Ginger & Rosa (2012)

A look at the lives of two teenage girls - inseparable friends Ginger and Rosa -- growing up in 1960s London as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms, and the pivotal event that comes to redefine their relationship.

Director:

Sally Potter

Writer:

Sally Potter

Stars:

Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Annette Bening

4 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christina Hendricks	...	Natalie
Jodhi May	...	Anoushka
Alessandro Nivola	...	Roland
Luke Cloud	...	Rosa's Father
Poppy Bloor	...	Young Ginger
Magdalene Mountford	...	Young Rosa
Elle Fanning	...	Ginger
Ray Lonnen	...	Radio Announcer
Alice Englert	...	Rosa
Brock Everitt-Elwick	...	Beatnik
Max Scully	...	Beatnik
Marcus Shakesheff	...	Teddy Boy in Car
Charlie Smith	...	Teddy Boy in Car
Rupert Rixon	...	Boy on Beach
Timothy Spall	...	Mark

Storyline

London, 1962. Two teenage girls - Ginger and Rosa -- are inseparable; they play truant together, discuss religion, politics and hairstyles, and dream of lives bigger than their mothers' frustrated domesticity. But, as the Cold War meets the sexual revolution, and the threat of nuclear holocaust escalates, the lifelong friendship of the two girls is shattered - by the clash of desire and the determination to survive.

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Plot Keywords:

cuban missile crisis | friendship | marital problem | dysfunctional family | marriage problems | 

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Taglines:

Friendship pulled them together. Love tore them apart.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature disturbing thematic material involving teen choices - sexuality, drinking, smoking, and for language

Details

Official Sites:

Kent Film Office Official Facebook

Country:

UK Denmark Canada Croatia

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 October 2012 (UK)

Also Known As:

Ginger y Rosa

Filming Locations:

Dungeness, Kent, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$42,838, 17 March 2013

Gross USA:

$1,012,973

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,674,776

Company Credits

Production Co:

Adventure Pictures, BBC Films, British Film Institute (BFI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Color:

Color Color (archive footage)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to the Kent Film Office, "The Ginger and Rosa crew filmed at many locations in Kent, including the unique and striking sound mirrors on Dengemarsh, which look out over the shingle desert and were built in the late 1930's for the early detection of enemy aircraft before the discovery of radar. The production also used Lade Beach and boardwalk which is near the Romney Sands and changes from shingle at low tide to sand and mudflats as the water recedes. Also featured in the film are nearby Lydd Ranges, a military training facility. Locations on and around the Isle of Sheppey were also used for various boating scenes, including a floating jetty at Queenborough jetty and the Swale estuary for the open water shots."

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Goofs

Ginger and Rosa supposedly ride upon a whirling children's roundabout, and yet their hair isn't blown about by the wind.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Natalie: I think Rosa's a bad influence.
Roland: Meaning what, exactly?
Natalie: Anoushka worries about her. She says she's disturbed.
Ginger: [interrupting] So would you be if you'd been told you were a failure when you were 11 years old!

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Connections

Featured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #21.63 (2012)

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Soundtracks

Body and Soul
Performed by Django Reinhardt
Written by Johnny Green (as John Green), Edward Heyman, Robert Sour (as Robert B. Sour,) Frank Eyton
© WB Music Corp. (ASCAP) 1930 (Renewed) Chappell & Co, Ltd
(London) (PRS) / Range Road Music, Inc on behalf of itself
and Quartet Music / Druropetal Music
(BMI) (© 1959, Renewed 1987)
Courtesy of EMI Records Ltd

User Reviews

Team Ginger ... needs better friends and family

A small movie for perhaps an even smaller audience, Ginger & Rosa is a coming-of-age/sexual awakening tale of two close girlfriends growing up in London in 1962 at the height of the frantic and worrisome Cuban Missile Crisis.

Ginger (an exceptional Elle Fanning) has found her life turned upside down when her squabbling parents – the put-upon, under-appreciated, one-time artist mother (Mad Men's Christina Hendricks) and the esteemed, bohemian, philandering professor father (Alessandro Nivola) – decide to separate and her closest friend Rosa (Alice Englert) could care less as she is more interested in wearing eye shadow and nail polish to impress the random teenage boy.

To become more active and to distract herself from her own life's unraveling situation (thanks, Rosa!), Ginger takes on the cause of nuclear disarmament after being swayed by the conversations of her mother's political activist friends (O. Platt, T. Spall and A. Bening). No matter the bigger obstacles Ginger takes upon herself, the various actions of her family and friends are what ultimately threaten the young girl and her well-being.

Ginger & Rosa is a decent film that will not appeal to a mass audience. It is a slow-moving character-study of the film's strongest character, Ginger. Luckily Rosa -- a character who is very hard to like from the get-go (selfish) -- isn't really featured enough to merit her name in the title. Some will see the film as ponderous as the young Ginger strives to find reason and purpose; but she is a realistic character and Fanning is subtle in some scenes and fantastic in others. (THIS is the more-talented Fanning sister and I have felt this way since Somewhere).

I tried to explain the "feel" of the film to a friend the other day and I said it was much like placing a pot of water on the stove for it to boil. It is a pot of water sitting on a stove (exciting!) ... just sitting there as it simmers while we get a bubble here and a bubble there! When it finally hits the boiling point -- watch out! -- because it could boil over!