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Cancer Major 
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DIRECTOR |
Richard
Attenborough
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NOTES |
Beautifully
told story (true) of C.S. Lewis (The Lion, The
Witch, and The Wardrobe) who was a confirmed bachelor but fell in love
late in his life with an American poet and divorcee, Joy
Gresham, who later dies from cancer.
Hopkins and Winger are superb and so are the supporting
cast. A very moving story both for the romance, the tragedy
and the realisation by the donnish Lewis that all is not
contained in his "theory of life".
Some notes:
Lives with brother. Gives talks to 'deserving' organisations and
lectures in literature at Oxford as well as writing books for
children. Nearly all women in audiences. She's Jewish but
an atheist. Beautifully crafted film. When the cancer strikes
you feel not think the event. Like Passionfish the film is abut
how an extreme change affects two people. Subtle, charming, clever
dialogue. Like all good films there is an attention to detail. The
minutiae are so engrossing the story moves along in the background.
"cancer eaten away left femur." "cancer is very advanced"
Interesting to see how simple conditions in hospital are.
About the awakening of love within him where the ground was not
previously fertile and hence for a Christian man the
importance of the second marriage.
For a while things improve. She's out of bed, on crutches.
And she goes home (in an ambulance and using wheelchair).
She says of this time at home "the pain then is part of the
happiness now." When pain returns there is a simple, very brief shot
of her face and the hospital. She returns home a second time on a
stretcher.
She dies in great pain. His presence is her relief though she
says to him "you have to let me go".
In her suffering he sees no purpose, no pattern. "I've come up
against some experience . . . brutal teacher." Her son stays
with Lewis
William Gresham, Joy's first husband, was actually a popular
novelist. He wrote the book "Nightmare Alley" on which the 1946 film
was based. |
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Notes
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