Movies from the Heart—Love Among the Ruins

I’ve always loved the many-play-on-words title of this film. Evelyn Waugh wrote a book, Love Among the Ruins, where he satirized the upcoming leadership in the U.K. in the 1950s. But his title comes from Robert Browning’s poem, Love Among the Ruins where the “ruins” symbolize mortality and impermanence.

So in the film, Love Among the Ruins [1975] by James Costigan, the “ruins” are the two main characters Jessica and Sir Arthur—both of a certain age. Which means… old.

The backstory on the two of them is that they had a romance when they were young, and she dumped him. And he never forgot her—in fact, still loves her. They’re now elderly and she’s sought him out for his legal help as she’s been charged with breach of promise. Her younger ex-lover claims they were engaged and she reneged—that she dumped him.

So when Jessica and Sir Arthur meet again, sparks fly—and not always in a good way. And part of the fun of this film is to see how the two of them will come together—or will they?

This came out as a TV film in the U.S. but was released in Europe as a feature film. And guess what? The entire film is available for free online, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_1F6PrBe9o

Watch as little or as much of it as you want. [A warning though—you’ll have to endure ads, but you can skip them after a few seconds.] Personally, I think it’s a total pleasure to watch these two consummate actors—Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier—work together.

A little background on them—just for the fun of it.

Hepburn had been one of two people who took Olivier to his secret wedding to Vivian Leigh. They were friends their entire lives. But they’d never acted together.

When Hepburn was on the Dick Cavell Show he asked her how she felt about having never acted with her friend. And Hepburn cheekily replied, “Well, we’re not dead yet—even if you might think so.” Ouch!!

And if you watch just the first bit of the film, you’ll find that when she comes to try and hire him as a barrister in her case, he definitely remembers her—but she seems to have absolutely no idea who he is, no idea that they ever had a torrid affair in their youth.

The word that comes to mind for this film is charming. It’s almost 50 years old and it’s still fun to look at.

This is one of a few romances between older characters that I’ll be looking at over the next few weeks. And it’s an area, with our aging population, that’s ripe for stories today! So if you’re thinking about writing a film with a romance between older people, this film and the ones coming in the next few weeks might be of interest to you!

Next week, another Hepburn vehicle—On Golden Pond.

Copyright © Diane Lake

07Apr24

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com