But the site does quote Kidman at length about how she was particularly drawn to the film because of the relationship between Woolf and her husband Leonard, how she “was fascinated by her love for Leonard and his love for her and what they gave one another. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Written by people who wish to remain anonymous. Box office. A piece of her is gone that can never return. eval(ez_write_tag([[468,60],'afterellen_com-medrectangle-3','ezslot_3',116,'0','0']));If someone had told me even a few years ago that Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Allison Janney and Julianne Moore would all play lesbian or bisexual women in a movie that would generate rave critical reviews and be the frontrunner for the Oscars…I’d have asked if them if they wanted an extra pipe with that crack. Read the Study Guide for The Hours (Film)…, Suppression and Insight: Comparative Analysis of Mrs Dalloway and The Hours, The Details of The Minutes of The Hours: How Mise-en-Scene Creates Narrative Connections, View Wikipedia Entries for The Hours (Film)…. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Hours (Film), directed by Stephen Daldry. But in the end, few in the gay community are likely to argue that it is not a positive event when a film that deals so openly and sensitively with issues of lesbianism and bisexuality garners so much praise and visibility in Hollywood–as evidenced by the fact that The Hours made GLAAD’s list of this year’s Media Awards for best film, which is bestowed annually upon movies that provide “fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect our lives.”, To many, just the fact that the movie explores these issues so sensitively, and with such a high-profile cast, gives a rare de facto legitimization to lesbianism and bisexuality that overrides any negative aspects of the movie, especially since overall, the film clearly comes down on the side of promoting understanding and tolerance. The Hours (Film) study guide contains a biography of director Stephen Daldry, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep play the main characters. Three suicide attempts, two successful. Dalloway” in 1923 England; Laura (Moore), a suicidal housewife and mother in 1951 Los Angeles whose repressed sexuality manifests itself one day in impulsively kissing her female neighbor (played by Toni Collette); and Clarissa (Streep), a New York literary editor in 2001 who lives with her female partner (played by Allison Janney) and her daughter (played by Claire Danes), but is secretly in love with her ex-lover who is dying of AIDS (played by Ed Harris).eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'afterellen_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_4',115,'0','0'])); The Hours has already earned seven Golden Globe nominations, including best motion picture, best director, best screenplay, best actress (for Kidman and Streep), best supporting actor (for Ed Harris), and best musical score, and is likely to garner several Oscar nominations as well. The film opens with Woolf”s suicide and, although it can only go up from there, each of the stories is, as the Hollywood Reporter describes it,”haunted with the specter of suicide.”The characters are reportedly very realistic and multi-faceted, but the thread of despair and depression that connects each woman’s story is reminiscent of the days in which lesbians were commonly portrayed as sick or mentally imbalanced. In the end, however, Richard kills himself by jumping out of the window. This page was last changed on 14 February 2017, at 14:52. It’s an easy conclusion to draw if mainstream films are the only exposure you have to the lives of lesbian and bisexual women–which sadly still applies to many Americans. Woolf is very fascinated when her niece Angelica finds a dead bird. The first is bipolar novelist Virginia Woolf (Kidman) trying to write the novel Mrs Dalloway in Richmond, Surrey in 1923. The Hours is a 2002 Anglo - American drama movie. It was picked for nine Academy Awards and won one, Best Actress for Kidman. Thus, the psychological gesture of holding the womb by characters in the film is representative of the deep loss that is occurring within them. The third is Clarissa Vaughan, who lives in New York City in 2001 and tends to a gay poet named Richard. In Sussex in 1941, the novelist Virginia Woolf fills the pockets of her coat with rocks and walks into a river to drown. He often calls her "Mrs. D" or "Mrs. Dalloway" in reference to the novel. While the individual may be seeking the freedom of pain, there are those they leave behind to deal with the pieces of their choice. Moreover, it portrays, perhaps inadvertently, English novelist Virginia Woolf’s words as a cultural virus passing her mental misery and bisexuality from writer to reader, then from mother to son, and finally from boyfriend to girlfriend.”