Review thread for SUFFRAGETTE preview screenings: read the reviews! Non attendees: chance to win £100 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

Ahead of the UK release of the acclaimed new film Suffragette on Monday 12th October, around 30 lucky MNers were able to see a preview of the film. Read on for their reviews.

If you didn't attend, there's a chance to win a £100 John Lewis voucher by sharing on this thread the woman (or women) in history who have most inspired you, and why you find her/ them inspiring.

‘Every daughter should know this history, every son write it on his own heart’ (Meryl Streep)
‘The Best Film of the Year’ (Elle)
‘The Most Important Film of the Year… A Must-See’ (Stylist)

Here's the film's synopsis:
"With an all-star cast including Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff, Ben Whishaw and Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst, SUFFRAGETTE tells the remarkable untold true story of the real foot soldiers of the Suffragette movement. These women were not primarily from the genteel educated classes, they were working women who had seen peaceful protest achieve nothing. Radicalised and turning to violence as the only route to change, they were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality - their jobs, their homes, their children and their lives. A story told by women, about women, that everyone should see…Mothers take your daughters, daughters take your mothers, women take your men!"

Watch the trailer below

The film is on general release in Cinemas from Monday 12th October - find out more and book your seats here: www.suffragettemovie.com #suffragette

Attendees: for a chance to win a £200 John Lewis voucher, please give your film review below:

~ What are your general feelings about the film? What's your headline review? Please give your rating from 1 to 5 stars where 5 is brilliant and 1 is poor.

~ Who you attended the screening with (friend/ mother/ husband etc)? What did they think of the film?

~ And in terms of the story and themes in the film - what do the Suffragettes mean to you? Who are the women that have most inspired you (suffragette or not)? How different do you think life is for women in the UK now? How far have we come?

Thanks and good luck with the prize draws.

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

I attended the screening. Resisted the temptation to shout "Naice ham!" or the like when theights went down

What are your general feelings about the film? What's your headline review? Please give your star rating from 1 to 5 stars where 5 star star star star star is brilliant and 1 star is poor

I absolutely loved the film. I found it moving, uplifting, gruelling and engaing in equal measure. I studied this period of hisory in depth at university but there was still plenty to learn from the fim. Primarily the brutality to which the women were subjected - not just in prison but outside too. The degree to which social pressure was put upon these women to stop being activists. And just how brave they had to be to carry on. I loved the subtle way that the film showed how every aspect of women's lives, finances and families were controlled, both practically and legally by men.

My headline review would be: A film to make you proud to be a women

I would give the film

Who you attended the screening with (friend/ mother/ husband etc)? What did they think of the film?

I attended the film with my 15 year old daughter. She is studying the suffragettes for GCSE History (thank goodness - before the syllabus changes to remove this kind of "social history" which seems to be so unpopular with this government) and is a staunch feminist

She loved the film and came out feeling very fired up about the importance of women being engaged actively with the political process. She was shocked - as was I - about just how brutal the women's treatment was. We both found the force feeding scene particularly disturbing and hard to watch.

And in terms of the story and themes in the film - what do the Suffragettes mean to you? Who are the women that have most inspired you (suffragette or not)? How different do you think life is for women in the UK now? How far have we come?

I think the story and the themes of the film are very relevant to women today. For instance the subject of equal pay for equal work was touched upon - an issue which is as real for women now as it was in 1912. Shocking really to think that this should be the case.

Thank you very much for the chance to see the film and take my daughter. We found it very thought provoking and talked about the issues raised all the way home and beyond!

Non attendee.

Rosa Parks - because she stood up for what she believed in and was a campaigner for the civil rights movement.

Roberta Bondar was inspirational to me as a teen because a woman training to be and becoming an astronaut was, and still is, so rare. I think so much more still needs to be done to encourage and support girls in STEM.

A question about the force feeding scene: how long does it last and - wimp alert - can you avoid it if you close your eyes and put your fingers in your ears?

I want to watch the film but am pitifully squeamish

Erm well I managed to avoid most of it. I'd say it lasts 2 minutes and it's impressionistic rather than graphic

LOL BitOutofPractice, I had an urge to hand out PomBears in the reception area!

