Top Film Affairs

15 June 2014

The Invisible Woman

The Invisible Woman is one of the best movies of 2014 so far, as Ralph Fiennes makes his return to the director's chair.

The theme of ‘forbidden love’ is one that filmmakers return to again and again- and to celebrate the release of this historical romance we count down the top ten illicit affairs on screen...

- The Invisible Woman (2013)

Ralph Fiennes directs and stars in this engrossing period drama focusing on the illicit relationship between Charles Dickens (a charismatic performance from Fiennes himself) and his mistress, Nelly Ternan (Felicity Jones).

Fiennes shows a deft directorial touch for dealing with the sensitive subject matter, and Jones gives a standout performance as the fragile, emotionally repressed Nelly, who was almost written from history.

The Invisible Woman is based on the book by Claire Tomalin, and is wonderful film about love, loss, and secrets. Hard to believe that this is just Fiennes' second feature film as director.

- The Graduate (1967)

Mike Nichols comedy-drama is often lauded as one of the greatest films of all time, and features a wickedly seductive performance from Anne Bancroft as the iconic Mrs Robinson.

Dustin Hoffman’s turn as Benjamin Braddock is equally brilliant as the smart, discontented graduate who finds himself embroiled in an affair with his father’s business partner’s wife.

The movie was based on the book of the same name by Charles Webb, and saw Mike Nichols in the director's chair.

This was the movie that really put Hoffman on the map, and it remains one of his most famous roles.

- Fatal Attraction (1987)

Glenn Close’s infamous turn as a scorned woman is arguably her signature role in Adrian Lyne’s thriller, which acts as a cautionary tale to anyone considering embarking on an extra-marital affair.

Michael Douglas plays Dan Gallagher, a married man whose one night stand comes back to haunt him in the worst way imaginable...

The movie was inspired by the 1980 short film Diversion, which become this terrific psychological thriller seven years later.

Fatal Attraction was the highest grossing film of 1987 at the global box office, and went on to receive six Oscar nominations: including Best Picture.

- The Age of Innocence (1993)

Michelle Pfeiffer turns in a wonderfully understated performance as the disgraced Countess Ellen Olenska, in Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s tale of 19th century New York high society.

Daniel Day-Lewis plays the young lawyer who falls in love with the Countess, who happens to be his fiancé’s cousin, with their affair exposing the hypocrisy of the establishment.

- The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

Clint Eastwood directed and stars in this romantic drama based on the bestselling novel by Robert James Waller.

Meryl Streep plays lonely housewife Francesca Johnson, who embarks on a short-lived but life-changing affair with visiting National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid (Eastwood).

Streep was originally not even considered for the role as the studio wanted a younger actress- but she went on to garner an Oscar nomination for her performance.

The movie was met with critical acclaim upon release, and remains on of Eastwood's strongest directorial outings.

- The English Patient (1996)

Anthony Minghella wrote and directed this multi-award winning epic set against the backdrop of WWII, and told in flashbacks.

When the Hungarian Count Laszlo Almasy (Ralph Fiennes) begins mapping unchartered territory in North Africa, he is thrown together with English couple Geoffrey (Colin Firth) and Katherine Clifton (Kristin Scott-Thomas) and the resulting affair leads him to betray not only his friend, but his country.

The English Patient was widely regarded as an un-filmable book, but Minghella made it into a wonderful war/love story.

It remains one of the best movies of the nineties, a really great piece of filmmaking.

- Closer (2004)

Based on Patrick Maber’s play, this drama directed by Mike Nichols featured standout performances from its four leads- Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman.

Offering a painfully brutal take on infidelity and betrayal, the film features one particularly memorable scene involving an internet chat-room and a case of seriously mistaken identity.

Clive Owen and Natalie Portman both won Golden Globes for their performances, and went on to be nominated at the Oscars in the supporting categories.

- Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Based on the short story by Annie Proulx, Ang Lee’s heart-breaking adaptation follows the lives of two cowboys, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), who are hired to tend livestock on Brokeback Mountain and develop a fierce bond.

Forced to hide their love affair, the two men attempt to live the lives society deem acceptable, but return to the mountain once a year to rekindle the affair, leading them to question what their secrecy is really costing them.

Brokeback Mountain was one of the most talked about movies of 2005, and remains one of director Ang Lee's greatest piece of filmmaking.

Lee would win the Best Director for his work, and the film should have scooped Best Picture: losing out to Crash.

- The Duchess (2008)

- This biographical drama chronicles the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, played by Keira Knightley.

A celebrity of the time, Georgiana's charm, activism, and fashion bring her adoration everywhere she goes.

But the stifling restraints of her controlling husband (Ralph Fiennes) lead her into a passionate affair with the younger Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper) highlighting the stark, appalling differences in treatment between men and women in the aristocracy of the 18th century.

- Last Night (2010)

This little-known ensemble piece, directed by Massy Tadjedin and starring Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes and Guillaume Canet, offers a slow-burning and understated study on temptation.

Joanna (Knightley) and Michael Reed (Worthington) are seven years into a happy, stable marriage when he is sent on a business trip with a colleague he is fighting an attraction to.

That same evening, Joanna runs into an old flame and spends the evening considering how things might have been...

Last Night is a simple story about the complexity of marriage and relationships and questions what is betrayal?

Tadjedin has created a group of incredibly interesting and complex characters, all of them troubled in some way and, perhaps, questioning the decisions and commitments that they made in the past.