I have to mention an exceptional movie I saw this week; Mrs Lowry And Son. Starring Venessa Redgrage and Timothy Spall. What a good week it has been for Vanessa Redgrave, recognised by The Crown for a lifetime of dedication to acting. And she looked so pleased to be receiving such an award. Even a little bemused that she should be rewarded for doing something she so obviously loves. Quite touching to see. That great artistes such as her are also so modest. She and Timothy Spall play a blinding two hander n this lyrical portrait of the relationship between mother and son and the art that seperated them. We get to peep around the net curtains into the lives of what is left of the Lowry family as they float and bob about in a sea of troubles of their own makings. Socially crippled they exist in a fragile, but hardy enough life on the fringe of poverty following a fall from a genteel existance that mostly only existed in the mind of Mrs Lowry. One moment the viewer is smiling the next tearing up.
Probably.
The diector does not assume familiarity with Lowry's paintings. We are introduced to their lives before we see what he is up to in the attic. Although the inspiration for much of the work is put before our eyes, to extrapolate as we wish. Loved the sequence with the reclyning Lowry on the wall and especially the origins of the bearded lady. It affords a simple dignity and an almost heavenly grace which will forever enrich that particular painting for me. Things might have been grim up North but they could also be beguilingly funny. Poverty and back breaking work can make, break and shape the whole of us. Humour frees our souls for moments at a time and we can survive by stumbling from one to the other. The heart may well break at times but reparations are possible, even when we find we do not actually like the ones we love, exposing an aggregate of suffering and unrequited hopes. The bedrock of family where we daily flounder and yet carry on. Its a beautiful piece of work. which magically, if subtly gives us a glimpse of what a piece of art sees while we stare at it. You will know the framing sequence I mean when you see the film for yourself. Which you really should do.
There is a particularly affecting scene where Lowry is brushing his mother's hair. He is describing his day to his house bound ma, and he recounts seeing a lady with a beard. And it is how he describes this to his mother. Verbalising a gentle humanity and even love for a singular human being who in all probability faced abuse and discourtesy in a hard old world in hard old days. He painted her in a picture and that expression of love is there.
As it is in everything he choose to put on canvas.
