Review of Richard's Things

I saw this on TV when it was first aired back in 1980 (I think it was shown on ITV). It stood out as a film that didn't seem very English but is actually very English - this is rather hard to explain. The two principal characters are excellently played by Liv Ullmann and Amanda Redman. Ullmann plays Kate, an older woman (i.e. older than Amanda Redman, who must be in her early twenties here) and Redman plays JoJo - the latter being the young woman who was with Kate's husband when he suffered what was a fatal heart attack while they stayed in Ipswich on a business trip. The story unravels from there as Kate and JoJo embark on a relationship with some very subtle power dynamics. The script is by Frederic Raphael from his own novel of the same name. (I read this after seeing the film again and found it to be rather brilliant - the writing (like the film) captures the way people talk and misunderstand each other and the kaleidoscopic fashion in which feelings and thoughts change instantly beneath the words they say.) By the way, in the novel Kate is English and JoJo is a young French woman called Marie-Josie. It's shown as a relationship between adults, with the same sort of dynamics that apply between heterosexual couples. I think their relationship is based on need and love, but the context makes this particular love affair doomed from the beginning. Kate invites JoJo to stay with her, and as the film cuts to Amanda Redman in bed we hear Kate say "You can stay here for nothing." JoJo's reply is very apt: "Nothing can sometimes be too much". In an increasingly fragmented cultural landscape, this subtle and quiet film is well worth looking at again.