'Mrs. Soffel, meet Mrs. Pointellier ('The Awakening')

From tcm.com : "Oscar®-winning actress Diane Keaton was set to star in the title role and Gillian Armstrong was named director. One of the few prominent female directors, Armstrong was often attracted to stories that featured extraordinary strong women characters. Diane Keaton, too, was drawn to the same types of roles, shining in films such as Annie Hall (1977), Shoot the Moon (1982) and The Little Drummer Girl (1984). Keaton had been eager to work with Gillian Armstrong ever since they had met a few years earlier in Los Angeles."

(Note: Gillian Armstrong is not Gillian Anderson aka 'Scully')

Robert McKee, famed writing instructor, gives a formerly three now four day seminar during which he has time to cite only so many films as derived from well-written screenplays. He says Keaton's Mrs. Soffel is a well-written, fully realized character who takes tremendous risk with all sorts of consequences, for herself and others, and forges ahead risking life itself for passion because up until now, in all the time of her life, that time spent with Ed Biddle transcended everything. Everything in her life.

And in her circumstances she decided (and chose) that the risk was worth the consequences, consequences that she accepted. And that's what makes her a noble character. She is filled with internal conflict, on a personal, emotional, intellectual and religious level. It was a bold choice Mrs. Soffel made.

The film is worth a look. And the cinematography is saturated with deep natural hues. Here's tmc.com:

"The stunning cinematography by Russell Boyd in "Mrs. Soffel" was one of the most praised aspects of the film when it was released. Shot largely in Canada and Pittsburgh under some grueling wintry weather conditions, the look is atmospheric, dark and beautiful. Boyd's photography captures the layered details of industrial grime, and the bleak, moody chill of a turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh winter is almost tangible."

I saw this evocative film when it came out and the theatre was near empty and I thought the film was daring and stark and edgy and beautifully shot and I don't know why it didn't do well.

David Edelstein of the Village Voice called Mrs. Soffel "the year's richest, most poetic love story - I'd call her (Diane Keaton's) Mrs. Soffel the best performance of the year."

For me, the story shares a similar theme with Kate Chopin's classic "The Awakening (1899.)" In that story Edna Pointellier also makes the choice of casting off her former life, her former self, her husband and children, sacrifice it all for passion; but it's more complicated than that, in both "The Awakening" and "Mrs. Soffel."

Mrs. Soffel's story is true, occurring in 1902, just three years after Chopin published "The Awakening" to some lambasting and harsh reviews, but some accolades as well. At the turn of that century a woman simply did not leave her husband and family for personal fulfillment--for any reason but least of all that.

Still, some critics at that time hailed Chopin's book as brilliant, and over time it is now accepted as a classic for its masterful story and the way it's structured and the use of language and that hanging atmosphere; its brilliance could no longer be denied. Chopin, perhaps like her protagonist Edna and like Mrs. Soffel, risked it all for her passion.


RobertAndropolis