Firelight
Tags: gothic, melodrama

Plot synopsis:
In 1837, Swiss governess Elisabeth Laurier (Sophie Marceau) agrees to bear a child for an anonymous English landowner in return for money needed to pay her father's debts. They meet over three nights at a lonely island hotel. Despite their wish for detachment, they develop a deeply passionate connection during their lovemaking by firelight. Their feelings grow after they converse on the beach and at the hotel. Nine months later (10th of August 1838), Elisabeth gives birth to a girl, and as agreed, she gives up the child to the care of the English landowner. Over the coming years, Elisabeth never forgets her child. She begins to keep a journal of watercoloured flowers and plants, adding a page for each holiday and birthday they are apart.
The anonymous Englishman is Charles Godwin (Stephen Dillane), a landowner and struggling sheep farmer, who can barely keep the debtors of his philandering father, Lord Clare, at bay. Charles's wife, Amy Godwin, is paralysed and catatonic due to a horseriding accident. Amy's sister, Constance (Lia Williams), runs the Godwin household.
Seven years after giving up her daughter, Elisabeth manages to locate her, and she gets herself hired as the new governess for the child, who is named Louisa. Initially, Charles rejects Elisabeth, and demands that she leave immediately. However, Constance insists that he should give the new governess a month to find a new situation. Showing Elisabeth the catatonic form of his wife, Charles forces Elisabeth to swear never to reveal to Louisa or anyone the nature of their previous relationship.
Louisa (Dominique Belcourt) is a spoiled, ignorant, wilful, and foulmouthed child—unloved by anyone except her father. Though she acknowledges the father's loving relationship with his daughter, Elisabeth is appalled by the lack of control Charles exercises over the girl. He refuses to use any forms of discipline in her upbringing. Unable to keep Louisa at her lessons, Elisabeth locks the child in the classroom. When he discovers this, Charles is furious and roughly manhandles Elisabeth in an effort to extract the key to the schoolroom. While Charles wants his daughter to enjoy life as much as she can, Elisabeth is determined to teach her daughter how to behave to be loved by others, and to be educated so she can determine her own path in the world. To convince Charles to support her approach, Elisabeth promises she will never harm the girl, and whatever she does to Louisa she will also do to herself.
Outside of class, Louisa spends all of her spare time in her lakehouse, a small belvedere on the estate in the middle of a pond, which can only be reached by boat. Here, Louisa pretends she has a mother. At first, Elisabeth watches clandestinely from the boat docks while Louisa is in the lakehouse. However, when she finds out that Charles swims naked there in the morning, she begins to go to watch Charles too, leaving before he can see her. In the classroom, Elisabeth paints picture cards to teach the seven-year-old how to read. She also tells Louisa a tale about the firelight:
It's a kind of magic. Firelight makes time stand still. When you put out the lamps and sit in the firelight's glow there aren't any rules any more. You can do what you want, say what you want, be what you want, and when the lamps are lit again, time starts again, and everything you said or did is forgotten. More than forgotten it never happened.
Elisabeth finds that this helps Louisa concentrate on her lessons, knowing there is a time at the end of the day when there are no rules.
Increasingly attracted to Elisabeth, Charles asks her to promise him that they can never be close like they once were. But Elisabeth doesn't answer. From that point, the two rekindled their flames, though the nature of their relationship must be a secret. Unbeknownst to the two, Louisa had already caught them. Charles even talks about the three of them leaving together, but Elisabeth says she knows it is impossible, as he has obligations to his estate, family, and wife. Charles suddenly announces that the entire estate is being appraised for sale, purportedly to cover his overwhelming debts. On a bitterly cold night, Charles consults his conscience as to whether his wife, Amy, would want him to release her from her catatonic prison of ten years. He opens the windows of her bedchamber, removes her covers, and allows the fire in her room to go out, leaving her to die of exposure. With Amy's death, her sister Constance expects to be Charles's choice as a new wife. However, she concedes a dignified defeat when she realises Charles's depth of feeling toward Elisabeth. Elisabeth confronts Charles and asks him if he killed Amy, which he admits. They both feel strong guilt, but no regret.
Soon after, Louisa looks through Elisabeth's room and discovers the illustrated journal dedicated to "My English Daughter". Louisa confronts her governess who confirms she is in fact her mother. After the sale of the Godwin's estate, Charles, Elisabeth, and Louisa leave on a snowy day to begin their new lives together as a family.

Review: The title led me to expect "Firelight" would be a "chick flick", yet the inclusion of the beautiful Sophie Marceau made viewing imperative.
I have to admit that I watched this the first time because of my admiration for the performances of Sophie Marceau.
