Six years after the success of "Educating Rita", writer Willy Russell and director Lewis Gilbert returned to the theme of a Liverpool housewife trapped in an unhappy marriage. There are, of course, differences between the two stories. Rita, a hairdresser, was a young woman in her mid-twenties, who sought an education in literature and culture as a means of escape from her working-class background, much to the disgust of her cheerfully Philistine husband. Shirley is older, a housewife in her early forties and the mother of two grown up children. She and her husband Joe, a successful builder, have already escaped from their working-class backgrounds to prosperous pebbledashed suburbia, although it is notable that their Liverpudlian accents still set them apart from their middle class neighbours.
Shirley's main concern is that life is passing her by. We learn from flashbacks that the young Shirley was a wild, rebellious, free-spirited girl and in the early days of her marriage was still fun-loving and unconventional, devotedly in love with her husband. The older Shirley is bored and frustrated, trapped in a marriage which seems to have died. She has fallen out of love with Joe, who has become cold, stingy and bad-tempered. Whereas Shirley hates routine and predictability, Joe thrives on them; in one memorable scene he loses his temper because she has served him egg and chips rather than steak for his tea. ("We always have steak on a Thursday. We have chips and egg on a Tuesday").
Shirley sees a chance of escape from her routine when her friend Jane wins a holiday for two to Greece in a competition and asks Shirley to come with her. Shirley has never been abroad before (Joe being too mean to pay for foreign holidays), and, after some hesitation, accepts and sets off for Greece without telling her husband. While on holiday she meets, falls for, and has a brief affair with, Costas, a Greek bar owner. At first, he appears to be everything Joe is not- handsome, charming, generous and attentive- but Shirley soon discovers that he is a practised seducer, which is why their affair is only a brief one.
The main theme of the film can be seen as Shirley's search for her lost youth, for the person she used to be. The title is, significantly, her maiden name, her married name being Bradshaw. An older woman trying to act like a younger one can often be seen in very negative terms, as in the phrase "mutton dressed as lamb"; both Joe and Shirley's daughter Millandra disapprove of Jane, largely because she is a single woman in her forties who is still sexually active. There is, however, no reason why trying to recapture one's youth should be seen as something negative. If youth is associated with idealism, unconventionality, joyousness and free-spiritedness, what is wrong with trying to rediscover those qualities? At the end of the film Shirley realises that she has not fallen in love with Costas, but has done something more important. She has fallen in love with life once again. The ending of the film, when Joe goes out to Greece to join her, suggests that they may be reconciled and that their marriage may be rekindled.
Russell's original play was a one-woman monologue in which Shirley tells the audience about characters who never actually appear on stage. He and Gilbert clearly felt that this format would not work in the cinema, so the screenplay opens up the action and shows us Joe, Costas and the other characters in the flesh. Nevertheless, some of the devices used in the play are retained. Some scenes are still monologues in which Shirley, lacking anyone to talk to, speaks either to her kitchen wall or to a rock on the beach in Greece, or else addresses the audience directly. Gilbert had used this device in an earlier film, "Alfie", in which the hero also frequently speaks direct to camera.
Both Russell and Gilbert wanted Pauline Collins, who had played the role on the London stage, as Shirley, and eventually got her, although the producers would have preferred a bigger name. Collins was a well-known stage and television actress in Britain, but had little previous cinema experience. Although the film is no longer a one-woman show, Shirley is still very much at the centre. Her part is much larger than any of the others, and she is on screen, either as her older or her younger self, almost throughout; about the only scenes in which Collins does not appear are the flashback sequences, in which Shirley is played by a younger actress.
Most of the other parts are little more than cameos, although there are some very good ones- from Bernard Hill as Joe, from Tom Conti as Costas, Julia McKenzie as Shirley's snobbish neighbour Gillian, whose snobbery takes the form of a permanent game of one-oneupmanship with the rest of humanity, from Alison Steadman as Jane, the sort of feminist whose principles disappear whenever she spots a handsome man, from Sylvia Sims as Shirley's grim headmistress and from Joanna Lumley as her snooty classmate Marjorie who ends up as a high-class hooker. There are also George Costigan and Anna Keaveney as Dougie and Jeannette, the crass, insensitive and insular Mancunian couple who try to take Shirley under their wing in Greece. (Do they represent Russell's comment on the traditional rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester).
