"Suffragette" to open this year's London film festival

[niyad]

"Suffragette" to open this year's London film festival

Carey Mulligan stars alongside Meryl Streep in drama about the suffragrettes who fought for women’s right to vote


Ready for revolution ... Carey Mulligan in "Suffragette"

"Suffragette", the first feature film to tell the story of women’s fight for the vote, will kick off this year’s London film festival (LFF). Starring Carey Mulligan, the film tells the story of the working-class British women who, inspired by the suffragette leader, Emmeline Pankhurst, took their fight for enfranchisement to the male establishment in Westminster.

Mulligan plays Maud, a housewife who defies her husband (Ben Whishaw) and risks losing custody of her children in the struggle for universal suffrage. Meryl Streep plays Pankhurst, the co-founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union, who undertook hunger strikes and advocated property destruction as a means of protest.


The trailer for the film suggests a gritty drama that doesn’t shy away from the violent aspects of the movement’s struggle. There are shots of mounted police striking protesters in the face and Mulligan as Maud planting a bomb in a post box and fleeing before it explodes. “We’re half the human race,” Maud tells the inspector tasked with quelling the protest. “You can’t stop us all.”

Mulligan has been a vocal proponent of equality in the film industry, which she has called “massively sexist”. “The mere fact that it’s taken 100 years for this story to be told is hugely revealing,” Mulligan told Time Out magazine in April. “This is the story of equal rights in Britain. It took years of struggle and women being tortured, abused and persecuted, and it’s never been put on screen. It’s such a reflection of our film industry that that story hasn’t been told yet.”


Telling the story of the suffragette movement... back row (L-R): Sarah Gavron (director), Helen Pankhurst (great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Laura Pankhurst (great-great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Alison Owen (producer); front row (L-R): Abi Morgan (screenwriter), Anne-Marie Duff (actor), Meryl Streep (actor), Carey Mulligan (actor), Helena Bonham Carter (actor), Faye Ward (producer). The cast and crew of Suffragette Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

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"Suffragette" will have its world premiere in London on 7 October, at the beginning of the 59th London film festival, before opening nationwide in the UK on 30 October.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/03/suffragette-to-open-2015-london-film-festival-carey-mulligan-meryl-streep

[AnnieBW]

1. Someone needs to do a story about the U.S. Suffragettes

I know that there was a movie on HBO a few years ago, but this story deserves a feature film.

[niyad]

2. you are referring to "iron-jawed angels", a most excellent piece.

sadly, do you see any of the film studios actually doing a movie about the suffragists? and telling the true story of the horrors they endured to simply get the right to vote? force feedings, beatings, etc.,

[AnnieBW]

4. If I ever win the lottery

I'm going to start a film company that focuses exclusively on telling female-centric stories.

[niyad]

5. a most excellent idea!!

[DURHAM D]

3. I don't care for the the word suffragette.

I know the UK movement "owned" it after the press created/started using it as a derogatory term for suffragist but my grandmother (a suffragist herself) hated the term.

Look forward to seeing the movie.

[niyad]

6. I agree with you. unfortunately, that is the title of the movie. wish I could change it.

I hate any use of "ette" or "ess", because they are diminutives, designed to make a person less than.