The artistry of this movie is not evident the first time you watch it because you notice nothing but the actors' brown eyes and the blue cold rooms of the mansion.But watch it a few more times and you realize how balanced the story is, how themes of birth and death parallel heat and cold, love and hate.The script is simple because silence and secrecy drive the plot.
From a carefully crafted minimalistic script to superb acting by a few well cast and well directed principals to artful cinematography and lush scenic beauty, this little film is powerfully compelling.
In 1838, Charles Godwin (Stephen Dillane) is an English gentleman sheep farmer with a comatose wife who hires a Swiss woman to have his baby.
She needs the money to help her father, who's in prison.Godwin chooses three days to be with Elisabeth, presumably based on some sense of when she'll be fertile, and they meet at a resort hotel on the coast of England.
The scene fades from the image of the ivy growing outside the room where she gave birth to a watercolor painting of ivy, and then uses imagery from Elisabeth's painting/diary to keep track of her growing attachment for her daughter.When the story switches back to Godwin, we're introduced to his father and also to an American sheep farmer who eventually proposes to Elisabeth.
To my mind, the only performance that rivals Dillane's repressed but smoldering 19th century British-ness is Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.For Dillane's outstanding performance -- and all of the film's outstanding performances -- we have to thank William Nicholson's excellent writing and direction, along with the almost mystical cinematography of Nic Morris.
The accessible and yet subtle over-riding metaphor of firelight is carried throughout the film starting from the first moment when Godwin and Elisabeth are alone together.
The subtext about human relationships -- especially relationships between husband and wife, children and parents-- is also explored through the imagery of Elisabeth's desire to "shout," the boathouse in the lake, breeding sheep, the estate, the sister-in-law (another exquisitely convincing performance by Lia Williams), Godwin's father, Elisabeth's family history, etc.
Elisabeth shows up at Godwin's estate seven years after she gives birth to accept a position as governess to their daughter.
The scene were Godwin fights Elisabeth for the key to the schoolroom is incredible.The other aspect that resonates with me personally is what this film says about the plight of women in 19th century Europe and how the exceptional courage and intelligence of one woman who believes in herself can overcome the hardship of circumstances.
I love the scene where Elisabeth convinces her daughter that education is the only way out of spiritual prison for a woman.
I have always admired Sophie Marceau but she really goes beyond herself in this film, thanks to the exceptional script, direction, cinematography, costumes, and performances of her fellow actors.
A beautiful and accomplished actress rises to the occasion of portraying a beautiful and accomplished woman struggling to survive in exceptional circumstances.At first, we're confused about Elisabeth's appearance at Godwin's estate to become governess to his "adopted" daughter.
A wonderful photographed movie with a convincingly playing Sophie Marceau.
I originally watched this on Encore Indie and it touched me in a way only a few movies or stories ever do.
And watch it several times, the nuances that come out are amazing and also listen to the background talk, some interesting facts come out which help you understand the characters and stories even more.
My father actually sat and watched it, and trust me he's a ESPN guy, not romance movies.
He is what makes this story so wonderful.Because I am a big fan of British film, I wondered why I was not familiar with Stephen Dillane's name.
Sophie Marceau is so accomplished that together, some of their scenes unfold as a dance.This film is so delicate, with exquisite timing and phrases, that I can truly say it is as well-done as Campion's The Piano.
Sophie Marceau is a beautiful governess, who seven years prior was hired by a rich Englishman to conceive a baby because the man's own wife had been seriously injured but did not die after a riding accident.
Fantasy book author William Nicholson made his first and so far only effort at movie-direction with this 1997 English Gothic romance based on his own screenplay.
When the father, Charles Godwin, returns from London he is appalled at the mother of his child showing up again in his life as well as the rekindling of a romantic fire he has desperately tried to convince himself is long burnt out.
Themes of duty to family, maternal love, and desperate attempts to hold back passion are played out in perpetually foggy and snowswept landscapes and around fireplaces in the Godwin Victorian mansion.Performances by the actors are uniformly excellent.
Marceau and Stephen Dillane as Charles Godwin share a chemistry rarely captured on film; but also look for Dominique Belcourt as the daughter; Lia Williams as Godwin's long-suffering sister-in-law; Kevin Anderson as the visiting American who falls for Elizabeth; and veteran British actor Joss Ackland as Godwin's father whose self-indulgent hedonism dooms the family to ruin.
Nic Morris's cinematography of the English countryside and Marceu's exquisitely beautiful face lit by firelight is something to see, and Christopher Gunning's string-laden score is dramatic and over-the-top which it really should be.Although rife with gray and icy colors, painful family obligation, stark settings, heartbreak, euthanasia, held back emotions, and rigid social mores; the underlying theme of the Firelight is that true love conquers all.
For other titles, we accept time travel, real people living inside computer memory, oriental gentlemen waving scimitars who run up vertical walls and jump over tall buildings, and still enjoy the show.Sophie Marceau's acting was outstanding.
