MARGARET'S MUSEUM

Release Date: 1995
Director : Mort Ransen
With : Helena Bonham-Carter , Kate Nelligan
Country : Canada / Gr.bretagne

This movie has won many Genie Awards:
Best Achievement in Screenwriting
- Gerald Wexler, Mort Ransen
Best Achievement in Music/Original Score
- Milan Kymlicka
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
- Helena Bonham Carter
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
- Kenneth Welsh
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
- Kate Nelligan
Meilleurs costumes
-Nicolette Massone

Résume:
Set in the 1940s in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, it tells the story of a young girl living in a coal mining town where the death of men from accidents in "the pit" (the mines) has become almost routine. Margaret MacNeil (Helena Bonham Carter) has already lost her father and an older brother and for her, life alone would be prefereable to marrying a mine worker — that is until the charming Neil Currie (Clive Russell) shows up. Against the wishes of her hard-bitten mother (Kate Nelligan) they marry, but before long financial woes lead to his doing what every other uneducated young man does in the town: take a job underground. His death in the mine drives Margaret to a mental breakdown and in her surreal world she decides to create a "special" museum to the memories of all those who have died as a result of the horrific mining conditions. The advent of the film inspired the organization PAMAUG, which strongly advocates the usage of means other than manual labor to extract coal from mines. (Wikipedia)

TRAILER

My appreciation:


During my trip to Cape Breton, I was invited with a distant relative, Neil, who lives in the small mining town of Glace Bay. He is a retired miner from the coal mine and he showed me a kind of lantern that he had to bring with him into the mine. This lantern can detect gas explosion if the air entering the lamp was responsible for gas, it produced a visible fuel (so-called "halo") around the normal flame. Thus he could detect and rush to flee a gas explosion.

So I watched this movie out of curiosity and to learn more about the hard life of miners. But I was literally spellbound by the play of Helena Bonham Carter that I saw for the first time as well as the nice soundtrack. Our hero has mesmerized the beautiful Margaret with his bagpipe. This movie marked me deeply and I will never be tired of seeing several times.