Leave All Fair
6.2 /10 1 Votes
Director John Reid Music director Stephen McCurdy Language English | 6/10 IMDb Genre Drama Duration | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 1985 Writer Jean Betts, Stanley Harper, Maurice Pons, John Reid Initial release October 1985 (New Zealand) Screenplay Maurice Pons, Stanley Harper, John Reid, Jean Betts Cast John Gielgud (John Middleton Murry), Jane Birkin (Marie Taylor, Katherine Mansfield), Féodor Atkine (Andre de Sarry), Simon Ward (young John), Louba Guertchikoff (Lisa), Maurice Chevit (Alain)Similar movies Sexual Chronicles of a French Family , Once Were Warriors , Desire , A View to a Kill , Blue Is the Warmest Color , The Piano Tagline All this Love and Joy, That Fights for an Outlet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leave All Fair is a 1985 New Zealand made film starring John Gielgud as John Middleton Murry the husband of Katherine Mansfield. He is presented as a sanctimonious exploiter of her memory, who ill-treated her during their association. Jane Birkin plays both Mansfield in flashbacks and the fictitious Marie Taylor who finds a letter from the dying Mansfield to Murry in his papers.
Contents
The theme was developed by New Zealand director Stanley Harper, but he was fired two weeks before shooting, and John Reid took over the project, introducing the "ghost" element and the two time frames. Shot in France at Moulin d'Ande and St Pierre du Vauvray with finance raised by Pacific Films, the film had to be finished before the 1984 cut-off date for New Zealand tax breaks.
Plot
The film is set in France in 1956, 33 years after the death of Mansfield and a year before Murry’s own death. Murry visits André de Sarry a (fictional) French publisher who is about to publish an edition of her collected letters and journals. Murry is presented as struggling with his conscience as he recalls the ill and alone Mansfield (seen in flashbacks), and decides to publish almost all of her work.
de Sarry’s New Zealand partner Marie Taylor reads Mansfield’s work and among Middleton Murry’s papers finds a letter to him from the dying Mansfield. She confronts him as "another exploitative male" who makes a sanctimonious speech at the book launch. The letter from Mansfield says (rather ambiguously):
Cast
Film reception
Helen Martin says the film is "beautifully shot in the European tradition" and was described at the London Film Festival as "arguably the best film to come out of New Zealand so far", but others criticised the portrayal of Middleton Murray as "simplifying the KM/Murry relationship into a cliché". Variety said it was "an affecting experience".
References
Leave All Fair WikipediaLeave All Fair IMDb Leave All Fair themoviedb.org