AVIVA-BERLIN.de im November 2024 - Beitrag vom 27.02.2012


The Iron Lady - by Phyllida Lloyd, starring Meryl Streep. German release: 1 March 2012. Verlosung
Jennifer Gallagher

"The Iron Lady", Margaret Thatcher´s nickname as a result of her policies as British prime minister, is the title of a new biopic that... AVIVA verlost 3 Soundtracks

... sets itself apart from many other biographical films because it tells the story of a woman who is still alive, and who, arguably, polarises opinions more than many other public figures.

Margaret Thatcher, was not only the longest-serving (1979-1990) British prime minister of the 20th century, she is also the only woman to have held the post. She is probably most famous for her uncompromising position regarding British trade unions, IRA hunger strikers, the Soviet Union and the Falklands War.

But despite all the political controversy surrounding Margaret Thatcher, "The Iron Lady" is not a political film. Director Phyllida Lloyd and writer Abi Morgan (having teamed up again since their collaboration on Mamma Mia!, which also starred Meryl Streep) decided to ignore Margaret Thatcher´s political resonance when making this film – a decision that might be very disappointing and unsatisfying even if you hate her or not.

The intention of this film is to portray a personality. This is made very clear in the first scene, when an elderly and dementia-gripped Margaret Thatcher, played by Meryl Streep, is shown in a grocery shop buying a bottle of milk, unable to cope with the fast-moving world outside her London home.

It is well-known that Margaret Thatcher actually despised feminism, having famously said: "The feminists hate me, don´t they? And I don´t blame them. For I hate feminism. It is poison." However, it is an interesting and ironic twist that throughout "The Iron Lady", Phyllida Lloyd and Abi Morgan have made the woman´s drama more important than the political drama of Thatcher´s life. For example, Thatcher´s transformation into a credibile candidate for prime minister is portrayed as a makeover: she has to learn to talk differently, do her hair differently and dress differently in order to suceed in the British parliament and later on the world stage. Just before the beginning of the Falklands War, when the Secretary of State questions her knowledge of war, Thatcher replies: "With all due respect, sir, I have done battle every single day of my life and many men have underestimated me before," a sentiment that many women can probably identify with.

"The Iron Lady" takes place over 48 hours, in the present. With her daughter Carol´s (Olivia Colman) help Thatcher starts to finally throw out the clothes of her husband Denis (Jim Broadbent), who has been dead for eight years. Suffering from dementia, Thatcher talks to her beloved Denis, whom she believes is still with her at home, making his usual jokes as a way of emotionally supporting her. As she struggles through a dinner party and a visit to a doctor, various things such a TV report on terrorism, a home movie, a Falklands War victory statuette trigger memories of the key events of her life, which we experience through Thatcher´s stream of consciousness, and documentary footage which isn´t meant to be viewed as "the truth" but rather through Thatcher´s eye´s as she remembers it as a woman who is seriously afflicted by dementia, and distressed by the loss of her husband.

Meryl Streep´s performance as Margaret Thatcher is compassionate, quiet, understated and arguably her best. At the time of writing, Streep has won both the "Best Actress" BAFTA award in London on 12 February, 2012 and the 2012 Golden Globe for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama", for her role as Margaret Thatcher. She has been also nominated for her third Oscar for the same role. At the Berlinale 2012, Streep was awarded the "Goldener Ehrenbär" (Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement).

AVIVA TIP: If you want to know more about the political events that unfurled when Thatcher was prime minister, "The Iron Lady" is not going to inform you about them. Instead be prepared to see a touching, feminist version of Shakespeare´s King Lear portraying how power slips away – politically, physically, intellectually and mentally – and what it is like to deal with life on your own, and old age.

AVIVA-Berlin verlost 3 Soundtracks. Bitte beantworten Sie dazu folgende Frage: Den wievielten Oscar insgesamt erhielt Meryl Streep für ihre Rolle der Margaret Thatcher und senden Ihre Antwort bis zum 31.03.2012 per Email an folgende Adresse: info@aviva-berlin.de

The Iron Lady
GB 2012
Director: Phyllida Lloyd

Original screenplay: Abi Morgan
Main cast: Meryl Streep, Jim Boadsbent, Olivia Coleman, Harry Lloyd, Iain Glen, Susan Brown, Alice da Cunha, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alexandra Roach.
Original music: Thomas Newman
Cinematography: Elliot Davis
Editing: Justine Wright

Production companies: Film4, UK Film Council, Canal+, CinéCinéma, and Goldcrest Pictures (as Goldcrest Film Production LLC) and Pathé

Concorde Filmverleih (Germany)

Film release date: 1 March 2012




For more information look at:


www.eisernelady-derfilm.de

www.youtube.com

www.youtube.com

www.youtube.com

www.imdb.com

www.biography.com