Tanker om film: The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister - Filmatisering av Anne Listers dagboknotater utgitt i bok

Skuespillere:Maxine Peake, Anna Madeley, Susan Lynch, Christine Bottomley, Gemma Jones, Alan David
Regissør:James Kent
Manuskript:Jane English
Originaltittel     BBC: The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister
Varighet     DVD: 1 tim 30 min
Produksjonsår: 2010


Filmen bygger på en sann historie, det er dagboknotatene til Anne Lister som var skrevet delvis i kode og ble dechiffrert 150 år senere.
Boken ble først utgitt, filmen like etter.

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister
Anne Lister; Helena Whitbread (Redaktør)
Utgitt:2010
Forlag:Little, Brown Book Group
Språk: Engelsk
Sider: 448


Den virkelige Anne Lister så slik ut:

Jeg skal ikke gjenfortelle historien om Anne Lister,(1791–1840), den kan leses her. Men dette var en bemerkelsesverdig kvinne, en kvinne det står respekt av, modig og tøff - ikke ene og alene fordi hun i Victoriatidens England kunne akseptere sin seksualitet og velge å leve utradisjonelt uten å inngå et "proforma" ekteskap som hun ble tilbudt, men også fordi hun var en selvstendig, handlekraftig kvinne som kunne styre med økonomi, eiendommer, forretnings-virksomhet og opptre som en "fri" kvinne med egne meninger.
Vi kjenner mye av hennes tanker og handlinger og kjærlighetsliv gjennom dagbøkene som visstnok skal bestå av 4.000.000 ord. Hun er nærmest blitt stående som den første "moderne" lesbiske kvinnen i England.
Maxine Peake gjør en troverdig tolking av Anne Lister i filmen. Hun har også fortalt at hun ble fengslet av denne historien. Jeg velger å kopiere en del av det Maxime Peake sa om sin rolle da BBC dramatiserte dette. (Fra BBC Press Office heter det "All copy within Programme Information can be used free of charge on condition that it credits the relevant BBC programme or service."):
"I loved that sparkiness of Anne and how it became slightly dark; I thought Jane English had crafted the character of Anne and the relationship with Mariane so brilliantly. Plus the women in it – to have so many strong female protagonists is just so rare today," says Maxine.
"You look at how abundant the diaries were, and when you think of all the dramas we have and the fact everyone's fascinated with Jane Austen, you wonder why these diaries are not more heard of. Aside from her sexuality, they are absolutely such detailed documents of that period of time."
Maxine threw herself into more research immediately: "Initially I trawled the internet and ordered every book with her name in it. Then I met Helena Whitbread, the Anne Lister expert; she's amazing. Her story in itself and how she stumbled across Anne is fascinating. Helena has got such a fantastic relationship with Anne – sort of a love affair – so I was quite nervous about meeting her. I walked in to the room and she said 'oh thank goodness you're tall'. Although Anne was only about 5ft 4in – I'm 5ft 7 – in those days that was tall, so I thought that's good because I did start panicking thinking I'm physically nothing like her!
"I spent the day with Helena and that was the best because she'd formed Anne in her imagination, which really helped me to form the character. Every day she's doing something with Anne Lister, so she's got a very strong image of her. I thought I'm going to go with that – this woman has spent 20 years researching her – so I asked her about her views of Anne. She was very into her being romantic, this very dark figure, so I took that nugget away and worked from there."
Maxine was surprised to learn that society in the 1800s wasn't quite how many perceive it but in fact was somewhat similar to life today, and admires Anne's strength to accept and be open about her sexuality.
"Anne did change history. When you think of that period of time, a woman at that time, stepping out – it must have been frightening. Even reading her diaries, I was surprised at how modern they sounded ...".....

Maxime forteller videre om sitt forhold til rollen:
"In BBC One's Little Dorrit I played Miss Wade, who had lesbian tendencies, but Anne is not like anyone I've ever played before. The story spans 20 years, really, but I don't age in it – though you feel Anne's personality changes from her late teens to a woman in her forties. So that was a real challenge because there is a real personality shift in it.

"It was a privilege – I panicked about playing her at first because she is such an important figure and because she is very much part of lesbian and gay culture and you want to do a good job – you're representing a group of people, so I wanted to get it right. I didn't want them to go 'oh no, I don't believe for a minute, that's not right'. So I was very nervous about it....." To play a woman of that kind of calibre and intelligence – I got lots from it. I did feel sad afterwards, because even though she did extremely well in business and she did settle with Ann [Walker, played by Christine Bottomley], it wasn't a perfect relationship. It had its ups and downs and I did feel this passionate woman never quite got the love she deserved or really wanted."

Skuespillere, miljøskildring, filmkvaliteter  og ikke minst den spennende livshistorien til Anne Lister gjorde denne filmen til en interessant opplevelse. Om Anne Listers kjærlighets-liv var noe "fremmed" for meg som jeg ikke kunne identifisere meg med, så var hennes psykiske styrke, handlekraft og pågangsmot så absolutt noe jeg kunne identifisere meg med.

Terningkast:5