THE LADY

France/UK, 2011, 132 minutes, Colour.
Michelle Yeoh, David Thewlis, Jonathan Raggett, Jonathan Woodhouse, Susan Wooldridge, Benedict Wong.
Directed by Luc Besson.

I am glad that I saw this film and can say that I was moved by it. It is a tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the most significant public figures of the late twentieth century, early 21st century, a strong woman and political leader.

Some audiences have expressed disappointment because they wanted more political background and analysis. But this is to misunderstand the intentions of the film-makers. It is not a documentary, which is a better vehicle for elaborating the political history of Burma and analyzing the role of Aung San Suu Kyi and her leadership. Nor is the film a biography, although we learn the general outline of her life and her relationship with her husband and children. Rather, the film is a cinema portrait. Any portrait does not offer the whole picture. Rather, a portrait is a selection of the subject’s features, an interpretation of the person, their life and work. Every portrait is only partial.

Another objection to the film is that of high-minded critics who declare that French director, Luc Besson, who once made critic-worthy films in the 1980s and 1990s has been responsible in more recent times for many commercial action shows, like The Transporter series with Jason Statham, has no business making the film. They think that he is not worthy to make a film about such an important world figure!

That said, The Lady is a more emotional film portrait of its subject. Michelle Yeoh looks like Aung San Suu Kui and presents her as a woman of dignity and gravitas. It is there in the way she speaks, moves, the small detail of breeding and courtesy, her ability to be at ease with all those she comes in contact with. We see the public demeanour (especially in the re-creation of the famous episode where she confronts the armed soldiers and walks through their ranks – a scene reproduced more spectacularly but no less movingly in John Boorman’s Beyond Rangoon). We see the private woman in her role as wife and mother.

The film opens with the assassination of her father and the family moving to England. Her father’s political significance is an important aspect for people approaching her in 1988 (just over forty years after his death) to form an opposition political party and lead it.

However, the structure of the film focuses on Michael Aris, the Oxford University lecturer she married, and on her two sons, opening in 1998. David Thewliss brings a strength to Michael Aris’s love and loyalty. We learn almost immediately that Michael Aris has been diagnosed with cancer. He has not seen his wife for three years. The film then goes back to 1988 and Aung San Suu kui’s decision to go back to Rangoon to be with her dying mother. She has not left since. Most people know of her campaigning during the election at the end of the 80s, the generals disregard of the results, her being placed under house arrest and spending the better part of twenty years in that situation. In the meantime, there were some visits from her family, but Michael was refused a visa in his dying years and he and his wife made an agreement that for the good of Burma, she should stay and not put herself in the position of being unable to return. Her years of house internment were compounded by the personal sacrifice in the love for her husband.

He, meanwhile, put her name forward for the Nobel Peace Prize which she was awarded in 1991.

Oxford contrasts with Burma (the makers using Thai locations for the film), but the film has a strong sense of local colour and a feel for the people and Burmese history. It can be said that the Generals do not come out well, somewhat caricatured, even superstitious as they cling to power and keep surveillance tight on Aung Sang Suu Kyi. But, maybe, that is what this kind of isolated power bunch is like.

The film was completed before the election results of 2011 and the emergence of The Lady on the Burmese and world scene again.

1. The status of Aung San Suu Kyi? Over twenty-five years?

2. Audience knowledge of her, of her father and his role after World War Two in Burma, his assassination? Audience knowledge of the history of Burma post-World War Two, the military coup in 1962? The issues of 1988, the elections, Aung San Suu Kyi and her house arrest? The changes in 2011, 2012? Her personal story?

3. The film not a documentary, no expectations for political analysis, but rather a portrait?

4. The perspective on Aung San Suu Kyi? A strong woman, dignified, experiencing tragedy, experiencing hope? A woman in Asia, a political leader? A strong leader? As an expatriate wife and mother in English? Her live in Oxford? Her involvement in politics, her strategies in Burma, her personal sacrifice as regards her family? Local respect? The enmity of the generals? Her international reputation? The issue of the film being hagiography, no discernible flaws? Yet the discussions about saints, patience, anger, stubbornness?

