Bella.
It is a film of wars – Ginger’s struggle with Rosa, Nat and Roland’s deteriorating marriage, both girls’ rebelling against their mothers, Ginger fighting the government demons to save the world - set against the backdrop of a threatened one. Through this, world-renowned veteran director Sally Potter produces a film that captures the spirit of the iconoclastic and tumultuous period. Jazz music characteristic of the Swinging Sixties keeps the pace, and there is a gentle and subtle kind of beauty to be found in the shots of smoky wastelands, bright beaches and dark, restless streets. This intimate portrayal of what happens when a young girl is forced to carry pressures and secrets too terrible to bear is beautifully measured, holding back when it is needed in order to steer events towards the inevitable confrontation. It quickly becomes clear that there will be an eruption of sorts in the end, as the lines between Ginger's quest to save the planet and her family become increasingly blurred.
By Angie Moneke
@angiejudeLDN
