Francis Lee’s Ammonite to close the 64th BFI… | Little White Lies

Festivals

Fran­cis Lee’s Ammonite to close the 64th BFI Lon­don Film Festival

26 Aug 2020

Words by Lillian Crawford

Portrait of a woman with dark hair wearing a checked shirt, standing in a sheltered environment with shelves in the background.
Portrait of a woman with dark hair wearing a checked shirt, standing in a sheltered environment with shelves in the background.
The British writer/director’s les­bian romance will cap off this year’s LFF on 17 October.

If you love a good peri­od les­bian romance (who doesn’t?), the BFI Lon­don Film Fes­ti­val has a hot­ly-antic­i­pat­ed treat for you. Fol­low­ing Monday’s announce­ment that Steve McQueen’s dra­ma Man­grove will open the fes­ti­val, we’re incred­i­bly excit­ed to reveal it will close with Fran­cis Lee’s Ammonite.

His sec­ond fea­ture fol­low­ing mud­dy gay dra­ma, God’s Own Coun­try, Lee’s fol­low-up ramps up the bud­get and turns back the clock to palaeon­tol­ogy in 1840s Lyme Reg­is. Tit­il­lat­ing stuff. The film is led by Kate Winslet as palaeon­tol­o­gist Mary Anning and Saoirse Ronan as the younger Char­lotte, who is suf­fer­ing what her hus­band describes as ​‘melan­cho­lia’.

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In some ways it seems like clas­sic art-house awards bait, fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of Moon­light and Por­trait of a Lady on Fire in its homo­erot­ic coastal nar­ra­tive. But in Lee’s capa­ble hands and with the crème de la crème of British act­ing tal­ent at the helm, it’s bound to be one of the year’s fresh­est features.

Ammonite also hopes to bring to light Anning’s con­tri­bu­tion to the study of fos­sils, unap­pre­ci­at­ed in her own life­time but posthu­mous­ly recog­nised by the Roy­al Soci­ety as one of the most influ­en­tial women in British sci­en­tif­ic his­to­ry. As with God’s Own Coun­try, Lee seems com­mit­ted to bring­ing the side-lined into the spotlight.

While Ammonite was select­ed for Cannes 2020, only to be can­celled due to COVID-19, it’s great that we’ll get to see this film at the BFI South­bank and in cin­e­mas across the UK on Sat­ur­day 17 Octo­ber ahead of gen­er­al release in 2021.

With the LFF’s full 12-day pro­gramme still to be announced on Tues­day 8 Sep­tem­ber, who knows what oth­er trea­sures the BFI has for us to discover.

For more info on this year’s LFF head to bfi​.org​.uk/lff

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