Another Life

First, a comment. Edith was the eldest sister in the family. Let's start with a truth. So, finally I got around to watching this film and it took me quite by surprise. For I had previously read some reviews which were, perhaps not necessarily positive. However, I had reservations, mostly about the many technical inaccuracies of so many parts of it. (Far too many to go into) However, bringing the immensely sad story of Edith, Percy and Freddy to the big screen was done with sensitivity.

I am pleased to count as one of my friends, Professor Rene Weis, who wrote Criminal Justice, Edith's life history, and our aim is one of justice, to eventually force the government to offer a posthumous pardon to Edith. To this end, we work very hard. Even eighty-five years after her death.

It therefore quite astonished me that Rene was not mentioned or thanked in the end titles. Certain details in the film clearly showed that the writer/director had read his book and that saddened me.

However, I have to thank him for bringing this subject to a wider audience. If you seen, Let him have it or Dance with a Stranger, similar types of British film (an execution at the end) they were done so much better. Better actors I think. And music. And screenplay. Anyway, seen it at last. I think it must be very difficult to write a great screenplay.

Molly Cutpurse

This is an interesting picture for several reasons. It is primarily a tale of jealousy and murder, but there is virtually no blood. English mysteries are like that. The film forces you to follow the story in order to understand it. You will have no choice but to develop conflicting feelings about the protagonist.

Edie is the younger daughter of a typical English family at the turn of the century. Unlike her parents, younger brother, and older sister, she is what we might describe as a free spirit. She is extremely intelligent. She smokes, she drinks, she plays the coquette with boys, and she eventually lures a hapless weakling into marrying her by providing him with outrageous sex before marriage. This marriage sets the scene for the murder mystery to come. She comes to despise her husband Percy after dallying with a family friend. Her affair with Fred becomes obvious to her husband, her Mum and Dad, and her sister Avis (who is also in love with Fred). Edie doesn't care. Free spirits are willing to leave a trail of broken hearts in their paths.

The story is often told in the first person, and it's this introspection that gives us insight into her character and creates the mixed emotions we have about her. Is she just a self centered dreamer with no thought for the pain she causes those around her? Or is she a calculating narcissist who is willing to sacrifice anything or anyone who gets her way. Is Fred the driving force in this tragedy, or is he just a tool she uses to get what she wants? We come away from this movie wondering, and that is what makes it worth watching.

An excellent British Cast in a film bafflingly overlooked at Cannes. Natasha Little in particular deserves the highest praise for the emotional range of her acting. In fact the whole cast gelled exceptionally well in a film that encompassed touches of light humour and extreme emotional pain.

Costume, set design and make up painstakingly recreated the era of the 20's and 30's. A modern day tragedy.

I bloody well HATED this mess of a film. Slow, stupid, melodramatic in the shrillest and most tasteless fashion. Everybody in it is a crashing bore. Edith and, what's his name ... oh, you know, her lover ... are the most unlikeable people I ever had to endure. We're to think Edith is an original, imaginative woman, but she merely comes off as flighty, silly, tiresome and annoying. As for Nick Moran's and Ioan Gruffud's acting, the less said, the better. I couldn't care less whether the lovers were guilty or not. I just wanted the two wretches to be put out of their misery. And mine.

Anyway. Watch this dud, if you absolutely must. But, as Dante said on a similar occasion: 'Abandon all hope ...' and all that.

I was interested to see this film as a relative of mine shared a flat with one of the Thompson family and my family remember the case as we came from the same area. Another connection is that I was an extra on the film. The clothes we had to wear weren't Edwardian at all it was definitely twenties. The film seems to have vanished and having searched on Amazon I found it is on DVD so I am looking forward to seeing it at last. As it was made in 2001 I would like to know where it has been hiding all this time. In the court scenes that I was in Natasha Little and Ioan Gruffudd were excellent. It seems a shame that it didn't publicised further because it definitely should have been seen far and wide.