GINGER AND ROSA

UK, 2012, 90 minutes, Colour.
Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Alessandro Nivola, Christina Hendricks, Timothy Spall, Oliver Platt, Annette Bening, Jodhi May, Oliver Milburn.
Directed by Sally Potter.

Ginger and Rosa is a story about two teenagers in the 1960s, the film going back to 1945 and the end of the war when they were born, the friendship between their mothers, the reactions of the two different fathers.

In the early 1960s, after the austerity of the post-war period, there is an easy life for the teenage girls in the beginning of a more permissive era. It is also the period of nuclear fears and protests against the bomb.

Ginger is the clever girl. She is Played by American Elle Fanning, convincingly British. the Australian Alice Englert, also convincing. There are also other Americans in the cast, including Christina Hendricks as Ginger’s mother and Alessandro Nivola as her father and Annette Bening, involved in the protest movement. Oliver Platt plays a friend, partner of Timothy Spall.

While the two girls support each other, Rosa is not as politically involved as Ginger, and when the girls accept an invitation to go on Ginger’s father’s boat, the rather promiscuous university lecturer begins an affair with Rosa, she becoming pregnant, which serves as a catalyst for Ginger to reconsider her life, becoming more involved with protest, finding herself arrested, her mental condition tested. At the end, Ginger who wants to be a writer, composes a poem which reaches out to Rosa and offer some kind of forgiveness.

1. The title, the focus on the two girls? Girls growing up, teenagers, friendship, changes in situation, betrayal?

2. The director, her serious dramas? The two girls, an American actress, Australian actress? Convincing?

3. The opening, 1945, the war, London, the two mothers, giving birth, reaching out, continued friendship? The births? Fathers? Rosa’s father disappearing? The girls and their bonding, the scenes of themselves as children, getting older?

4. Teenagers, from 1945 to 1962? The experience of post-war Britain, rations, hardships? The change in the 1960s? Post-austerity? On the move towards a greater permissiveness?

5. Each of the two girls: Ginger, dominant, her personality, her hair, clever, at school? Rosa, the different school, difficulties with studies? The anti-nuclear protests and meetings?

6. Rosa, touch of promiscuity, the boys? Nat and her disapproval, warning Ginger? The contrast with the advice from Roland? Supporting the friendship? Roland, at home, the professor, studies, infidelities? Nat and her bringing up Ginger? Sacrificing herself?

7. Rosa, her mother, the Catholic background, going to the church to pray? Rosa moving out and becoming free?

8. Ginger, relationship with her mother, her mother and concern about domestic courses, expecting Ginger to be a housewife? The effect of Ginger, her moving out? Her going to stay with her father?

9. Ginger and Rosa on the boat with Roland? Rosa beginning the relationship? Believing in everlasting love? The effect on Ginger, wanting to move out, but her mother beginning to paint again?

10. Ginger warning Rosa about Roland’s infidelity? The pregnancy?

11. Ginger, the effect, going to the rally, the protests, the causes? The arrest? In prison? The psychologist? her mental state? The fear that the world was about to end? Roland and his comments? Bella, her interactions with Ginger, advice?

12. The two Marks, characters, friendships, advice?

13. Confronting Roland, Nat and her taking the overdose, going to hospital, the concern?

14. Ginger, the final problem, for Rosa, acknowledging the difficulties, but hope the future – and possibilities for forgiveness?