![]() Mary, on the other hand, feels out of place, and is jealous of Charlotte’s easy interactions with her townsfolk, something her callused hands and modest lifestyle had often precluded her from. When they go to a musical night at a friend’s house, Charlotte dresses for the occasion, and easily mingles with the elite classes of Lyme. There are several scenes in Ammonite which attest to the class differences in Charlotte and Mary’s developing intimacy. Mary, on the other hand, feels out of place, and is jealous of Charlotte’s easy interactions with her townsfolk. One cannot tell precisely what triggers her affection towards Mary, but one can suppose that she was touched by the way Mary nursed her back to health. Soon after, Charlotte recovers, and finds an unlikely friend in Mary. Mary does rise to the occasion, despite Molly reminding her that this should warrant more money from Charlotte’s husband. This suggestion is pregnant with the idea that women are naturally caregivers, and that Mary would make a good nurse, despite the fact that she engaged in hard physical labour on the daily while excavating fossils. Indignant, Charlotte goes for a swim in the sea and falls sick, and the doctor, obviously flirting with Mary, suggests that she take care of Charlotte while she recovers. Mary explains to Charlotte her pecuniary motivations for agreeing to help her. On the first day they go walking, Charlotte and Mary start off on the wrong foot. ![]() The intimacy in their companionship is palpable in Ammonite, but their lovemaking seems to be commercial, tailored for a male gaze. Mary is against the idea of having an apprentice, but once Roderick assures her that he is only looking for a walking partner for Charlotte and would pay handsomely, she reluctantly agrees, under the persistent eye of her mother. He enlists Mary’s help to assist Charlotte in the recovery, as he himself would soon be leaving on an European expedition. After Roderick strikes up an initial friendship with her, it is impressed upon the audience, in this case also Mary, that Charlotte is suffering from a case of “mild melancholia” and that the doctor had suggested a holiday by the sea. He is accompanied by his wife, Charlotte – a quiet, distracted woman, who is lightly rebuked by Mary for fiddling with the fossils in the shop. It is on one of the days that Mary is hard at work at the curio store that Roderick Murchison pays her a visit. We find out later in the story that each of those eight figurines signified each of the eight children that Molly lost during her lifetime.Īlso read: The Fetishisation Of Lesbian Relationships In Cinema And Pop Culture She lives with her mother, Molly (Gemma Jones) who has a set of tiny white porcelain figurines, which she cleans diligently at the end of every day. The curio store also holds other small tidbits, mirrors framed with cowries, for instance, which in Mary’s words were “cheap tourist fodder”, hinting at the fact that her profession didn’t pay well. She uses the nearby beach to find rocks, devising novel methods to extract them from their natural habitats, cleaning and cataloguing them. The film throws into relief the class and gender structures of the time, simultaneously threatening subversion when the patriarchs are not looking.Īmmonite revolves around Mary and the curio shop she has inherited from her father, who passed away when she was young. ![]() Mary is involved in excavating ammonites, a term given to fossils found in the Jurassic period, identifiable by the intricate suture lines cutting across them like a wheel. Ammonite tells the story of their companionship, which ironically seemed to have been catalysed by Charlotte’s husband, another geologist by the name of Roderick Murchison. It is based in Lyme, a small town in 1840s England. Ammonite (2020), directed by Francis Lee, is a fictional love story between two non-fictional characters – the famous British paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and lesser known British geologist Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan).
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