The British film industry made a number of great films during the eighties, certainly more than it has produced since, and "Shirley Valentine" was perhaps the last, of these. It combines some sharp social observation, a witty script and an optimistic philosophy of life with a delightful, sympathetic heroine. Collins described Shirley as "the part of a lifetime", and it is one that she makes the most of. 10/10
Shirley's main concern is that life is passing her by. We learn from flashbacks that the young Shirley was a wild, rebellious, free-spirited girl and in the early days of her marriage was still fun-loving and unconventional, devotedly in love with her husband. The older Shirley is bored and frustrated, trapped in a marriage which seems to have died. She has fallen out of love with Joe, who has become cold, stingy and bad-tempered. Whereas Shirley hates routine and predictability, Joe thrives on them; in one memorable scene he loses his temper because she has served him egg and chips rather than steak for his tea. ("We always have steak on a Thursday. We have chips and egg on a Tuesday").
Shirley sees a chance of escape from her routine when her friend Jane wins a holiday for two to Greece in a competition and asks Shirley to come with her. Shirley has never been abroad before (Joe being too mean to pay for foreign holidays), and, after some hesitation, accepts and sets off for Greece without telling her husband. While on holiday she meets, falls for, and has a brief affair with, Costas, a Greek bar owner. At first, he appears to be everything Joe is not- handsome, charming, generous and attentive- but Shirley soon discovers that he is a practised seducer, which is why their affair is only a brief one.
The main theme of the film can be seen as Shirley's search for her lost youth, for the person she used to be. The title is, significantly, her maiden name, her married name being Bradshaw. An older woman trying to act like a younger one can often be seen in very negative terms, as in the phrase "mutton dressed as lamb"; both Joe and Shirley's daughter Millandra disapprove of Jane, largely because she is a single woman in her forties who is still sexually active. There is, however, no reason why trying to recapture one's youth should be seen as something negative. If youth is associated with idealism, unconventionality, joyousness and free-spiritedness, what is wrong with trying to rediscover those qualities? At the end of the film Shirley realises that she has not fallen in love with Costas, but has done something more important. She has fallen in love with life once again. The ending of the film, when Joe goes out to Greece to join her, suggests that they may be reconciled and that their marriage may be rekindled.
Russell's original play was a one-woman monologue in which Shirley tells the audience about characters who never actually appear on stage. He and Gilbert clearly felt that this format would not work in the cinema, so the screenplay opens up the action and shows us Joe, Costas and the other characters in the flesh. Nevertheless, some of the devices used in the play are retained. Some scenes are still monologues in which Shirley, lacking anyone to talk to, speaks either to her kitchen wall or to a rock on the beach in Greece, or else addresses the audience directly. Gilbert had used this device in an earlier film, "Alfie", in which the hero also frequently speaks direct to camera.
Both Russell and Gilbert wanted Pauline Collins, who had played the role on the London stage, as Shirley, and eventually got her, although the producers would have preferred a bigger name. Collins was a well-known stage and television actress in Britain, but had little previous cinema experience. Although the film is no longer a one-woman show, Shirley is still very much at the centre. Her part is much larger than any of the others, and she is on screen, either as her older or her younger self, almost throughout; about the only scenes in which Collins does not appear are the flashback sequences, in which Shirley is played by a younger actress.
Most of the other parts are little more than cameos, although there are some very good ones- from Bernard Hill as Joe, from Tom Conti as Costas, Julia McKenzie as Shirley's snobbish neighbour Gillian, whose snobbery takes the form of a permanent game of one-oneupmanship with the rest of humanity, from Alison Steadman as Jane, the sort of feminist whose principles disappear whenever she spots a handsome man, from Sylvia Sims as Shirley's grim headmistress and from Joanna Lumley as her snooty classmate Marjorie who ends up as a high-class hooker. There are also George Costigan and Anna Keaveney as Dougie and Jeannette, the crass, insensitive and insular Mancunian couple who try to take Shirley under their wing in Greece. (Do they represent Russell's comment on the traditional rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester).
The British film industry made a number of great films during the eighties, certainly more than it has produced since, and "Shirley Valentine" was perhaps the last, of these. It combines some sharp social observation, a witty script and an optimistic philosophy of life with a delightful, sympathetic heroine. Collins described Shirley as "the part of a lifetime", and it is one that she makes the most of. 10/10