Attenborough's 'Shadowlands' at Kine Klub
By Gatot Prakosa
JAKARTA (JP): I never knew that love could hurt so much/ yet I love you and all I want is to love you.. That was the heart's weeping of famous author C.S.(Jack) Lewis, who didn't find his true love until he was in his 50s.
This true story was filmed again in 1993, by noted English director, Richard Attenborough, and produced by Spelling Films International.
The Attenborough version of Shadowlands is scheduled for screening free for the public at Kine Klub Pusat Perfilman H. Usmar Ismail on July 27 and July 29 as part of the British Council's monthly film show in cooperation with Kine Klub.
The story was filmed in 1987 under the same title by BBC, directed by Norman Stone. Attenborough, whose background is theater, regarded the script of Shadowlands as his opportunity to create a work as Shakespeare might have for the theater.
From the same story, covering a time span of only six years, the directors created entirely different results.
The setting is England, in 1952. C.S. (Jack) Lewis (Anthony Hopkins), a famous writer of children books and a language professor in a prominent university in England, spends half of his life with his brother Warnie (Edward Hardwicke). He spends his time lecturing on Christianity.
As a noted author, he often receives letters from his fans, and one of the letters come from a poet, Joy Gresham (Debra Winger), who wants to visit England and see Lewis.
Lewis arranges the meeting. He throws a tea party with his friends. Lewis is impressed by Joy's beauty and personality. Joy comes with her son Douglas (Joseph Mazzello) who is particularly keen on Narnia, a book written by Lewis. Joy and Douglas do not go back to the U.S. until new year. Jack suggests they stay in the hotel until Christmas, and they will be invited again to Oxford.
At Christmas, Jack and Warnie invite Joy to a very typical ceremony at the college. But Christmas makes Douglas wish to return to America. He is so disappointed that he hides in the storeroom. He opens the wardrobe where old clothes are kept and expects a miracle will happen like in the book The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by Lewis that he once read.
That night he wants to eat strawberry jam with turkey, his habit when eating with his father, Bill, in the U.S. But only cranberry sauce is available that night.
Joy tells Jack that her husband, who is an alcoholic, no longer loves her. He wants to divorce her and marry another woman.
Joy and Douglas then go back to America, and Jack once again becomes absorbed in his routine. One day when Jack is teaching his students the philosophy of religion, he sees Joy among them. Now Joy, who is separated from Bill, wants to live permanently in London with Douglas. Joy invites Jack to the basement where she lives to have lunch.
On his trip to Oxford, Jack tells Warnie he plans to marry Joy.
Shadowlands won Academy Award nominations for Debra Winger and William Nicholson for best actress and best screenplay. This film also won the Sir Alexander Kordha Bafta Award as the outstanding British film of 1993. Richard Attenborough, who won an Oscar in Gandhi, has made the film worth watching.
Another film to be screened on the same days is Enchanted April, directed by Mike Newell. The story took place in London in 1922. Four women, Lottie Wilkins (Josie Lawrence), Rose Arbuthnot (Miranda Richardson), Mrs. Fisher (Joan Playwright) and Lady Caroline Dester (Polly Walker) who live in London for different reasons, go to Italy on vacation.
In Italy, they rent a castle to live in. Events are managed one by one like a comedy. They find happiness and love in Italy.