If you’re looking for cinematic romance with a proto-feminist perspective, you can do worse than Far from the Madding Crowd. Now I’m neither the target audience for a period romance or a fan of Carey Mulligan, but Far from the Madding Crowd is pretty fresh for having been based on a Thomas Hardy novel, and delivers an unusual (for the 19th Century) female character and sweeping, sometimes operatic melodrama.
Mulligan plays a young woman who is smart, attractive, capable and VERY confident but has the wrong taste in men. Because she has lucked into affluence, she has no NEED for a husband. Indeed, under English law of the Victorian period, she would diminish her legal standing and lose her economic freedom if she marries. A character sings the song “Let No Man Steal Your Heart”, and we know that the stakes are high.
Men DO try to steal her heart, sometimes with cringeworthily abrupt proposals of marriage (with pianos proffered to sweeten the deal). She is wooed by the “safety” and comfort from a rich guy (Michael Sheen) vs the loyal hunk (Matthias Schoenaerts) who is below her station. Then a very handsome soldier (Tom Sturridge), who turns out to be shallow and cruel, comes into play with a WOWZA of a first kiss. We know who is the right guy for her, but SHE doesn’t see it that way, which creates all the drama.
I love the work of Danish director Thomas Vinterburg – 1998’s The Celebration (Festen), 2012’s The Hunt (Jagten). Here he does a pretty good job keeping the wild swings and improbable coincidences of Hardy’s plot from becoming laughable. How many ways are there to kill off an entire herd of sheep, anyway?
Far from the Madding Crowd opens tomorrow, and is a good choice for someone looking for a period romance.