Between Two Women

This jewel of a film is strictly for romantics. The film is a quiet character study of a woman who finds the courage to open herself to the possibilities of love and happiness. After a lifetime of repression and fear of disappointing family, the lead character can no longer deny the intense feelings that have developed between herself and her son's schoolteacher, and finally allows herself to experience what she really wants. The film may not contain the flash and raunchiness that many viewers are used to (no kissing, although there is some very heart-warming hand-holding), but for this viewer, it was stirring and captivating, and one of the most vividly romantic pieces I've seen in a long time. Magnificent acting highlighted this beautiful story.

Really enjoyed this film, the set design was fantastic and the attention to detail for such an old era was brilliant!! The only major let down in this film was the acting of the main younge boy victor, it was very poor.... And actually quite annoying because it just wasn't natural.

The storyline was slim, the actors were excellent and the tension true but there was far too much mere wanting and we didn't even get to enjoy the happy ending. It was as though this movie was made by a sexually uptight lesbian who loved the characters but was embarrassed by any physicality. Finally the overly dramatic and tacky music was distracting. There simply is not enough of a movie to write about that could fill up ten lines! A decent flick overall but all worry and no fun makes Jack a dull movie that was clean but plain. I would have to be bored out of my skull to view it again however worthy the film is in subtle ways.....can I stop writing now?

In 1950s Yorkshire, Ellen, mother of 10 year-old Victor, is stifled in a loveless marriage to her factory worker husband. In an otherwise dull life, Victor's teacher, Kathy is a source of light and colour. Soon, Ellen realises that her feelings for Kathy go deeper than just friendship.

Victor is a bright and gifted lad whose artistic ability brings him to the attention of his teacher, Miss Thomson. Her encouragement and her part in having his work included in a local art exhibition give her and Victor's mother, Ellen, common cause and, as a result, they spend a good deal of time together.

While Ellen is uneducated, she is intelligent and articulate and expresses how much she would like to have seen more of life; to have learned more. Miss Thomson - Kathy - listens and empathises with her new friend. As a result Ellen and Kathy, with Victor in tow, start to see each other socially.

Meanwhile, Ellen's husband, Geoff, who is a dutiful but unloving husband, and who struggles to find any way in which to relate to his son or appreciate his son's gifts, dislikes Ellen's new friendship, perhaps sensing that Kathy is more in a position to repond to Ellen's wider emotional and intellectual vistas.

As Ellen and Kathy's friendship deepens it becomes noticeable that there is connection building between them.

Summer comes, and one night while Ellen is away on holiday with Geoff and Victor, she realises, during a thunderstorm, that Kathy gives her things that Geoff never could, and with it she realises just how deep her feelings for her now lie. The realisation is like being struck by the lightning flashing outside.

Between Two Women is something of a family affair with Victor being played by Edward Woodcock, son of writer/director/producer Stephen and executive producer, Julie. Andrew Dunn, a capable actor, is not given the opportunity to bring more to a role that we have seen all too many times before - the gruff, emotionally repressed, working-class Northern male. Andrina Carroll, is charming as Kathy, but plays her with a touch of timidity that is somewhat at odds with her apparent sophistication and wide-ranging intellect. Barbara Marten, however, makes up for the other characters' deficits by portraying Ellen as a woman who is warm and loving, and whose eyes search for some far distant horizon that she is never likely to see; all the while with a hint of sadness that wins our sympathies.

With a running time of just 92 minutes, Between Two Women is not without its longueurs. At times the characters seem to be shuffled about without any real sense of purpose or meaning: a scene where Victor plays with a friend near a railway line hints at the possibility of great danger, but it plays out without incident. Perhaps the film's origins on commercial TV account for its peculiar dramatic rhythms. Elsewhere, a strangely inappropriate synthesiser soundtrack by Michael Hammer - sounding like something you might find playing in the background in a shop that stocks healing crystals - intrudes and does nothing to support the period feel of the film.

Woodcock's film seeks to explore the emergence of 'forbidden' love and does so without titillation, dwelling instead on emotional intimacy. But even there it never fully comes to grips it's subject, offering us no release through professions of love or even a kiss. Throughout, trains are used, somewhat heavy-handedly, as a metaphor for escape and freedom, not least when Ellen and her parents see off Ellen's sister and her husband as they embark on their journey to a new life in Australia, the 'Young Country'

Slow, intimate and with an adumbrative ending, Between Two Women would, I'm sure, be an altogether better film with a new soundtrack and some substantial re-editing.

In the thirties , Lilian Hellmann wrote a play about two schoolteachers ,one of whom fell in love with her colleague ;it was transferred twice to the screen by William Wyler as "these three " (but he was forced to avoid the lesbian side) and as "the children' hour" (in which Audrey Hepburn and Shirley McLaine were unforgettable)

I had not seen a more moving movie dealing with what was then a taboo subject since "the children's hour " ; in those years ,the gay ,be he a man or a woman ,had always a bad end ( " suddenly last summer" "the fox" "advise and consent "......)

It was then and it is now : things have changed and fortunately,people have become more tolerant with homosexuals .

But "between two women" takes place in the fifties ,just before WW2, which is often hinted at ; the depiction of the social background is precise and detailed :the macho husband working in the factory , the children playing with their toy train, the wireless set , Ellen marvelling at Kathy's bathroom, a stiffling society .And it's not so sure that both women will live happily ever after : their life will be uncertain, and ,like the train ,they may enter a dark tunnel where they might meet unfriendly people .

Barbara Marten and Andrina Carroll give superlative restrained performances : looks and smiles tell their whole story , those who watch Steven Woodcock's to get an eyeful will be disappointed : it's a psychological drama of the first order ; the rapport both actresses have is extraordinary ,although they are apparently worlds apart : Kathy is an educated woman whereas Ellen is a worker's wife whose husband got pregnant before her wedding : an intelligent woman, she certainly could have carried on with her studies ,had she been given the opportunity to. Her boy's drawings (which,although impressive, depicts a gloomy reality : walls ,factory,shadows, darkness ) may be the key to the world of culture she longs for .On his part ,her husband rejects this art ,and gets jealous of his own son who makes as much money with his picture as he makes in one month .

It' s obvious Ellen and Geoff have never been in love ,and the wife did not want to show her true colors ; the coming of luminous Kathy will make the difference ;the relationship is depicted with sensitiveness, warmth and decency .