This film was shown to a packed audience at the BFI Southbank yesterday.It was introduced by Joannna McCullum the daughter of the 2 stars of this film.She told us that her parents actually met on the set of this film and that their first scene together was the argument.The film was supposed to take 4 weeks to shoot but because of bad weather on location actually took 10 weeks.She said that many of the locals were utilised as extras and for small parts.Thus the "looker" who is sacked by Joanna Goodden was actually a local looker(shepherd).Because of the bad weather her father spent a lot of the time sitting in a car waiting for the weather to clear playing cards with Chips Rafferty.As to the film itself it is unusual in that it has a feminist thread and at times has a slight documentary feel about it.however it starts to go off the rails when Jean kent comes back from school,looking rather older and wiser than her 18 years.Her subsequent marriage to McCullum and desertion of him and the eventual coupling of the 2 stars seems at times to be rather formulaic and unsuited to the characters and the emotions we had previously witnessed.
Review of The Loves of Joanna Godden