The force feeding scene was not nearly as bad as I expected, as pp said, not graphic, more of an impression. Shut your eyes for a minute or so and you'll be fine. I assume they kept that scene that way so it could have a younger certificate and teenage girls could see it

What are your general feelings about the film? What's your headline review?
Endeavouring successfully to give a synopsis of the active disobedience campaign waged by the suffragette movement prior to the outbreak of WWI the plot concentrates on Maud, the downtrodden and abused laundry worker who is somehow dragged in to all the main events of the struggle.

The movie nicely highlights the position, or more to the point lack of rights, for ALL women at the turn of the century. There are more than enough pointers as the plot develops to highlight why Maud and her cohorts are more than willing to take the fight to the government with the inevitable consequences when they are arrested.

Although the story of the Suffragettes is fairly well known in the UK this movie is quite firmly targeted at the international market. Meryl Streep takes star billing yet puts in an all too brief but infinitely powerful performance all the same as Emmeline Pankhurst, their charismatic demagogue.

What the film fails to address is why women had to wait until 1928 for the vote but that’s just a minor quibble. There are some great moments in the film but the highlight for me was the final scene that ends with original footage of Emily Wilding Davison’s funeral. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and it could have easily had an extra 30 minutes added and still kept me fascinated.

Who you attended the screening with (friend/ mother/ husband etc)? What did they think of the film?
I attended the screening with my 14 year old son who was enthralled throughout, once the scene was set. He certainly wanted to discuss it afterwards which is always a good sign.

And in terms of the story and themes in the film - what do the Suffragettes mean to you?
Being a distant relative of Emily Davison, her story has always had an attraction for me, particularly as her self-sacrifice was such a major event in the women’s struggle.

Who are the women that have most inspired you (suffragette or not)?
Barbara Castle for her Jam today speech most of all.

How different do you think life is for women in the UK now? How far have we come?
Very different but some day true equality will be achieved but probably not in my lifetime.

I attended with a friend and we both loved the film. We were both horrified by the end roller that showed how recently women gained the vote in different countries around the world.

The force feeding scene was hard to watch, but for me the most shocking part was the complete lack of rights women had over their own children.

Whilst watching the film I wished I could go back in time and tell the women how very different life is for women in 2015, and to thank them for fighting for us all to enjoy the rights we have now. Things may not be perfectly equal but we have come a long way.

Firstly, a huge thanks for picking me. Secondly, sorry for the delay in responding but I wanted to review using a proper keyboard!

I LOVED this film. I haven’t stopped talking about it to everyone I have met since watching it. It was so powerful and has really made me think about my privilege. I knew lots about the Suffragettes and their cause having studied them as part of my dissertation last year. I was looking forward to seeing how so many of their stories were being represented and I was not disappointed. It showed women from all walks of life and their struggles. Throughout I was thinking how clever the writing was and how the film did not feel as though it were force-feeding (sorry for the pun) their stories onto us. The tales were not overt but each was incredibly powerful.

I would give this film a 5 out of 5. My friend who I went with gave it 4 out of 5. She wanted to give it more, but it was too emotional for her. I understand what she was saying; it really did have that throat tightening ability, especially when Maud asks her son to remember her name. I knew at this point holding back the tears was futile.

I am looking forward to when my DD is old enough to share this film with, as I know it will prompt lots of questions and is a great introduction into an important subject.

The Suffragettes mean so much to me that it is difficult to put into words. I cannot imagine how long it would have taken for change to occur were it not for their campaign of ‘Deeds not Words’. I was encouraged to see the storming of the red carpet event by Sisters Uncut. Despite winning the vote women still have a long way to go in terms of equality in the UK. We hold ourselves aloft as a fair and equal society but sadly this is not as true as it would appear. I think the argument that we have it better than others doesn’t hold up either. Life for women in the UK is much fairer now but we have some way to go for true parity.

In terms of women who influence me there are so many. I follow the group Women you should know on Facebook and I love seeing the celebration of women in my newsfeed on a daily basis.

OOOPS forgot to give it a star rating - from me and from DS (14). Just to add that I'm old enough to remember the force-feeding of suffragettes covered in Upstairs Downstairs (Elizabeth Bellamy was one if memory serves me correctly) when I was younger than DS is now. BUT DS was beyond horrified at the practice, understandably.

The scientist, Marie Curie. I read Physics at university and what she achieved was just remarkable. A brilliant scientist.

I myself managed to see this last night with a friend (using a comparethemarket 2 for 1 deal ), had been gutted to miss the preview due to childcare issues. It was amazing. So interesting, sad, inspiring and thought provoking. Cary mulligan was fab, it felt like we were on her shoulder all the time and what struck me most was her role as a mum and tying to juggle it all (some times don't change!)

