The film is based on a true story. The year is 1999. A few respectful housewives in their 50’s from provincial Yorkshire decide to raise money to buy a couch for the visitors’ room in the local hospital, where the husband of one of them gets a cancer treatment.
The movie opens with an image of a traditional English country lifestyle. Afternoon teas, cooking recipes, vegetable and flower exhibitions, some small charity work. Everything is proper, nice and ladylike. Everybody knows everyone else. Everybody has their place in this small society and plays their roles properly. And when the fundraising for a couch is proposed, it looks like just one of those small projects, similar to any other. The actual plot starts when the women realise, that this endeavor is much bigger than expected. To achieve that they make quite an unusual decision …
This film came out in 2003. Why are we writing about it now?
Lara: When I saw it for the first time I was 37 years old, and there were a few things in the movie that made a big impression on me. One obvious message was that as soon as you move away from your true purpose (e.g. substituting it for fame), things will start moving on a path of destruction and it happens quickly and is almost unnoticeable until it’s too late.
I watched it recently again. What changed for me? Well, let’s start with the fact that my life experience has extended by 15 years :).
What strikes me now is the fact that at the beginning of the movie no one expects anything new from those women, even they themselves. By all standards, at their age their way of life has been firmly established. When the call for help comes the plot takes an unexpected turn, which brings the movie into a different realm. We find those women stepping on to ‘the path of a hero’.
And this is what made it so interesting for us. If you read Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”, you know the concept. Briefly, a hero hears the call and has an option to accept it – or not. If he starts the journey, he will have to push the boundaries, fight a dragon, save a virgin and come back victorious. Even if you never read Campbell the story should sound familiar. Many fairy tales are based on this plot and we all can recognise this hero – young man, fearless, open to an adventure and handsome.
Well, how about a bunch of country women in their 50th, going on a hero’s journey? And how about travelling… naked?
What’s heroic about that?
Although a hero’s journey is difficult for every hero, when the hero is young he has no experience to predict what lays ahead and no baggage to leave behind.
It is very different when you have to go on a hero’s journey when you are older. You carry with you all the knowledge about life and its dangers, understanding that you leave behind your teenage children and elderly parents, your image, your social status, not to mention your mortgage payments. How about accepting the hero’s call in these conditions?
So, it looks like only a very deep purpose can make you step on this path.
Alina: And when you step on this path, you start learning about yourself. How do you deal with challenges? How far can you push your boundaries? What will you sacrifice to get where you need to be? What strategy do you use to achieve what you want? What previous experience you can rely on? What if you need to jump into the unknown without any safety net?
Back to the story. The decision of our heroes to do a calendar with their nude photos sent waves of shock through the small conservative society where nothing happens and the life moves slowly and with predictability.
Lara: After discussing it with Alina, I realised, that my experience of growing up in a similar traditional society gave me much stronger feeling how controversial the decision of these women was. Just imagine that your nude photo can be seen by all your neighbours, your colleagues, your church community, your children (specially if you have sons) and their school friends. You cannot hide in the crowd; everybody is looking at you, and you can guess what they are all thinking!
Our women know that this is what’s going to happen. And they are not the type to ignore the consequences. This is why it is so difficult for most of them to make this decision.
The only reason to go ahead is when something deeply important is at stake.
One more thought – when the deepest purpose is pursued, especially via a controversial (from a social norm point of view) approach, this becomes a call for the whole society. And in this case the small community responds to the call and gives its support to those unlikely heroes.
This movie raises an important question about the deep potential in all of us irrespective of our age.
Calendar Girls [DVD] [2003] by Helen Mirren
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