Great story, beautifully filmed; outstanding acting.
This was only the second movie I ever saw Sophie in and I love her in it!
The story is of a young woman who agrees to have a baby for a mystery man, only to find that she has to find him and the child she gave up, no matter the consequences.
Here, I found out that many people think the same.Searching the web, as I said, I also ran across the director's statement that I cite here:Inspired by Nicholson's fascination with 1940s movie love stories, Firelight is a film that awakens the romantic spirit in each of us.
For his film directorial debut, Nicholson wanted to create a boundless romantic story about lovers forced apart by outside forces.
I wanted to create a story about how love can redeem people, about how it can totally change their lives.
I wanted to create that tragic feeling you have when two people are perfect for each other, love each other, but yet cannot have one another." Nicholson set out to write a film in which the focus was on people and their emotions.
The story is about light, about winter, about coldness and empty rooms where the eye goes toward the one source of heat, the fire.To conceive a good film is one thing, but to make it, is altogether different, sometimes very hard.
It is a sweet and touching film of a mother who loves her daughter.
Beautiful cinematography, great cast, heart throbbing romance, steamy love scenes, A feast for the eyes and soul..
Sophie Marceau lights the screen in a romantic and eventually passionate love story in the Dickensian, Bronte, and Austen vernacular - the master and the governess.
Good for an evening love story - the love between a man, woman, parent, child - by firelight.(I'm editing this a bit years later.
But, because of my liking for Sophie Marceau and my love of "Jane Eyre", I rented it...and I loved it.This film takes a unique perspective, concentrating more upon the relationship between mother and daughter, rather than the romance between mother and father.
Though the story is an oft-told one, this is a film whose magic will grasp you, just as the mentioned firelight within.Sophie Marceau gives a wonderful performance as Elisabeth, combining her lovely face with the warmth of any mother towards her child.
Her performance had no artifice---she had no problem acting like the little brat, then slowly beginning to soften as she discovered what a life could be without hating everyone other than her father.The costumes were as good as any other recent period film and the sets were *gorgeous*, especially the famous "lake house".Therefore, despite a plot everyone knows, "Firelight" utterly charmed me and held me spellbound even after its conclusion..
It is not the kind of story that would usually appeal to me, but the movie is so beautifully filmed that it sustained my interest until "The End"..
And with gorgeous and curvaceous Sophie Marceau secretly loving and oft disrobed at the center of the story, every male with a pulse will be glued to the screen.
While a heart wrenching love story is at the core, the story is very well developed, not weighted too heavily one way or another.Firelight isn't 'Bullitt' with the famous San Francisco car chase scene that every male alive wishes he had done the stunt driving for; but still, it is a movie a woman just might get her guy to watch all the way through without falling asleep before the end.
The entire cast give strong performances--Stephen Dillane and Sophie Marceau make an appealing couple and, as their daughter, Dominique Bellacourt is a realistic brat.
This must happen to every male on the planet when he watches his first Sophie Marceau movie.
In this case it's a nicely-written, superbly-directed, well-acted flick about a governess (Sophie) who seeks the daughter she gave up for adoption 6 years previously.
But that's the way it is when you experience such a revelation as I have: I saw my first Sophie Marceau movie.
Character development here is so profound that I have a hard time seeing either of them as anyone else other than their unforgettable characters from this romantic, bittersweet love story.It's especially candlelit, filled with firelight, foggy, and dim...
I normally don't seek out movies like historical romance stories.
All the better - no expectation with an excellent return."Firelight" is a truly wonderful period romance - plenty of angst, passion, happiness and tragedy; not to mention a solid and convincing cast.
Only towards the end of the film did my husband and I feel that the story is a little rushed, but it never loses the feeling of quality film making that makes Firelight so wonderful..
Sophie Marceau gives a wonderfully complex performance as a fiercely proud, earthily beautiful but poor woman who must, for many years, submerge the fire of her passion in order to ultimately satisfy it..
Sophie Marceau was extraordinary, as she was also in Anna Karenina!Hollywood really needs to bring out more films like these.
The script is an original story of love and passion and the acting is superb but the cast is dominated with the marvelous Sophie Marceau.It is recommended viewing ...
Sure it was uplifting and even though the sensuous beauty of Sophie Marceau and the handsome Stephen Dillane were perfectly matched, this story was predicable almost from the opening line.
First, I loved it because I am such a sucker for love stories and Sophie Marceu and Stephen Dillane give superb performances...their love scenes steam up the screen...she is subtle and controlled and he is so sexy, despite his brooding character.
Beautifully filmed and acted, quiet movie..
A beautifully filmed and acted movie, with more of an emotional plot than a more conventional series of events.
