Costume designer Myers said, “She’d been in a cage-which is what I wanted the earlier clothes to feel like-and then she gets to Italy and finds out life isn’t like that.
Now obviously this is before hoopskirts (which came into fashion in the late 1850s), but I this outfit (below) felt almost late 1870s in silhouette - the hat doesn’t help. There, Effie learns about fun and blossoms a bit: When I saw photos of this before the movie, I was questioning the longish lace sleeves - but it really worked for me, both for being dramatic and for showing Effie’s darkening world - in the film:Įffie can’t find her place in Ruskin’s life (she tries to help him with his work, he tells her she’s in the way she tries to help his mother with the household, she rebuffs him), but luckily the two go to Venice. She wears this to a fancy dinner out with her husband (who ignores her) and various Pre-Raphaelites who discuss Important Things. Things start to change as the reality of her marriage and new life sink in. She mixes overly concerned and doting mother with territorial shrew without going overboard on either side.įinally, Tom Sturridge as John Everett Millais managed to be both pretty and intelligent, which is a nice combination and what was needed for the role.Īlmost sickly sweet for her first official event out with Ruskin. Julie Walters was also great as Ruskin’s mother (a large part of his problems, according to this film). Sadly, he wasn’t as foxy as usual with those mid-Victorian sideburns - totally historically accurate, totally not my cup of tea. I wished we could have learned more about what fucked-up psychological issues he had, and I hope the real Ruskin suffered severely in real life, but of course that’s the point - he’s totally closed off to Effie, and it shows. Greg Wise gave a great performance as John Ruskin. And I was very thankful that she had a strong handle on an English accent.įanning pretty much makes the movie, but the supporting cast is quite good as well. But she still manages to bring a lot of emotional nuance to this portion, and you can see that she hasn’t lost her spirit underneath her closed exterior.
CAST OF EFFIE GRAY MOVIE
As Ruskin gets more and more asshole-ish as the movie progresses, she spends a decent amount of time being silent and withdrawn. Effie Gray‘s Actors and Storyīetween this and The Runaways (2010), Dakota Fanning has proved herself to be a very talented actress. But because it focuses on the most interesting character in the story - Effie herself - it manages to not be the dour, depressing Patriarchy-Fest that I was worried it would be. I’m here to tell you, that despite said pubic hair trauma, and overbearing parents, and fucked-up husbands who need to reconsider their sideburns, this was a really great movie! No, it’s not a happy fiesta of shagging. But when I put together my round-up of possible Oscar contenders, I decided to get off my duff and watch it - preparing myself for the possibility of a dry, depressing look at the mid-Victorian era. I mean, I created the tag “ pubic hair trauma” just for my preview! And then I heard that there was some kind of legal battle (apparently some people claimed that Emma Thompson plagiarized their Effie Gray biopic scripts - Thompson was cleared in court), and then Thompson refused to promote the film because of this, and then it fell off my radar. We’ll probably never know the real reason, but the most fascinating is probably the theory put forth by Mary Lutyens: That Ruskin, being so accustomed to the sleek female forms in classical paintings and sculptures, had no idea that women had pubic hair, and was horrified to find it on Effie’s body.Effie Gray was released in the UK in late 2014, and I was initially excited about: it tells the story of Pre-Raphaelite art critic John Ruskin and his marriage to a much younger woman who he never shagged and who consequently divorced him.
Historians have interpreted Ruskin’s revulsion along different lines-perhaps she had body odor, or was menstruating on their wedding night. She wrote about the exchange in a letter:įinally this last year he told me his true reason (and this to me is as villainous as all the rest), that he had imagined women were quite different to what he saw I was, and that the reason he did not make me his Wife is that he was disgusted with my person the first evening. Frustrated, she pressed her husband to tell her the truth, and finally he explained. But six years later, Effie was still a virgin. Ruskin was reluctant to consummate the marriage at first, telling his young bride that she was not ready for childbirth and that having a baby would inhibit their travel plans.
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