I would recommend this to everyone and it was so pleasing to see a busy screen at a regional cinema on a Wednesday night.

Forgot to say that DD has long been inspired by Malala. I see she is mentioned by several members of the cast in a recent Time Out interview (well worth reading btw)

My review - sorry it's so late!

Predictably excellent

With the likes of Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter and Carey Mulligan in the cast, Suffragette was always going to be a serious awards night contender, and for me it didn’t disappoint. For anyone who knows anything about the history of the Suffragettes there will be no surprises in this film, which tells the story of fictional suffragette Maud Watts and her journey from peaceful protesting to prison, force feeding and bombs. So far, so Oscar-worthy. Thankfully this is no BBC period drama, but a gritty piece of film-making – Maud is scarred and burned from her years in the laundry, and the brutality with which the suffragettes (and women generally) were treated is vividly depicted. Where this film really excels is in pointing out just how few rights and options women had in those days, from Samuel West’s no-longer-tolerant husband refusing to bail out the other suffragettes along with his wife (“It’s my money,” she hisses; tragically, of course, it no longer is) to the casual sexual assaults and forced child adoption, the film endlessly drives home the message – this is your life without rights.

There are many emotional moments in the film – you receive a sudden jolt halfway through the film when you see Emily Wilding Davison’s name written in a book, and realise what is coming – but for me the most touching was the end, as it fades into contemporary news footage of Davison’s funeral, and you see the faces of the individual, real-life women taking part. The roll call of dates before the credit simply underlines how far we have come – and how far, for some countries, they have yet to go.

I studied at the same college as Emily Wilding Davison, and I live in Bethnal Green, as did my great-grandmother, who must have lived and worked in much the same way as Maud Watts. Watching this film was like getting a glimpse into my family history, and I am so thankful to all the women who sacrificed so much for our liberation. The women who inspire me today are my friends, my family, the women I see all around me working for less money than men, being whistled at and harassed on the street, bringing up families despite being disproportionately affected by austerity and spending cuts, being hurt in their own homes by the men who should be supporting them. It’s easy to feel complacent about our rights, but the fight for equality isn’t over yet.

Non attendee. From history I think Anne Frank 'despite everything I believe that people are really good at heart' - what an amazing insight and passion in such terrible terrible times. For today's children I think they need look no further than Malala Yousafzai - what an amazing young woman for today's youth to look up to! Principled and strong with real determination!!

Having just read Caroline Criado-Perez's book DO IT LIKE A WOMAN, she is my modern day woman to admire. Standing up defiant of the trolls who sent rape and death threats, she campaigned for a woman on our bank notes and then wrote a kick arse book about kick arse women.

I haven't seen the film yet, but my heroine is Edith Cavell who was executed in world war one. A devoted nurse who also helped allied soldiers to escape, despite choosing to stay herself to help others. She was a patriot and died a heroic death.

Non-attendee here though I saw it last Wednesday - totally captivating. I was inspired by so many teachers and family members as a grew up. I was lucky that both of my parents valued education and equality. I really don't think it ever occurred to me that girls couldn't do the same jobs as boys even in the 60s/70s. I went to an academic girls' school where it was the norm for many people to go on to university. I didn't realise how lucky I was at the time.

Have seen the film today. I thought it was excellent, moving and very well done. The force feeding scene was not graphic and it didn't need to be to get it's point across. I will be taking dd to watch it and it frustrates me no end that our children are not being taught about this in school.

Erm systemusername in fairness they are being taught this in school. My daughter is studying it in GCSE history and my younger daughter learned about the suffragettes in junior school.

And of course, we have talked about them at home too.

non attendee

I don't think we are taught enough about famous women in history to be able to remember one off hand, which makes me very sad. More recently, my grandma has inspired me as I have been reading her memoires and realised how different our lives have been, despite being very similar people. I have had opportunities which were denied to her, and she has shouldered it in good grace, and watched a new era ushered in for her grand and great grandchildren with a mixture of happiness for us and regret.

Non attendee

It has to be Elizabeth 1 for me. Successful in a man's world and said the most sensible thing about religion ever.

Bitoutofpractice does it depend on schools? Mine is year 8 and certainly hasn't and we didnt cover it when i was a child either.