The Mother (2003/I)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Roger Michell

Writer:

Hanif Kureishi (writer)

Release Date:

9 October 2003 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

It can take a lifetime to feel alive.

Plot:

A grandmother has a passionate affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.

Plot Keywords:

Topless Female Nudity | Loss Of Husband | Mother Daughter Relationship | Heart Attack | Death Of Husband

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 11 nominations

Cast

Anne Reid	...	May
Peter Vaughan	...	Toots
Anna Wilson-Jones	...	Helen
Daniel Craig	...	Darren
Danira Govich	...	Au Pair
Harry Michell	...	Harry
Rosie Michell	...	Rosie
Izabella Telezynska	...	Polish Cleaner
Steven Mackintosh	...	Bobby
Cathryn Bradshaw	...	Paula
Carlo Kureishi	...	Jack
Sachin Kureishi	...	Jack
Simon Mason	...	Man in Tate Gallery
Oliver Ford Davies	...	Bruce
Jonah Coombes	...	Estate Agent
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Zelda Tinska	...	Barmaid (uncredited)

Directed by
Roger Michell

Writing credits
Hanif Kureishi		(writer)

Produced by
Stephen Evans	....	executive producer
Angus Finney	....	executive producer
Kevin Loader	....	producer
Rosa Romero	....	line producer
Tracey Scoffield	....	executive producer
David M. Thompson	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Jeremy Sams

Cinematography by
Alwin H. Kuchler		(director of photography) (as Alwin Küchler)

Film Editing by
Nicolas Gaster

Casting by
Mary Selway
Fiona Weir

Production Design by
Mark Tildesley

Art Direction by
Mark Digby

Set Decoration by
Michelle Day

Costume Design by
Natalie Ward

Makeup Department
Konnie Daniel	....	makeup designer

Production Management
Alistair Hopkins	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Paul Mason	....	third assistant director
Barrie McCulloch	....	first assistant director
Olivia Peniston-Bird	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Chris Lightburn-Jones	....	stand-by art director
Denis Schnegg	....	draughtsman
Nick Thomas	....	property master
Warren Lever	....	construction manager (uncredited)

Sound Department
Tim Alban	....	sound re-recording mixer
Orin Beaton	....	boom operator
Owen Bleasdale	....	foley recordist
Paula Boram	....	foley artist
Gianluca Buttari	....	foley editor
Danny Hambrook	....	sound recordist
Danny Hambrook	....	supervising sound editor
Stewart Henderson	....	supervising dialogue editor (as Stuart Henderson)
Melissa Lake	....	foley artist
Adam Laschinger	....	assistant sound editor
Adam Laschinger	....	sound assistant
Matthew Skelding	....	assistant sound re-recording mixer
Graeme Stoten	....	adr editor
Michele Woods	....	adr editor (as Michelle Woods)

Visual Effects by
Sally Clayton	....	digital supervisor
Tim Davies	....	senior compositor
Rob Ellis	....	digital effects compositor
Safiya Ravat	....	assistant compositor
Rod Shelton	....	digital producer
Laurent Treherne	....	technical supervisor

Camera and Electrical Department
Peter Byrne	....	focus puller: "b" camera
Ivan Kyncl	....	still photographer
Henry Landgrebe	....	clapper loader
John Law	....	rigger
Stephen Mathie	....	best boy
Luke Redgrave	....	camera operator: "b" camera
Olly Tellett	....	focus puller
Lucho Zuidema	....	grip
Thomas Townend	....	camera operator: second unit (uncredited)
Harry Wiggins	....	gaffer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Gemma Evans	....	wardrobe assistant

Editorial Department
Erika Brüning	....	arri laser operator (as Erica Brunning)
Kim Gaster	....	associate editor
Mark Vincent	....	senior colorist
Jon Thompson	....	post-production consultant (uncredited)

Music Department
Simon Chamberlain	....	musician: piano
Alec Dankworth	....	musician: double bass
Isobel Griffiths	....	music contractor
Tom Leader	....	music engineer
Richard Paine	....	music supervisor
Ralph Salmins	....	musician: drums
Steve Parr	....	music recordist (uncredited)

Other crew
Isabel Begg	....	business affairs: BBC Films
Jonah Coombes	....	location manager
Will Davies	....	assistant: Stephen Evans, Renaissance Films
Sam Edmonds	....	floor runner
Sarah Jane Facer	....	legal services: Lee & Thompson
Jeremy Gawade	....	legal services: Lee & Thompson
Jane Hawley	....	production executive: BBC Films
Richard Juneman	....	production accountant
Stephen Kelly	....	floor runner
Steffy Marrion	....	production coordinator
Ben McAlister	....	caterer: Marquis Restaurant
Leila McAlister	....	caterer: Marquis Restaurant
Martin McGlone	....	laboratory contact
Liz Miller	....	public relations: McDonald & Rutter
Michaela Piper	....	head of marketing: Renaissance Films
Luke Redgrave	....	assistant to director
Roger Sampson	....	insurance: AON
Andrew Tapper	....	production runner
Gurdeep Ubhie	....	assistant accountant
Jane Wright	....	business affairs: BBC Films
Katie Bullock-Webster	....	assistant to producer (uncredited)
John Charles	....	software engineer: Sony DAC (uncredited)
Michael J. Harker	....	completion bond company representative (uncredited)
Sue Hills	....	script supervisor (uncredited)
Edward Randolph	....	runner (uncredited)

