The Deep Blue Sea | |
---|---|
Directed by | Terence Davies |
Screenplay by | Terence Davies |
Based on | The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan |
Produced by | Sean O'Connor Kate Ogborn |
Starring | Rachel Weisz Tom Hiddleston Simon Russell Beale Harry Hadden-Paton |
Cinematography | Florian Hoffmeister |
Edited by | David Charap |
Music by | Samuel Barber |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Artificial Eye [1] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 98 minutes [2] |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $8 million [3] |
Box office | $3.1 million [1] |
The Deep Blue Sea is a 2011 British romantic drama film written and directed by Terence Davies and starring Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, and Simon Russell Beale. It is an adaptation of the 1952 Terence Rattigan play The Deep Blue Sea about the wife of a judge who engages in an affair with a former RAF pilot. This film version was funded by the UK Film Council and Film4, produced by Sean O'Connor and Kate Ogborn.
Filming began in late 2010 and it was released in the United Kingdom in 2011, the year of Rattigan's centenary. It was released in the United States in 2012 by distributor Music Box Films. [4] [5]
In 1950, Hester Collyer, the younger wife of High Court judge Sir William Collyer, has embarked on a passionate affair with Freddie Page, a handsome young former RAF pilot troubled by his memories of the Second World War. Freddie throws Hester's life in turmoil, as their erotic relationship leaves her emotionally stranded and physically isolated. For Freddie, the tumultuous wartime mix of fear and excitement that was once in his life seems to be no longer present.
Most of the film takes place during one day in Hester's flat, a day on which she has decided to commit suicide. Her suicide attempt fails and as she recovers, the story of her affair and her married life is played out in a mosaic of short and sporadic flashbacks. We soon discover the constraints of Hester's comfortable marriage, which is affectionate but without sexual passion.
As Hester's affair is discovered she leaves her life of comparative luxury and moves into a dingy London flat with Freddie. Hester's new lover has awakened her sexuality, but the reckless, thrill-seeking Freddie can never give her the love and stability that her husband gave her. Yet to return to a life without passion would be unbearable for her. The film takes its title from her dilemma of being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea – two equally undesirable situations. [6]
The film was commissioned by the Rattigan Trust, and was released in time for Rattigan's centenary in 2011.
Filming locations are in Buckinghamshire and London including the 3 Mills Studios in Bow.
The background music is taken from Samuel Barber's violin concerto written 1939.
The film was released to strongly positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 80%, based on 143 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's consensus reads, "Featuring an outstanding performance by Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea is a visually stunning, melancholy tale of subsumed passion." [7] It also has a score of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 30 reviews. [8]
For her performance, Weisz won the Best Actress Award at the 2012 New York Film Critics Circle Awards and also won the Best Actress Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association in the same year.
In January 2012, Weisz was nominated as Best Actress in the 70th Golden Globe Awards. The film was also chosen as one of the Top Ten films of the year by The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times . The film has found a largely appreciative audience and critical success in the United States, with Weisz's performance named as the "film performance of 2012" by David Edelstein of New York magazine.
Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipients and nominees | Outcome |
---|---|---|---|---|
55th BFI London Film Festival [9] | 12–27 October 2011 | Best Film | The Deep Blue Sea | Nominated |
39th Evening Standard British Film Awards [10] | 6 February 2012 | Best Actress | Rachel Weisz | Nominated |
33rd London Film Critics' Circle [10] | 19 January 2012 | British Actress of the Year | Rachel Weisz | Nominated |
Supporting Actor of the Year | Simon Russell Beale | Nominated | ||
2012 New York Film Critics Circle Awards | 3 December 2012 | Best Actress | Rachel Weisz | Won |
70th Golden Globe Awards | 13 January 2013 | Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama | Rachel Weisz | Nominated |
Rachel Hannah Weisz is an English actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received several awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award.
Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background. He wrote The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others.
The Deep Blue Sea is a British stage play by Terence Rattigan from 1952. Rattigan based his story and characters in part on his secret relationship with Kenny Morgan, and the aftermath of the end of their relationship. The play was first performed in London on 6 March 1952, directed by Frith Banbury, and won praise for actress Peggy Ashcroft, who co-starred with Kenneth More. In the US, the Plymouth Theater staged the play in October 1952, with Margaret Sullavan. The play with Sullavan subsequently transferred to Broadway, with its Broadway premiere on 5 November 1953, and running for 132 performances.
Terence Davies was a British screenwriter, film director, and novelist. He is best known as the writer and director of autobiographical films, including Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992) and the collage film Of Time and the City (2008), as well as the literary adaptations The Neon Bible (1995), The House of Mirth (2000), The Deep Blue Sea (2011) and Sunset Song (2015). His final two feature films were centered around the lives of influential literary figures, Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion (2016) and Siegfried Sassoon in Benediction (2021). Davies was considered by some critics as one of the great British directors of his period.
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Sean Michael O'Connor is an English producer, writer, and director working in theatre, film, television and radio. He was the editor of the long-running BBC radio drama, The Archers from 2013 to 2016 and executive producer of EastEnders from 2016 to 2017.
Deep Blue Sea or The Deep Blue Sea may refer to:
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