Stephen Dillane and Sophie Marceau are a shining light in this and their character's love affair is so reminiscent of what it's like to meet your soul mate.
Stephen's portrayal of Charles Godwin is just so memorizing and plays a man who realizes that he has met his love in a peculiar way.
Sophie Marceau was great considering what she had to work with, other actors were decent to good.One reason people go to the theater to see movies is the "shared experience" -- today was a great example.
This is a rather boring yarn.Sophie Marceau is not much of a thespian,(in "Anna Karenine" she was  miscast)and she's totally unconvincing in her part of a surrogate mother.She's not helped by the plot which mixes  up elements of "Jane Eyre","Forever Amber","the innocents" "Waterloo Bridge" "Madame X" and others.The script is predictable,this could be forgivable if there were not this déjà vu feeling,and if there were something to arouse us from our sleep:lyricism,emotion ,madness...All we've got is a director filming gleefully an academic story as if he were in the fifties.Anyway Sirk,Preminger,et al,to match their brilliant skills,had a social awareness and their heroes had to fight against a hostile world.Here,Marceau's character is so self-confident and so would be intellectual that the movie becomes the  opposite of good melodrama: a tedious psychological drama..
sophie marceau is lovely to look at and the daughter louisa was not nearly as bratty as max from 'where the wild things are' - you don't feel like you're watching a ritalin advert.
When this story begins, Elisabeth (Sophie Marceau) agrees to a strange proposition.
She misses this child and wants to have some involvement in her life....so she is hired as a governess for her daughter being raised by Charles.
I love Sophie Marceau.
She agrees to enter into what might be viewed as an indecent proposal with Charles Godwin, a well to do English landowner, in having a sexual relation for the sole purpose of giving him a child his sick wife can't give him.
It's inevitable that Elisabeth will have an effect on Charles and that she will be able to tame the wild Louisa into accepting her.William Nicholson, who wrote and directed "Firelight", created a film of great beauty.
Christopher Gunning's musical score serves the movie well.Sophie Marceau, an actress of great beauty makes an impression as Elisabeth.
It's been such a long time since the last time I saw this movie 12 years ago to be exact, but the power of this movie is still strong and indeed unforgettable.Sophie Marceau is one of the good actress that can portrayed emotion into the character really well, especially for her English is not her 1st language but yet her character here as Ms. Laurrier a governess with a politeness and strong character really had shown well.
Her determination to be with her spoiled and lonely daughter is really enjoyable to watch, her passion to be with the a man that she loved all of time is really memorable, her strong character really helped a lot here.
Yes it is a happy ending movie that I like.I remember, the first time I watched this movie when I was in my junior high and I didn't really get the idea about love really well but when I watched this movie I could understand the feeling of each characters especially for their desires to be loved each other.
The happy ending also feels a bit awkward but that may be because one would normally expect a tragic solution.In short, 'Firelight' is a worthy film because of its visual and poetic beauty.
It is a love story but it tells of many other things **** minor spoilers here : education, the relationship between a father and his son, the bind created by physical intercourse ....
Stephen Dillane and Sophie Marceau where perfect in this movie.
Having read the other reviews here, I understand why many enjoyed the film -- it runs something like a potboiler romance story that one might read on a beach on a lazy afternoon.
To finish, I do not dislike this film -- though I would say it is not really a period piece in its themes, and it does have several plot points which are ludicrous (those are discussed in other reviews here; one is even rather funny -- the sister's request that Sophie love the gentleman for both of them).
I do not think I would have enjoyed it without Sophie Marceau, however (she solely keeps the film alive with her presence -- it would be nothing without her)..
More than forgotten it never happened." 1838 Elisabeth Laurier agrees to bear a child of an anonymous English landowner, and he will in return pay her father's debt, giving up at birth, as agreed, the child.
The following film moments are seven years of the mothers writing of her diary "To my English Daughter." Searching and finally having found her she applies for the advertised governess (the fourth in this year).
I want you to have your own life." The biological mother and her biological daughter take the hard way towards a relation of respect and trust both missed at birth according the deal.
Seven years of search that finally ended the 'fourth day' for the father and mother and their daughter.
As onre of the servants tell Charles, hearing his daughter scream: "Miss Louisa being educated." What happens when only the firelight gives light?
Call me a little old-fashioned but I found the plot of `Firelight' a little disturbing....*LARGE SPOILER* Charles Godwin engages a woman to have sex with her for cash and thereby father a child because apparently he requires an heir, something his comatose wife is physically incapable of.
Some years later, Sophie Marceau's  Elisabeth tracks down her child who she's consigned to a man seemingly bereft of morals.
It was okay as romances went, but I really want movies to be logical in some way and this plot hole really unnerved me while watching the film.