. The Hours is a 2002 Anglo-American drama movie. She’s not a person who’s even present in her life. Yes, of course it is, but….in the context of so few mainstream films with lesbian or bisexual characters, The Hours may raise everyone’s consciousness and still leave the average viewer with the strong impression that homosexuality and bisexuality lead to depression, suicide, and constant struggle. The story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives. From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Hours_(movie)&oldid=5601739, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep play the main characters. The film begins with British writer Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) putting stones inside her pockets before drowning herself (in real life, she walked in to the River Ouse on 28th March 1941). Laura then represents the woman Mrs. Dalloway's desire to live no more, but instead leaves her family without notice. Three women, three times, three places. Her deep unhappiness is the state of her being.” According to Meryl Streep, her character Clarissa has more options and gets to be “more emotional” than the other two women because of the time period in which she lives, according to Streep, but she’s still a lesbian in love with a man–hardly a happy scenario even in contrast to the other two women’s more distressing situations. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Anonymous "The Hours (Film) Study Guide: Analysis". AFTERELLEN.COM IS A PROPERTY OF LESBIAN NATION, LLC. Julianne Moore has described her character Laura as “almost underwater. It is a hard question to answer, since the film does appear to thoughtfully explore issues of sexuality and oppression and to raise important questions about the cost of repressing one’s sexuality. The movie is about three women living in different times. The Hours (Film) essays are academic essays for citation. There is an instinct that something is being lost, a knowing that whatever it is that has fractured inside of them can either be healed or allowed to fester with the hours that pass -- the hours of life that one can choose to live or die based on the experiences of one's life. All linked in a way by a novel. Laura's horror is that she abandoned her child, leaving him with an emptiness only she as a mother could have filled. After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. Finally, she tries to go to the train station and tells her husband Leonard that she would rather go back to the city than live in the countryside. [1] In the early morning of March 28, 1941, Woolf loaded her pockets with stones and calmly walked into the River Ouse near her Sussex home until she was completely submerged. Her hand shakes and she cannot write well. Where to Stream Scary Lesbian Stories All October Long, Atypical Isn’t The Lesbian Representation You’d Think, Ratched: The Power of Reclaiming An Iconic Female Villain, Raising Dion’s Lesbian Representation is Anything but Super, Sad Sex, Sailor Hats, and Silly Phrases: "Earthlings" Points to Ponder. GradeSaver, 9 March 2019 Web. will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. Director Stephen Daldry maintains that one of his motivations for making the film was to highlight the everyday heroism of women, since “often the heroics in women’s lives are underestimated, or put into the background by the heroics in the lives of men. It also doesn’t help that the writers/director chose to resurrect the tired old lesbian-incest link by having Kidman’s character kiss her sister (played by Miranda Richardson) in a non-sisterly way. The Hours follows three women through one day in their lives. Setting What's Up With the Epigraph? Vaughn is hosting a party for Richard to celebrate something. The movie begins with her suicide where she fills her pockets full of rocks and drowns herself in the river Ouse in Sussex. The second is Laura Brown, a housewife in California in 1951 who is reading the novel. The Hours–debuting in limited release on December 17th and in theaters nationwide on January 10th–is a movie based on Michael Cunningham‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, which follows a day in the life of three women in different time periods: Virginia Woolf (Kidman), in the middle of writing “Mrs. She starts reading the book and then we see what it is through her mind – she suddenly imagines that there is a lot of water coming up, like she is drowning. Finally, she takes her son Richie and leaves him at a babysitter and rents a hotel room. This theme is seen in The Hours as Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway is used to structure the drama in the film across three different time periods: Woolf's from the 1920s-1941, Laura Brown's in the 1950s to present day, and Clarissa Vaughn's in the present day. I think she felt tremendous gratitude to her husband for being so tolerant of her.” And the site also devotes considerable space to the explanation that “one of the most moving aspects of Laura’s story for Moore is the complicated relationship she had with her son, one that had an affecting resonance for the actress because she herself has two young children.”. Previous Next . It is based on Michael Cunningham 's novel The Hours. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) lives in 1951 in a wealthy Los Angeles suburb. It was picked for nine Academy Awards and won one, Best Actress for Kidman. But will the image of Streep and Janney in bed together be strong enough to overcome the lingering impression of a parade of unhappy lesbian and bisexual women in The Hours? Clarissa, Laura, even Louis and Clarissa's daughter must deal with the horror. She spends a lot of time preparing food and decorations for the party.