Jude is a
1996The year 1996 in film involved some significant events. Major releases this year included Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Independence Day, Twister, Scream, Jerry Maguire and Madonna's Evita.-Events:...
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
film, based on the novel
Jude the ObscureJude the Obscure is the last of Thomas Hardy's novels, begun as a magazine serial and first published in book form in 1895. The book was burned publicly by William Walsham How, Bishop of Wakefield, in that same year. Its hero, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man who dreams of becoming a...
by
Thomas HardyThomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels...
and directed by
Michael WinterbottomMichael Winterbottom is a prolific British filmmaker who has directed sixteen films in the past thirteen years. He began his career working in British television before moving into features...
. The screenplay is written by
Hossein AminiHossein Amini is an Iranian screenwriter.Amini's first professional credit was the 1992 teleplay The Dying of the Light, based on UNICEF aid worker Sean Devereux, who was assassinated in Somalia...
. The original music score is composed by Adrian Johnston.
Playing the title character,
Christopher EcclestonChristopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
shares a brief scene in the film with
David TennantDavid Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in the theatre, Tennant is best known for his roles in Doctor Who as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor, in Casanova as the title character, and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
. Nine years later, Tennant succeeded Eccleston in the lead role in
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
.
Jude remains the only time that the two have appeared together on-screen.
The majority of the film was shot in late 1994 in
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
and locations in Country Durham including Durham Cathedral, Durham City, Ushaw College, Blanchland village and Beamish museum.
Jude is a
1996The year 1996 in film involved some significant events. Major releases this year included Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Independence Day, Twister, Scream, Jerry Maguire and Madonna's Evita.-Events:...
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
film, based on the novel
Jude the ObscureJude the Obscure is the last of Thomas Hardy's novels, begun as a magazine serial and first published in book form in 1895. The book was burned publicly by William Walsham How, Bishop of Wakefield, in that same year. Its hero, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man who dreams of becoming a...
by
Thomas HardyThomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels...
and directed by
Michael WinterbottomMichael Winterbottom is a prolific British filmmaker who has directed sixteen films in the past thirteen years. He began his career working in British television before moving into features...
. The screenplay is written by
Hossein AminiHossein Amini is an Iranian screenwriter.Amini's first professional credit was the 1992 teleplay The Dying of the Light, based on UNICEF aid worker Sean Devereux, who was assassinated in Somalia...
. The original music score is composed by Adrian Johnston.
Playing the title character,
Christopher EcclestonChristopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
shares a brief scene in the film with
David TennantDavid Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in the theatre, Tennant is best known for his roles in Doctor Who as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor, in Casanova as the title character, and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
. Nine years later, Tennant succeeded Eccleston in the lead role in
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
.
Jude remains the only time that the two have appeared together on-screen.
The majority of the film was shot in late 1994 in
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
and locations in Country Durham including Durham Cathedral, Durham City, Ushaw College, Blanchland village and Beamish museum.
Plot summary
In the
Victorian periodThe Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 until her death on the 22nd of January 1901. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements...
, Jude Fawley (Eccleston) is a young man who dreams of a scholarly university education. Circumstances conspire against him, however, forcing him into a job as a stonemason and an unhappy marriage to a country girl, Arabella (Griffiths). He remains true to his dream, however, and months later, after his wife's sudden departure, heads for the city, where he thinks education lies for any man who is willing to work hard. There he encounters his beautiful cousin, Sue Bridehead (Winslet), who shares his intelligence and disdain for convention, and the two develop a romantic relationship. These unlikely lovers must struggle to keep their relationship from a disapproving world, however, or else face the
tragicTragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that, paradoxically, offers its audience pleasure...
consequences of public scandal.
Main cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|
| Christopher Eccleston Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
|
Jude Fawley |
Kate WinsletKate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. Winslet made her film debut starring in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures...
|
Sue Bridehead |
| Liam Cunningham |
Phillotson |
| Rachel Griffiths Rachel Anne Griffiths is an Australian film and television actress who came to prominence in the 1994 film Muriel's Wedding. Among her other notable roles, she is particularly well known for her portrayal of Brenda Chenowith in the TV series Six Feet Under and Sarah Walker on the ABC primetime...
|
Arabella |
| June Whitfield June Rosemary Whitfield, CBE is an English actress, known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series....
|
Aunt Drusilla |