‘Ammonite’: Kate Winslet Is Terrific, But Francis Lee’s Lesbian Romance Is Too Cold & Distant [TIFF Review]

The 32nd annual NewFest — the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival — is headed online amid the coronavirus pandemic as it opens with Francis Lee's Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet, and closes with Faraz Shariat's Berlinale award-winning film No Hard Feelings. The fest opener Ammonite, also starring Saoirse Ronan, will receive a drive-in screening at the Queens Drive-In at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

With A-list stars not walking up red carpets at the Toronto International Film Festival into physical screenings amid the pandemic, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins and other winners of TIFF Tribute Awards gathered virtually to talk about the importance of festivals for the entertainment industry.

Kate Aurthur editorDuring an interview at Variety’s virtual studio at the Toronto International Film Festival, Kate Winslet — who stars in the festival’s lesbian romance “Ammonite” — elaborated on the regrets she recently expressed about working with directors Woody Allen and Roman Polanski.

Francis Lee’s “Ammonite” might be the biggest study in contrasts that you’ll find at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.

Todd McCarthy The temptation will be too great for some critics to resist proclaiming, “Ammonite is dynamite!,” as in some respects it is, specifically in the way it resembles a hand grenade thrown into the midst of an otherwise decorous, serious-minded 19th century British period piece.James Ivory might be proud and even jealous of the way writer-director Francis Lee takes the Anglo art house tradition of quality to an uncustomary level of sexual frankness, an aspect that will remind many

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticNo matter the culture, no matter the century, one of the great obstacles facing LGBT people through time has been the virtual invisibility of those who have come before. When you don’t see anyone like you in a seemingly heterogeneous — and heteronormative — society, it’s hard to feel anything other than deviant, out of step and alone.

In October 2018, British director Francis Lee sent Kate Winslet’s agent a screenplay he had just finished writing. Despite having just one film under his belt — the critically acclaimed drama God’s Own Country about an unlikely romance between two young men — Lee was able to entice the Oscar winner, who committed within 24 hours.

It’s pretty crazy to think that it’s been more than 25 years since Kate Winslet had her breakout role in the film, “Heavenly Creatures.” Over that time span, she’s won an Oscar (along with various other prestigious awards), she’s starred in one of the biggest films of all time (“Titanic”), and a number of other acclaimed features that have gained her the status of being one of the very best performers in the industry.

The Toronto International Film Festival will honour Kate Winslet this year during a virtual gala that includes a performance by Shawn Mendes and special presenters, including Colin Farrell, Olivia Colman, Ava DuVernay, Jodie Foster, Regina King, and Delroy Lindo.

Titanic actress Kate Winslet has been taking the coronavirus pandemic very seriously from the beginning and recently she revealed the reason why. The 44-year-old actress, who played an epidemiologist in 2011’s Contagion, said the movie made her hyper-aware of the current pandemic when the virus started spreading in China and Europe.

Kate Winslet revealed she and "Ammonite" co-star Saoirse Ronan took their sex scene very seriously. So much so, the two actresses "choreographed" it themselves. Winslet explained to The Hollywood Reporter that the film's director, Francis Lee, was "nervous" about how the scene would look.

Ammonite.The pair play starcrossed lovers Mary Anning, a real-life fossil hunter, and the married woman, Charlotte Murchison, she has a relationship with.Kate admitted that she was ‘nervous’ to shoot the love scenes with Saoirse, but went on to say that they are the scenes she is ‘proudest’ of now.Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, she explained that she and Saoirse went away to ‘choreograph’ the racy scenes which feature in the movie.She admitted that the director Francis Lee had been

One of the by-products of the #MeToo movement is the spotlight that has been put on the working conditions that actresses face on film sets, especially when they’re asked to be nude or do love scenes.

Kate Winslet discusses her new lesbian drama “Ammonite” and what it was like filming the very imtimate sex scenes with Saoirse Ronan in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Ammonite, the buzzy LGBT period romance starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, is set to close the 2020 BFI London Film Festival. The film — from Brit director Francis Lee (God's Own Country) which will have its world premiere in Toronto in September — will bow in the U.K.