Bring Her Back, a film by Micheal and Danny Philippou, with Sally Hawkins

Showing all posts about Sally Hawkins

Bring Her Back, a film by Micheal and Danny Philippou, with Sally Hawkins

26 May 2025

An eerie image depicting a hand covered in blood pressing against a rain coated window, with the distorted face of Sally Hawkins partially visible behind it. The background features dark tones and textures, enhancing the ominous atmosphere.

Image courtesy of A24 films, RackaRacka.

British actor Sally Hawkins stars in Bring Her Back, trailer, the new horror feature by twin sibling Australian filmmakers Michael and Danny Philippou (Instagram page). The synopsis is short and sweet, but tells us enough:

A brother and sister uncover a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother.

I’m not a fan of horror, but I am fan of Sally Hawkins, so I just might have to check this one out. Bring Her Back opens in Australian cinemas this week, Thursday 29 May 2025.

The Phone Call, a short film by Mat Kirkby, with Sally Hawkins

5 March 2025

Aside from a co-worker, possibly a boyfriend, and the voice of veteran actor Jim Broadbent, British actor Sally Hawkins is about the only person visible in the twenty-minute short feature The Phone Call, trailer, made in 2013, by Mat Kirkby.

In Kirby’s collaboration with James Lucas, who wrote the screenplay, Hawkins portrays Heather, a reserved, bookish, crisis help-line worker. Heather’s shift has barely started, when she takes a call from a distressed elderly man, calling himself Stan (Broadbent). Heather desperately want to help, but Stan is unyielding, and time is running out. Suspense hangs heavily in the air.

The Phone Call, which won the short film (live action) award in the 2015 Oscars, can be viewed in full here. You won’t be disappointed. I can’t think of single dud Hawkins has starred in.

The Lost King, a film about finding Richard III, by Stephen Frears

10 December 2022

The Lost King, trailer, tells the story — in its own way — of British writer Philippa Langley, and her relentless work to find the body of English King, Richard III, who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field, in the English county of Leicestershire, in 1485.

There’s some serious British talent involved here. Veteran filmmaker Stephen Frears — whose previous work includes My Beautiful Laundrette, The Queen, Tamara Drewe (where I saw him speak at a screening thereof in Sydney in 2011), and Philomena — directs.

Steve Coogan, who also co-wrote the screenplay, portrays Langley’s husband, John, while Langley herself is played by Sally Hawkins. Hawkins has to be one of the most prolific actors around. Her career started in 1999 with a role as an extra in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and since then she has been in Cassandra’s Dream, An Education, Never Let Me Go, Made in Dagenham, Submarine, Blue Jasmine, The Shape of Water, and Spencer. To name but a few.

The Lost King opens in Australian cinemas on Monday 26 December 2022.

Made in Dagenham, a film by Nigel Cole with Sally Hawkins, Rosamund Pike

25 October 2010

Made in Dagenham, trailer, is British filmmaker Nigel Cole’s dramatisation of events surrounding the 1968 strike by sewing machinists, all of who were women, at Ford Motor Company’s Dagenham assembly plant, in the east of London.

Angered after the motor vehicle manufacturer regraded their jobs as unskilled so they could be paid at the lowest possible rate, the women decided to strike for 24 hours. Their actions set in motion events that went on to pave the way for gender pay equity not only in Britain, but across much of the industrialised world.

Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins) a car seat upholstery machinist, lives quietly with her husband Eddie (Daniel Mays), also a Ford factory worker, and their two school-age children, in a modest apartment block near the assembly plant. Rita seems an unlikely leader or negotiator at first, after coming off second best in a confrontation with her son’s bullying teacher.

When her co-workers decide to contest the downgrading of their jobs skill classification, and demand pay equal to that of the male workers, and need a leader, Rita steps up to the plate. A meeting with the company’s management reveals the enormity of the task ahead of them though, everyone regards the concept of gender pay equity as completely alien.

While the women initially have the support of their male colleagues on the factory floor, loyalties fray as the machinists’ on-going industrial action starts to bite. This eventually results in the factory completely ceasing production, and all workers being locked out, which angers many of them.

Meanwhile Rita goes on the road drumming up support for their cause, and soon comes to the notice of the government’s straight-speaking employment minister Barbara Castle (Miranda Richardson), who intervenes in an effort to get the woman back to work. Rita also forms an unlikely friendship with Lisa Hopkins (Rosamund Pike), the wife of a Ford executive, who encourages her efforts.

Made in Dagenham is not a battle of the sexes story, but there is no missing the then male dominated senior ranks of both company and union management. While the prospect of equal pay for women seemed to be of alarm in terms of its cost for the company, union bosses appeared to be fearful of losing influence should the women succeed.

There are insights aplenty into the industrial bargaining process, the politics at play across the workshop floor, company management, and unions, not to mention private sector pressure on government ministers to achieve particular outcomes. But Made in Dagenham also explores the real meaning of gender equality, which is far more than equal pay only for men and women.

Although the portrayals of a number of the key characters here are fictitious, footage of the machinists actually involved in the 1968 strike, who speak about what happened during and after the strike, forms part of the closing credit roll. Needless to say the striking women had no idea just how far reaching the consequences of their actions would be.

Originally published Monday 25 October 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.