Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Saoirse Ronan's new film is about sex, the sixties, and a doomed marriage

We talked to the director of Saoirse Ronan’s new film, On Chesil Beach.

IT’S TEMPTING TO look back at the past and think that, despite its flaws, things were better back then.

When it comes to the sixties in particular, nostalgia means we can think it was a time of counter-culture action, hippies, and rebellion. But in the early 1960s, things weren’t so free and easy, particularly in some sections of British society.

That era of sexual restraint is explored in the new film On Chesil Beach, which is based on the book written by Ian McEwan. Its director is longtime theatre director Dominic Cooke, and it’s his first feature film release.

Starring our own Saoirse Ronan, the film is a look at the impact of a sexually repressed society on a young couple – in particular the young woman. In McEwan’s book, which was published in 2007, a young couple are in love and on their honeymoon.

Though they share a connection, they are inexperienced sexually and emotionally. And by dint of bad luck, they’re living in 1962, just before British culture was rocked by the Pill, the Beatles, hippies and feminism. That they can’t talk about their relationship and sex ends up affecting them in profound ways.

Ronan told Ryan Tubridy on RTÉ that filming the sex scenes was difficult: “Doing the sex scenes on the bed, we did those over like a week or something. It was like, over and over because it’s so long because there’s the bit beforehand where we’re having dinner and you know, neither of us know what to say and both of us are just thinking of that next step and what we have to do next and what’s expected of us – and of course he’s very, very excited about it and she’s dreading it but they don’t talk about it.”

As Steve Rose writes in The Guardian:

We have seen their condition many times before: it’s called Englishness. It begins with a stiffness of the upper lip but soon extends to the entire host organism.

‘Saoirse was amazing’

STILL-05

Cooke tells TheJournal.ie he knew he wanted Saoirse star in the film having seen her in Brooklyn – “I thought she was amazing” – and thinking she was perfect to play the role of Florence, opposite Billy Howle as Edward. “It was such a rich and unusual story,” he says. “I loved the treatment of the period. It was painfully honest.”

The story is set in 1962. “It’s a very specific time and place when young people weren’t expected to determine their own lives and yet a few years later they would have been allowed to,” explains Cooke, saying that as such the story brings up the question of what we bring from previous generations to our own lives.

He sees the story as being about two generations of history, and the impact of the two World Wars on these generations. Edward and Florence ostensibly have it all – they’re university graduates, she is a talented musician and he is intelligent, with promise. They’re both of different class: she is more upper class than him. They both have had upbringings that were difficult (her parents were strict, his mother suffered a brain injury). During their honeymoon at Chesil Beach in Dorset, all of these things combine to disrupt their happy time together.

“When things are stacked up in a certain way it’s not that tragedy is inevitable, but it’s more likely to happen,” says Cooke. “[When] people are repressed and living inauthentic lives, it’s more likely something bad is going to happen. They’re discouraged from trusting their instincts and owning their feelings and trying to understand themselves and trying to understand each other.”

Things are different now, he says: “At least as society now we try and discuss… we are more aware of the idea of how shaped we are as circumstances by what happens to us.”

Saoirse’s character “has been [gender] conditioned not to have a say in anything, not be told or taught anything” says Cooke. “At least he is in the bar talking about sex with his mates. She is given no instruction not only about sex but intimacy and relationships. Both have learnt from very dysfunctional families, which are very gendered.”

There’s no question that part of the tragedy of this story is that these people would have had a different conversation if they had been born a few years later.

Cultural revolution

STILL-04 Saoirse Ronan (left)

The 1960s was a time of cultural revolution. “The Pill, the Beatles; everything that happened at that point would have opened up a space for a different kind of conversation and of course for these kids they are caught at the wrong moment,” says Cooke of Florence and Edward.

Notably, the film was also made during a period of huge change in the modern-day world. Both Trump’s election and Brexit happened during shooting. “The feeling is very subtle but it is a very political film. It’s saying ‘let’s not imagine that the past is better than the present it really is not. Those changes that happened in the mid 60s, they happened for a good reason. They happened because people needed freedom to be themselves,” says Cooke.

“A lot of what’s happened with American and British politics is about fear of the future. The film is saying no, the response to that is not to turn back. It wasn’t as great.”

Cooke has long been interested in exploring social issues through art. “People are looking to artists and storytellers to understand the world we were living in,” he says. “Whatever the artform is can have very big effect on the way people perceive the world.”

He decided to work on his first feature film as he approached the age of 50. “I love working in theatre, I feel like I partly wanted a new challenge. I wanted to do something; I didn’t know what to do. It is important as an artist to not settle and not stay in familiar territory.”

He says that some of his decision came down to how ephemeral theatre work is, “a lifetime of making work that goes up in a puff of smoke”. With On Chesil Beach, the characters’ experiences will linger on your mind long after you leave the cinema.

On Chesil Beach is in cinemas this week.

Close
21 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cheeky Charlie
    Favourite Cheeky Charlie
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 7:23 AM

    It will take centuries to undo the mess left after the British Empire … as well we know

    122
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute De20
    Favourite De20
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 8:49 AM

    It’s a bit of a stretch to Jammu and Kashmir chose to join India. The Maharajah decided to join India, the population had no choice in the matter

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute thephantomshit
    Favourite thephantomshit
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 10:10 AM

    @De20: lots of counties do things because their leaders decide to. Referendums are actually very unusual. Even when they occur it isn’t very clear what the population decided to do.
    And even dictators often (not always) do what the “population” wants. They tend to get overthrown otherwise.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cormac Ó Braonáin
    Favourite Cormac Ó Braonáin
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 9:43 AM

    ‘Jammu and Kashmir chose to join India over Pakistan’

    Wow, what a claim! Makes it all the more cringe worthy to see that it’s coming from an Irishman. Mr McCrave must believe Ireland chose to join England in personal union in 1542 and the UK in 1801.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute thephantomshit
    Favourite thephantomshit
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 10:11 AM

    @Cormac Ó Braonáin: Pakistan supported militants invaded kashmir so they opted to join India.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute jackbello
    Favourite jackbello
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 10:13 AM

    @Cormac Ó Braonáin: “”"”liberation”"”"” of the region from the British ????
    Slighted loaded , perhaps negative description ?

