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Swept from the sea - Vincent Perez, Rachel Weisz, Ian McKellen, Beeban Kidron
Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
In the heart of an outcast he found his destiny. In the passion of an outsider she found her home.
To the world, Amy Foster (Rachel Weisz) is a girl who never smiles, but beneath her passive exterior, there is hidden passion. Amy is a pagan spirit, a collector of gifts from the sea. Her world is irrevocably changed when the sea delivers to her the most beautiful and most impossible gift of all. Yanko Gooral (Vincent Perez) is a passionate adventurer who has left his Ukrainian homeland in search of the new world, America. When Yanko is washed overboard by a murderous tempest he finds himself a stranger in a hostile land. When he crosses the threshold into Amy's world, however, they form a bond too powerful to be broken by the hate and suspicion that the ignorant masses of Cornwall, England, rain down on them.
Based on the powerful short story by Joseph Conrad, Swept from the sea tells a passionate and vital story about the transformative power of love and the resilience of the human heart.
Persons of interest
- Vincent Perez .... Yanko Gooral
- Rachel Weisz .... Amy Foster
- Ian McKellen .... Dr James Kennedy
- Joss Ackland .... Mr Swaffer
- Kathy Bates .... Miss Swaffer
- Tom Bell .... Isaac Foster
- Zoë Wanamaker .... Mary Foster
- Tony Haygarth .... Mr Smith
- Fiona Victory .... Mrs Smith
- William Scott-Masson .... Mr Wilcox
- Eve Matheson .... Mrs Wilcox
- Dave Hill .... Jack Vincent
- Roger Ashton-Griffiths .... Canon Van Stone
- Matthew Scurfield .... Thackery
- Margery Withers .... Widow Cree
- Janine Duvitski .... Mrs Finn
- Willie Ross .... Preble
- Janet Henfrey .... Mrs Rigby
- Joseph Conrad .... Author: Amy Foster
- Tim Willocks .... Screenwriter
- Beeban Kidron .... Director
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
I was rather dubious about attending the preview for Swept from the sea, as I'd seen one of those terrible trailers that make a film seem like every other period romantic drama ever made. And when I got to the cinema, the average age of the audience was somewhere around 300. There were also a lot of chicks, probably 3 of them to each one of us (blokes).
But once the lights went down I could ignore these statistics, apart form the old couple who kept making idiotic comments like, "Oh, look, it's raining!"
And so I began to enjoy the film.
It's marvelously well-written (especially for being an adaptation from a 30-page story), brilliantly acted, majestically located, beautifully shot, wonderfully realised. The story really does sweep you away with its intimacy, its violence, its drama, and its power. There are some glaring faults, such as lighting continuity, water that glows in the dark and being able to have sex in the less-than-tepid waters of the North Atlantic, but most people wouldn't even notice these things. There were a fair few tissues in use when the lights came back up (not by me, though, as I was too thoroughly medicated), so it obviously has a strong emotional effect.
Swept from the sea is worth the price of admission if you're into this sort of film, but I recommend that you see it with a close friend and a box of tissues.
Security censorship classification
M (Medium level sex scene, adult themes)
Surveillance time
113 minutes (1:53 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
Film: 7 May 1998
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