Thanks
Kate Buffery	....	thanks

Production Companies

• BBC Films
• Free Range Films
• Renaissance Films

Distributors

• Momentum Pictures (2003) (UK) (theatrical)
• Momentum Pictures (2004) (UK) (DVD)
• Bright Angel Distribution (2004) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Golden Village (2004) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Mongrel Media (Canada) (theatrical)
• Quality Films (2005) (Mexico) (theatrical)
• CDI Films (Argentina)
• Concorde Filmverleih (Germany)
• Hollywood Classic Entertainment (Czech Republic)
• Imagem Filmes (2005) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Lucky Red
• Odeon (Greece)
• Sony Pictures Classics (2004) (USA)
• Total Film Home Entertainment (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD) (VHS)
• UGC-Fox Distribution (UFD) (France)

Special Effects

• VTR (digital visual effects)

Other Companies

• AON  insurance
• ARRI Media  camera equipment provided by
• ARRI Media  film equipment
• Air-Edel Recording Studios  music recording studio
• BBC Occupational Health Centre  medical services
• British Museum  special thanks
• David Deane Associates  health and safety consulting
• Edit Hire Post Production Services  post-production facilities (as Edit Hire)
• Hot-House Music  special thanks
• IFG  completion guarantee
• Kodak  motion picture film
• Lee & Thompson  legal services
• Maquis Restaurant  catering
• McDonald and Rutter  public relations
• Soho Images  rushes telecine
• Take 2 Film  grip equipment
• Tate Gallery  special thanks (as Tate Modern)
• The London Eye  special thanks
• Tru-Cut  negative cutting
• V.F.G.  lighting equipment
• VTR  digital post-production
• Videosonics Cinema Sound  re-recording studio
• Wavevend Communications  communications equipment
• Yerbury School  thanks

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content including graphic images of sexuality, language and brief drug use.

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Mexico:C (cinema release) | Iceland:12 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Australia:MA | Canada:14A | Czech Republic:18 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Ireland:18 | Italy:VM14 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:R16 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:R21 | Spain:18 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R | South Korea:18

Filming Locations:

British Airways London Eye, South Bank, London, England, UK

Company:

BBC Films

Trivia:

Paula's son Jack is played by twins Carlo Kureishi and Sachin Kureishi. Their father is Hanif Kureishi, the screenwriter. They look and act so much a like that Nicolas Gaster had trouble telling them apart in the editing room.

Goofs:

Continuity: When May is telling Darren about her affair and just before she asks him to take her to bed, Darren does not have a carpenter's pencil in his ear. When we see him a few moments later, the pencil is over his ear.

Quotes:

May: Oh, Darren. This cigarette's making my chest all congested. I can't breathe.
Darren: What would happen if you did breathe?
May: I'd say, would you... would it be too much trouble... spare rooms... would you come to the spare rooms with me... would you...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Comedy Connections: Dinnerladies (#4.2)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Space Oddity

Painfully real

Of all the films I have seen this year (2004), none has affected me as deeply and personally as "The Mother", and on so many levels.

For one thing, watching May deal with the grief and loss and sudden disorientation of widowhood, I could not help wondering how my own mother will cope when the time comes, as it surely must, for her and indeed for all of us.

But, as May's story unfolded, it was my own sense of grief and loss and disorientation that I experienced anew. May and I share something in common: not widowhood, but age, or rather the loss of youth, and the invisibility and untouchability that come with age.

I could relate to May's need for passion, her need to be loved, her need, not so much for sex, but simply to be touched. But as we grow older, we are ironically shut out and shunted aside and denied the very thing our souls cry out for. (Note: There are some disturbing and shocking images of sexuality in "The Mother", but don't let them put you off and blind you to the real message of the film.)

May, at least, rediscovers another passion within -- to create art -- and so is able to live again. Not all of us are so fortunate. In this respect, I identify more with May's daughter Paula who, when love and passion fail and die, feels that her creative expression is no longer valid and worthwhile, and destroys her works in a fit of despair.

May is a woman in her late 60s; I am a gay man in my late 40s. Yet our stories are similar in so many ways. What May experiences in a matter of weeks, I have felt over the past decade. My passion has yet to be rediscovered.

It is no accident that "The Mother" was scripted by Hanif Kureishi, who gave us "My Beautiful Laundrette", a love story about two gay men in the flower of youth. "The Mother" is at the other end of the spectrum, a story about age and the denial of passion. To paraphrase the title of another Kureishi film, "The Mother" might aptly be titled "Sammy and Rosie Get Old".