    How about something less perjorative /negative ?- liberation would suggest the British had somehow enslaved the princely state which patently it had not .

    In any case , what’s worse ? To be ruled by some local maharaja fabulously rich at the expense of the ruled , a prince with unlimited power , or be ensconced in the civilising embrace of the British empire???? The absolute power of a prince -but tempered with the guidance and restraint of London , for your average subject that was hardly seemed a bad deal…

    When it came to independence in 1947 the last maharaja was sad to see the British go – to then be forced to chose between India or Pakistan must have been awful.

    12
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cormac Ó Braonáin
    Favourite Cormac Ó Braonáin
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 11:21 AM

    @thephantomshit:’they opted to join India’? did ‘they’ now? Maybe you can tell me when this vote took place.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thomas Devlin
    Favourite Thomas Devlin
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 2:53 PM

    @jackbello: the civilizing British?as in Bloody Sunday?the many massacres of civilians in India the Irish famine,Cromwell,the paras,the glennane gang I could go on and on but I’d rather stay uncivilized thank you

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Amod Gokhale
    Favourite Amod Gokhale
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 2:57 PM

    @Cormac Ó Braonáin: When did NI vote to join UK ? or for that matter when did Germany vote to end World War II. You will be surprised to know that till 1950s,many countries were ruled by kings and kings took the decision for the local populace.
    In case of Kashmir, King decided to join neither India or Pakistan when asked in 1947 after British left.
    But Pakistan became impatient and attacked a sovereign state of Kashmir which meant the king had to decide. Either surrender or join India to allow India to sent defence forces. He chose to join India.
    That’s how ‘they’ opted for India

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ashish Uday Lal
    Favourite Ashish Uday Lal
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 3:17 PM

    @jackbello: Yes, liberated from the occupying British who entered a country producing 25% of the worlds GDP and left with a country producing 3%. Plundered resources, added value and sold them exclusively back at extortionate rates. Millions killed in famine like the Bengal famine. Oh well they got the railways and ‘civilisation’…rule Britannia and all that old chum…

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tim Pot
    Favourite Tim Pot
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 11:48 AM

    not much of an international response which has been strange.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Amod Gokhale
    Favourite Amod Gokhale
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 3:00 PM

    @Tim Pot: I didn’t see any international response when NI assembly was dissolved either. It was an internal matter for UK. Similarly this is an internal matter for India. India is not changing the demographic in any way, shape or form.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ashish Uday Lal
    Favourite Ashish Uday Lal
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 3:11 PM

    @Amod Gokhale: An internal matter where the President in a highly questionable move passed a law in the middle of the night while putting the Kashmiri parliament under house arrest, shutting down the internet, and putting the entire population under curfew. Not particularly democratic of the world’s largest democracy and most certainly questionable by the outside.

    8
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Amod Gokhale
    Favourite Amod Gokhale
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 8:26 PM

    @Ashish Uday Lal: There was no parliament in Kashmir for over a year. It was dissolved as the ruling coalition broke up and no party formed majority.
    The handful of leaders who are supposed to be jailed have been periodically tweeting and talking to reporters in total Internet blackout and under arrest. How is that??
    There were months of large scale demostrations and stone pelting when a militant died about 2yrs. Its only natural for federal govt to take drastic measures before aborating 370 when main local parties had warned of death and destruction if it happens.
    There is an important Muslim festival next week. Let’s see if there is a let up in lock down or not.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Amod Gokhale
    Favourite Amod Gokhale
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 2:45 PM

    “while the latter territory, with a sizeable Muslim population will not”. Are you kidding me ? Ladakh (the latter in the sentence) is predominantly Buddhist. Infact they were above 90% Buddhist in 1970s when muslims from Kasmir started to settle there.
    Historically (last seven decades) the Buddhist and Muslims in Ladakh were demanding separation from Kashmir anyway.
    This current decision to split is old demand met by federal government.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ashish Uday Lal
    Favourite Ashish Uday Lal
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 4:02 PM

    @Amod Gokhale: So in a democracy someone ‘demands’ something and the federal government does it? Where’s the debate, the vote? What evidence do you have of large scale Kashmiri migration to Ladakh? It would be difficult to find as there is none.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Amod Gokhale
    Favourite Amod Gokhale
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 8:11 PM

    @Ashish Uday Lal: Well actually, yes. In democracy the govt heeds demand of Common population and reacts accordingly. Ladakh currently is ruled by two hill councils and both passed resolutions demanding UT status. The current curfew status is not valid in Leh and Kargil. On Monday, there were pictures in many Indian news channels about normalcy in Ladakh. About 4-5 yrs back, J&K govt split Ladakh into two districts. A Muslim dominated Kargil and Buddhist dominated Leh. If muslim migration wasn’t happening, where did the Muslim population came from. As outsiders cannot come and buy land in J&K under article 370, the population has to from the state i.e. Migration.

    2
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Amod Gokhale
    Favourite Amod Gokhale
    Report
    Aug 7th 2019, 8:39 PM

    @Amod Gokhale: a correction : the districts were formed in 1980s not 4-5 as I said previously.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel