The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

"An unlikely relationship based on love, faith, and a little deception."

1987 1h 56m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

★6.6TMDB · 32

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A penniless middle-aged spinster scrapes by giving piano lessons in the Dublin of the 1950s. She makes a sad last bid for love with a fellow resident of her rundown boarding house, who imagines she has the money to bankroll the business he hopes to open.

“An unlikely relationship based on love, faith, and a little deception.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

Criterion ChannelSubscription

Cast

Maggie Smith
Judith Hearne
Bob Hoskins
James Madden
Wendy Hiller
Aunt D'Arcy
Marie Kean
Mrs. Rice
Ian McNeice
Bernard Rice
Rudi Davies
Mary
Prunella Scales
Moira O'Neill
Áine Ní Mhuirí
Edie Marinan

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jack Clayton
Writers: Peter Nelson
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

39 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jack Clayton, shot by Peter Hannan. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Georges Delerue. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Terry Rawlings shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins and Wendy Hiller carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "An unlikely relationship based on love, faith, and a little deception.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0093431 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 32 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jack Clayton directs. Peter Hannan behind the camera. Georges Delerue scores. Terry Rawlings cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

139 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Directed by Jack Clayton, shot by Peter Hannan. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Georges Delerue. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Terry Rawlings shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins and Wendy Hiller carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "An unlikely relationship based on love, faith, and a little deception.".
7IMDB entry: tt0093431 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 32 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
9Classified under 9 themes, including "hotel", "based on novel or book", "despair", "dublin, ireland".

The technical file

Cinematography: Peter Hannan
Original score: Georges Delerue
Editing: Terry Rawlings
Production design: Michael Pickwoad
Costume design: Elizabeth Waller
Runtime: 116 min · 1h 56m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987)

Also by

Jack Clayton

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-11-14
★ 7/10
Maggie Smith offers quite a compelling performance in this adaptation of Brian Moore's novel. She is the eponymous piano teacher, having fallen on hard times since the death of her aunt (Dame Wendy Hiller). She comes to live in a boarding house in Dublin where she encounters a rather curious dynamic amongst the guests: the proprietress, her son, and her brother "Madden" (Bob Hoskins). She takes rather a shine to him, and the beautiful jewellery on her fingers leads him to believe that she might be useful backing his proposed hamburger business venture. Wires get crossed, and we discover that this lady has a few demons of her own. The story itself is fairly profound. It does not swipe at 1950s Dublin life, it exposes it to us. The hypocrisies of the church, of the middle class, the attitudes towards alcohol and sex are laid bare for us to observe and judge as we will. That is one of director Jack Clayton's better strategies for this ostensibly rather downbeat, frequently quite depressing piece of cinema. It doesn't deal at all with sectarianism, and is significantly more potent for that - it is very focussed on this woman adrift, hiding behind a facade as much of her own making as societal. Hoskins actually comes across as a bit of a cad, and quite a ruthless one at that, and there is a superbly seedy effort from Ian McNeice as "Bernard", whose corpulence and sleaziness contrast well with the supposed "respectable house" offered by his meddling landlady mother "Mrs. Rice" (Marie Keen). The story is episodic in nature, which does rob it of any real sense of progress, though. It resets itself once or twice too often, before an ending that, though slightly optimistic, has a sort of negating sense to it, too. The attention to detail is good, the Dublin scenarios, costumes and photography support, effortlessly, this leading lady in one of her best roles.

Production companies