SLEEP WITH ME
UK, 2009, 94 minutes, Colour.
Adrian Lester, Jodhi May, Anamaria Marinca, Adam James, Justine Mitchell.
Directed by Marc Jobst.
Sleep With Me is based on a novel by Joanna Briscoe and was adapted for the television screen by prolific writer Andrew Davies. Andrew Davies has one of the best reputations in England, especially for television writing with such achievements as miniseries like Little Dorrit, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, The Line of Beauty, Bleak House, Daniel Deronda and Doctor Zhivago. He also wrote the screenplay for the remake of Brideshead Revisited.
The film is a contemporary story about relationships, about marriage, pregnancy, commitment, betrayal, seduction, ambiguous relationships.
The strength of the film is in the writing, in the portrayal of the characters and the performances by a very good cast led by Adrian Lester (Primary Colours, As You Like It and the television series Hustle), Jodhi May (who came to prominence in the South African story A World Apart in 1988) and Anamaria Marinca, the Roumanian actress in Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days. She also appeared in Five Minutes of Heaven.
The film is reminiscent of many adult dramas on television – but is strong in its own right.
1. Contemporary drama, for an adult audience, relationships, love, seduction, betrayal?
2. The work of Andrew Davies, his adaptations?
3. The title, its evocations?
4. The introduction to Richard and Lelia, their relationship, living together, love, pregnancy, the prospect of marriage, the possibilities? Their friends? Catherine and her husband?
5. The husband, the talk, friendship, infatuation, the effect, stopping or not, Richard and his being a plain man? The anticipation of what was to happen?
6. The mystery of Sylvie, her appearance, mousey, yet determined, her smile? Talking with Richard, the visit, writing with him? Infiltrating herself into his life, seductive? Richard and his fall? Wanting to stop, not stopping? Values? Yet his love for Lelia, the kiss? Catherine and her fears, the holiday, the phone call? Yet the repeat? The sexual effect? Richard at work, his colleagues and their concern, Sylvie and her coming into the office?
7. Lelia and her meeting Sylvie, the attraction, their discussions, her memories, the two girls at fourteen, Mazzarin? Lelia on the outer, the change, the alternate world, the sexual behaviour, curiosity, right and wrong, the discovery and the effect? Change, love? Sylvie attentive, insidious? The pregnancy and its effect? Richard and his confusion, leaving, staying, doubts and upset?
8. Sylvie and her tantalising Richard, needing Lelia, the marriage and yet their fighting? The attic?
9. The clash, the double standards, talking with Catherine?
10. Lelia, the birth, her needs, together with Sylvie, Sylvie helping, love and confusion?
11. The memories of Sylvie, her disappearance? The death in the river? Glimpsing the reality/or not?