5. The framework: the introduction in 1947, the child, her father, his assassination? The move to 1998, the focus on Michael Aris? The diagnosis of his cancer? The discussions with his brother? With his sons? His not having seen his wife for three years? The sadness of the situation, his personal sacrifice in not seeing his wife as he died? The return ten years, 1988, tracing Aung San Suu Kyi’s life in Burma? Her husband in Oxford? Her mother’s illness, her going to Burma? Suspicions, her family not being able to stay, the campaigners and the consequences? Resuming the story in 1998, Michael Aris’s death? The aftermath, her freedom, the changes in 2011-12?

6. Michelle Yeoh and her performance, her look, manner, bearing, gravitas and dignity, her poise, self-deprecation, a private person, having to be a public person, her political choices, her campaigning, her meeting with people, her courtesy? The house arrest? Her grief at her husband’s illness and death? The final triumph?

7. The introduction in 1947, the wealthy family, her father and his role, work, at the office? Home, the effect of the assassination? The consequences and the family moving to Britain? The strong memories? The father’s photos and placards during the campaigns?

8. Life in the United Kingdom, Michael and his work, the university students, the staff? The sons, going to school, their life?

9. Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma? Her motives for going, wanting to stay, the officials and the passport control? The generals spying on her? The people coming to visit her, to plead their cause, to ask her leadership? The discussions, the role of her father? Memories of 1962? The formation of the party, her leadership, the campaigns, her emphasis on it being peaceful? The banners, the countryside, the ethnic groups, the placards? The delay in the elections? The protests, the students, the arrests? The murders in the streets, Aung San Suu Kyi seeing the military man murder the students in close-up?

10. The visit to her husband, Michael and his support, his character, a dignified man, his interest in Asia? His being ousted, the children, the return? The disappearance for two weeks?

11. The years passing, Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, her friendship with the family servant? The privations? Her playing the piano – and explaining to the military guard that it was music? The military outside her house, the barriers, her being prevented from looking over? The placards and the quotations, around the house, talking to the more sympathetic guard?

12. The years and the difficulties in contact? The possibilities of phoning from the British embassy, the difficulties and the phone calls being cut off? The issue of the Nobel Peace Prize, Michael and his asking the professor, the preparation of the file, the articles, Karma and his help? Sending the dossier? The acceptance? Oslo, the announcement, the ceremony, pomp and circumstance, Michael asking one of his sons to make the speech, Alexander and his speech? Aung San Suu Kyi and the servant listening to the radio, the blackout, finding the batteries and the other radio, hearing the ceremony, the (Packabel music?)

13. Michael and his attempts to get a visa, the continued problems, the help of Archbishop Tuto, other prizewinners? Diplomacy? Michael going to America, the Americans and their inability to help? The final visit, his being off the radar, the news reports? Finally being let go, barely time to pack? The sons and their visits?

14. The illness, his dilemma, Michael and Aung San Suu Kyi agreeing that she would not leave? The reaction of the children?

15. The picture of the generals, their operations, their meetings – the touch of caricature? Yet the caricature behaviour, espionage? The chief general and his going to the fortune-teller – his interpretations, later killing her? The underlings and their plans, suggestions for Aung San Suu Kyi’s imprisonment?

16. Her option to stay or not, accepting the hardship? The news of her husband’s death? The television and radio reports?

17. The issue of the elections, the generals, not wanting the election? The general and his confrontation with the soldiers who might have killed Aung San Suu Kyi and made her a martyr? The hard lines, becoming harder? The nature of house arrest? The rounding up of her followers, their imprisonment?

18. The generals trying to make a bargain, the elections, her leaving and not coming back so that she could see her husband but remain out of Burma? The election results, the messages to the people in prison? Their later release?

19. The changes in the 21st century, after so many years, freedoms? Her achievement – and at what cost? The final information and contemporary information about her leadership, the 2012 elections, the place in parliament?

20. Her significance as one of the major world leaders in the 20th and 21st centuries?