"The Governess"
    A Film Review by
    Linda Lopez McAlister
    on "The Women's Show"
    WMNF-FM 88.5, Tampa, FL
    April 3, 1999


    I missed a good film by and about women when it played briefly in
Tampa earlier, a film called "The Governess."   If you missed it too, you
might want to pick it up at your local video store and have a look.  It's an
English film written and directed by a woman filmmaker new to me, Sandra
Goldbacher.  It is her first feature film, I believe, but obviously she
knows her way around a film set.  This is a gorgeous and complex film and a
feminist one, at that.  Furthermore, as you view the opening credits you'll
notice that virtually every one of the key filmmakers is a woman.

    The film makes another outstanding contribution to the growing list
of films about Jewish women (you may recall "A Price Above Rubies"--a
contemporary look at a woman in an orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn).
This one takes us back to a prosperous community of successful Jewish
merchants in London in the 19th C.  Rosina da Silva (played by Minnie
Driver) is a well-educated young woman, the daughter of an apparently
wealthy fish merchant, who seems to be destined to marry Benjamin, a nice
young man of the community and live a life similar to her mother's.  This
all comes to a crashing halt with the death of her father and the
realization that he had large debts and that someone would have to support
Rosina's mother and younger sister.  She decides to seek work as a governess
but to improve her chances she decides to try to pass as a gentile.  She
dubs herself Mary Blackchurch and finds a position as governess to a little
girl on the Isle of Skye off the coast of Scotland.

    At first "Mary" doesn't think she can stand the isolation of the
place.  Mrs. Cavendish, the lady of the house, is herself neurotic, lonesome
and isolated.  Her son is off at Oxford, her daughter is spoiled and bratty,
her husband spends all his time on his scientific experiments and pays
little or no attention to her.  But Mary soon tames the wild child, makes
friends with her and becomes an excellent teacher to her.  She also gets
intrigued by Mr. Cavendish's work, especially his efforts to find a fixative
for camera obscura images so that they will not fade away after a few hours.
By accident (while secretly making a seder in her room one Friday evening)
she spills salt water on one of his prints and discovers the next morning
that the sections that had salt water spilled on them were still visible.

    Meanwhile, almost inevitably, she and Charles Cavendish (Tom
Wilkinson) develop a passionate desire for one another and she encourages
him to make love to her, against his better judgement. and moral scruples.
At about that time the son, Henry Cavendish (Jonathat Rhys-Myers), returns
home, having been kicked out of Oxford.  He, too, is taken with Miss
Blackchurch.  He, however, has not inherited his father's scruples so he
snoops about Mary's room and discovers her real identity.   Of course all of
this comes to a head, as you might expect.  "Mary," however, has a very
dramatic way of taking her leave from the Cavendishes and she takes with her
what she needs to start a new life in London.

    The story and screenplay that Sandra Goldbacher created for this
film are very compelling, as is the portrait of someone in the process of
trying to pass for something she is not.  The acting is all quite excellent,
and the selection of special cinematographic, musical, and audio effects
that are used to express inner thoughts, dream sequences, etc. is very
effective.

    In a way, Rosina da Silva's story is a very modern one.  She is
educated and very intelligent, she acknowledges and acts on her own feelings
and sexual desires without shame, she understands that identities are not
necessarily fixed but are fluid.  And she survives the depths of despair
that lead her at one point to fall to her knees and say she'll do anything,
be anything, Cavendish wants of her.  This is no traditional romance and in
the end, somewhat similar to the heroine of "My Brilliant Career," she is
able to go her own way, become her own person and make a successful career
doing gorgeous, insightful, portraits of the people of the London Jewish
community.

For the WMNF Women's Show this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film.

Copyright 1999 by Linda Lopez McAlister.










    As is often the case, the male critics around here didn't find much
to interest them in "The Governess" except the palpable sexuality.  But I
think women will like it quite a lot.