When he discovered that Murchison, a notable researcher herself, spent time with Anning, his imagination took flight. In his research, Lee found no specific mention of Anning having romantic relationships with men but did discover references to strong, deep friendships with women. “I wanted to look at her and look at a snapshot of her life, something that would tell us everything else about her life without telling her story from when she was born to when she died.” “I knew I never wanted to write a biopic,” said Lee. It is when the two women are alone together that their relationship blooms. In the film, Murchison is left by her husband in Anning’s care in the hope that Murchison can get over the intense grief she feels over losing a child. It was while working there that he wrote the script for “God’s Own Country,” which would win Lee a director prize at Sundance, earn a BAFTA nomination and win multiple prizes at the British Independent Film Awards, including best film.ĭrawn to Anning’s story as his next project, Lee nevertheless set out to explore her life in an unconventional way. (Actor Alec Secareanu has a role in “Ammonite,” while Josh O’Connor can be seen as Prince Charles on “The Crown.”) Lee had long wanted to write and direct but didn’t see a path into the film industry for someone with his background.Īfter training and working for a time as an actor, he returned to the north and took a job as a manual laborer in a junkyard. Lee made his debut with 2017’s “ God’s Own Country,” a romance between two men on a farm in Yorkshire, the region in northern England where Lee is from. “There was something in Mary’s story, a working-class woman trying to make her way,” said Lee, “but what she was really, really good at and really skilled at, she couldn’t get up the ladder in terms of her gender and her background. When Lee learned of Anning’s story, how she worked in relative obscurity on the hardscrabble southern coast of England, he felt a deep and personal connection to her. Now a series of rooms are named for her in London’s esteemed Natural History Museum, which houses some of her most remarkable discoveries, key to our early understanding of the prehistoric world. It eventually did first play to virtual audiences as part of the Toronto International Film Festival and then as part of the London Film Festival.Īnning lived from 1799-1847 and was largely unrecognized in her lifetime, with others often taking credit for fossils she had uncovered. The film was to premiere at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, which was canceled because of the pandemic and then the Telluride Film Festival, also canceled. 13 by Neon, the company still riding high off its best picture Oscar win for “Parasite,” the movie is now available on premium VOD. It sparked controversy and conversation even before a frame of footage had been shot when it was first announced in 2019 that Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan would be starring in a 19th century romantic drama about real-life paleontologist Mary Anning and geologist Charlotte Murchison. “Ammonite,” written and directed by Francis Lee, was one of the most anticipated films on this year’s festival circuit.
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