This 2007 glossy film about Daphne du Maurier's liaisons with Ellen Doubleday (who may have been the love of Daphne's life) and Gertrude Lawrence (an affair of mixed blessings) highlights the contradictions in Daphne du Maurier, from her inner feelings of being a 'boy in a box' to her outer conventional marriage-and-children life.
The film focusses on a relatively brief period of DduM's life from 1946 to 1952, albeit a dramatic time when the writer went to the US to defend a libel suit, accusing her of plagiarism in her novel 'Rebecca', meets and falls for rich socialite publisher's wife Ellen Doubleday and gets caught on the rebound into an affair with Broadway and West End star, Gertrude Lawrence, actress, personality, and close friend of Noel Coward (who also features in the film). The writer's life, of course, encompasses so much more - she was born in 1907 so was in her forties at the time of the film's setting with a husband, three children, and 8 novels behind her. Several other novels, short stories such as 'The Birds', and non-fiction followed and she lived till 1989. So this film does in a way distort the author's life into a kind of concoction of lesbian desire at a time when such relationships were socially taboo, and by its focus, neglects the really important aspect of the author's life - her writing.
But, if not an accurate depiction of DduM's life, the film itself is highly entertaining, mainly due to superb performances from Geraldine Somerville as Daphne, Elizabeth McGovern ('Downton Abbey') as Ellen Doubleday, and always wonderful Janet McTeer as Gertrude Lawrence. If the film encourages younger viewers (the 20-40 age range) to read Daphne du Maurier's novels, all well and good. They are in for a treat. As a fan (though the author didn't like 'fans') I think that not only are her novels original, intelligent, well-written, and great dramas, they are an important contribution to 20th-century women's literature.
The film focusses on a relatively brief period of DduM's life from 1946 to 1952, albeit a dramatic time when the writer went to the US to defend a libel suit, accusing her of plagiarism in her novel 'Rebecca', meets and falls for rich socialite publisher's wife Ellen Doubleday and gets caught on the rebound into an affair with Broadway and West End star, Gertrude Lawrence, actress, personality, and close friend of Noel Coward (who also features in the film). The writer's life, of course, encompasses so much more - she was born in 1907 so was in her forties at the time of the film's setting with a husband, three children, and 8 novels behind her. Several other novels, short stories such as 'The Birds', and non-fiction followed and she lived till 1989. So this film does in a way distort the author's life into a kind of concoction of lesbian desire at a time when such relationships were socially taboo, and by its focus, neglects the really important aspect of the author's life - her writing.
But, if not an accurate depiction of DduM's life, the film itself is highly entertaining, mainly due to superb performances from Geraldine Somerville as Daphne, Elizabeth McGovern ('Downton Abbey') as Ellen Doubleday, and always wonderful Janet McTeer as Gertrude Lawrence. If the film encourages younger viewers (the 20-40 age range) to read Daphne du Maurier's novels, all well and good. They are in for a treat. As a fan (though the author didn't like 'fans') I think that not only are her novels original, intelligent, well-written, and great dramas, they are an important contribution to 20th-century women's literature.