To think Shirley Valenine is a true hero

[Newbameforanewdecade]

Just rewatched the film. I’ve loved it since seeing it as a kid, bit as I start to approach her “on screen” age - I appreciate it more.

She uproots the norm for the time and gave women something more to believe in.

Also loved how her 80’s house reminded me of home

Her bossy daughter is something I can relate to now!

watched it the other day too!! with my bossy daughter. brilliant.

Hello wall.

Chips n egg.

She gave up her job, did what her husband told her and didn't keep her friends. I don't admire that.

@dayswithaY ah but that’s what I like - for some that’s the reality they find themselves stuck
In - she chose to change that

dayswithaY surely the point is that she realised she wanted things to change and did something about it.

@Feelingconfused2020 glad you see it as I do.

@Lessofallthisunpleasantness I still say “hello wall” quite a bit

Loads of my friends are extras in the film, so I love watching it to try to recognise faces.

But it's a load of rubbish really; she didn't escape, just had a short term fling. I bet they went home and things went back to how they were

No, the point is that she realised it was just a fling but stayed on and got a job.

She didn't go home. She got a job. The film leaves it that way. There's no ambiguity.

I think it’s easy to view it through a modern lens - but at the time it was woman who’d never been abroad (before cheap air fares).

Didn't her husband come out? I remember thinking "wtf, she's going to make up with him and go back".

Where are you watching it?

Nowhere near as much as Rita in Educating Rita was.

@LaureBerthaud sorry to say I had it recorded from it being on tv a while ago - don’t think it’s on any of the streaming channels, though you can probably rent on amazon maybe.

I watched in on YouTube a couple of months ago, it might still be available there.

Yanbu op. It's brilliantly written.

Yeah, still available

AlbusSirius he does come out, but she makes it clear she isn't going back with him. I feel like there's a monologue at the end about it but can't quite remember.

Rewatching it - the husbands part is interesting. We all remember the chips and egg bit - but there’s more of him in it than I remembered - and I think he’s not quite the “baddie” I remember - more ground down by life like Shirley is.

I don't think she does make it clear. I saw it on Channel 5 a few weeks ago and IIRC the final scene has Pauline Collins and Bernard Hill sitting at a table near the beach having a drink as the sun goes down and we have no idea what they're going to say to each other or what Shirley will do next. It could have gone either way. She had a job for the summer, but what would she have done out there in the winter? My feeling is that even if she went back to Liverpool with her husband they'd probably have parted company in the not too distant future. She could have got a job back home and had her own place on her own terms.

It's a lovely film. I think I prefer it to Educating Rita.

I love this film. But last time I watched it was the first time I had watched it as a post menopausal woman and I was shocked how sad it made me feel. My life isn't anything like Shirleys but there is still a lot of universal stuff in it.

I do love the bit where Costos tells her her stretch marks are to be loved as a sign of life, a sign she has survived. I think of that often in my own life.

shirley valentine is my all time favourite film.

It's a good film but her saying ' chips and egg ' winds me up so much! It's egg and chips!
I would like to think she stays there but the ending is a bit ambiguous. It was on in the afternoon the other day , so the scenes on his brothers boat was cut about a bit.

It was funny how the house in Liverpool became so unkempt when she had only been away for two weeks! He had obviously never done a thing for himself in all the years they were together.
When it first came out in the cinema , there were a few real life stories doing the rounds of fed up women running off to work or live abroad or meeting younger men on holiday etc!
I agree she would have struggled to stay there in the winter time and would have had to return home : possibly go for a divorce or just give him another chance maybe? I don't think she hated him , but just craved something different.