✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Cinema

The Nightingale film review ★★★★★

02 Aug 19 – 02 Aug 20, TIMES VARY

Jennifer Kent made her name with The Babadook and returned to Sundance with a period horror lacking in tension, instead filled with violence

By Ella Kemp on 30/5/2019

1 CW reader is interested
Aisling Franciosi in The Nightingale
Aisling Franciosi in The Nightingale
The Nightingale film review 2 The Nightingale film review Ella Kemp
Directed by: Jennifer Kent (The Babadook)
Starring: Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Damon Herriman, Baykali Ganambarr
Runtime: 2h16min


The Nightingale premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.


In 2014, Jennifer Kent burst onto the scene with her haunting and impressive directorial debut The Babadook. The filmmaker placed the grieving experience of a single mother under the spotlight by invoking fear and sadness as well as some sense of compassion too. The woman had been deeply hurt, and so the healing process had to be painful as well.


This troubling but impressive priority set the tone and raised the bar for Kent's follow-up feature, The Nightingale. The film revisits a gruelling period of Australian history, telling the story of Claire, a 21-year-old Irish convict in Tasmania, 1825, who seeks revenge when a British officer sexually abuses her, before then brutally murdering her husband and baby.


She sets off to find justice, accompanied by Billy, an aboriginal tracker. They find common ground: 'You know what it's like to have a white fella take everything you have', Claire tells Billy.


The Nightingale is not a film of subtext or suggestions – the harrowing facts are depicted with cruel proximity. Claire is kept alive for her sweet singing voice and to entertain the men keeping her prisoner. There's little release, as violence begets violence and injustice turns into anger and few people make it out alive.

Retelling this moment in history, almost unbelievably harrowing and injust, requires such a level of graphic brutality, but the moral compass of The Nightingale still feels misguided and unfair. There's no subversion of the abuse Claire suffers, her end goal is clear from the start and so the results are legitimate, but hardly rewarding.


The violence is relentless, and only a minute sliver of hope, in a brief monologue delivered by Claire, manages to anchor this story and give it some kind of stimulating purpose. So much is focused on her suffering, and while the men are certainly not absolved, there's nowhere to go to find solace for the future in this film.



Reviewed at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival: London. The Nightingale is yet to receive a UK release date.


What The Nightingale film review
When 02 Aug 19 – 02 Aug 20, TIMES VARY
Price £ determined by cinemas
Website Click here for more information



Most popular

Queen’s Jubilee 2022: where to celebrate
Queen’s Jubilee 2022: where to celebrate
Things to do in London this weekend: 27 - 29 May
Things to do in London this weekend: 27 - 29 May
Bel Powley and Emma Appleton in Dolly Alderton's Everything I Know About Love, BBC One (Photo: BBC)
Everything I Know About Love, BBC One: everything we know

Editor's Picks

Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat in Animals
Sundance Film Festival 2019: London
Rooftop Film Club, London
Rooftop Film Club, London 2019 summer season
Film4 Summer Screen, Somerset House
Film4 Summer Screen 2019, Somerset House
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
1

2019

Cinema

Sundance London 2019

Sundance

Jennifer Kent

You might like

  • Nicole Kidman in Destroyer

    Destroyer film review ★★★★★

  • Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman in The Babadook

    The Babadook

  • Dakota Johnson in Suspiria

    Suspiria film review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×