Solomon and Gaenor (1999)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Paul Morrison

Writer:

Paul Morrison (writer)

Release Date:

30 April 1999 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Their tragedy was to fall in love.

Plot:

A tragic love story between a Jewish young man and a Welsh woman in the beginning of the century. The movie is mostly in English with parts in Welsh and Yiddish

Plot Keywords:

Wales | Jew | Barn | Single Mother | Premarital Sex

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 7 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Ioan Gruffudd	...	Solomon Levinsky
Nia Roberts	...	Gaenor Rees
Sue Jones-Davies	...	Gwen (as Sue Jones Davies)
William Thomas	...	Idris Rees
Mark Lewis Jones	...	Crad Rees
Maureen Lipman	...	Rezl
David Horovitch	...	Isaac
Bethan Ellis Owen	...	Bronwen
Adam Jenkins	...	Thomas
Cyril Shaps	...	Ephraim
Daniel Kaye	...	Philip
Elliot Cantor	...	Benjamin
Steffan Rhodri	...	Noah Jones
Emyr Wyn	...	Reverend Roberts
Julian Lewis Jones	...	Wyn

Also Known As:

Solomon & Gaenor (USA)
Solomon a Gaenor (UK: Welsh title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality and a scene of violence.

Runtime:

Argentina:105 min | Germany:102 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Welsh | Yiddish

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:15 | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Hong Kong:III | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK

Company:

APT Films

Trivia:

Each scene was filmed twice; once in English then again in Welsh so that a Welsh language version of the film could also be released.

Quotes:

Crad: Don't ask me to write it down for you because I can't.

Not so much of the Romeo and Juliet thing, please!

I have never really understood why so many stories of "star crossed" lovers are always compared to Romeo and Juliet, which, fair enough, was about families at odd with each other, but, in my opinion, Solomon and Gaenor is so much more. A really sad story about bigoted people who are just perpetuating a centuries old hatred of people who are different to themselves. The supposedly Christian people who should practise what they preach and the Jewish people who will not integrate for fear of losing something of themselves in the process is the real dilemma of this story. Solomon and Gaenor are the ultimate losers in this harsh Welsh world of miner's strikes and religious bigotry in the early years of the 20th century when everything was seen as back and white and there was no place for shades of grey inbetween. More people should have the opportunity to see this film which, as far as I know, was never shown in cinemas in Australia and only consigned to a late night viewing time on a little watched TV station, as there is a lesson to be learned from this really well acted film .