Blue Jean
Rosy McEwen is outstanding in Georgia Oakley’s investigation of homophobia in 1980s’ Britain.
Back in 1978 the late Ron Peck made a landmark British film entitled Nighthawks. It told the story of a gay teacher concealing his sexuality because at that time homophobia was all too common, besides which being out would threaten his career. What made that movie special was the fact that no such film portraying the everyday lives of gay people had been made before in this country and this brave work was one which drew a predominantly gay audience keen to see a drama which, in effect, enabled them to view something of their own lives on screen. Nighthawks was a memorable endeavour, but I mention it here not as a tribute to Peck, who died in November 2022, but because of strong parallels between it and the debut feature written and directed by Georgia Oakley, Blue Jean. There is, of course, one huge difference in that Peck’s film offered a contemporary portrait whereas Blue Jean looks back to 1988. That was the year in which Section 28 of the Local Government Act imposed restrictions on teachers referencing gay lives and issues and dismissed gay couples as being in a pretended family relationship. Nevertheless, in so many aspects this new work is the lesbian equivalent of the gay male depiction found in Nighthawks including the fact that here too the central figure is a teacher.
Jean Newman (Rosy McEwen) is a PE teacher on Tyneside who regularly goes out to a gay club and has a butch girlfriend, Viv (Kerrie Hayes). It's also the case that her relatives know that she is a lesbian (she had recognised her sexuality after divorcing an unsatisfactory husband). Nevertheless, she keeps the two sides of her life well apart, being careful not to let anyone at her school suspect that she is other than heterosexual. Viv is politically aware, but Jean self-protectively conceals her true nature when out and about in the wide world. It's a decision which will put her in a predicament when one of her students, 15-year-old Lois (Lucy Halliday), herself lesbian, gets into serious difficulties and needs Jean’s help which, if given, might jeopardise Jean’s position in the school.
Oakley’s approach here is akin to Peck’s in seeking to express authentic everyday realities and to avoid any traces of melodrama. The period sense is well caught, but Oakley’s aims result in a film which in offering a detailed and convincing portrait of Jean is very low on drama as such. Indeed, the film has been running for an hour or so before the plot truly develops thus adding weight to what, by no means inappropriately, has up to that point been a consistently quiet film. The convincing drama of the last third contains some memorable scenes (Jean and Viv at odds in a café, a social occasion that pushes the usually cautious Jean over the line and Jean seeking out Lois to apologise to her). After that, the ending is a bit of an anticlimax, but Blue Jean is for the most part very well judged for its key audience. Just as Nighthawks primarily attracted gay men eager to see their own world on screen and not bothered by the plot not being stronger, so too Blue Jean’s view of lesbian life will speak most strongly to lesbian viewers albeit that it looks at a bygone period of their history and not at today’s lesbian world. For some the limited emphasis on plot could indeed be a drawback, but it needs to be stressed that the film is always firmly held altogether by the outstanding performance of Rosy McEwen as Jean, one that gives notice of yet another outstanding British actress to watch. Although Jean is always the central focus, the other figures are well drawn too and Kerrie Hayes playing Viv is memorable. As a first feature, Blue Jean is undoubtedly a work of promise and one which also looks good thanks to the photography by Victor Seguin.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Rosy McEwen, Kerrie Hayes, Lucy Halliday, Lydia Page, Scott Turnbull, Farrah Cave, Stacy Abalogun, Lainey Shaw, Kylie Ann Ford, Gavin Kitchin, Aoife Kennan, Amy Booth-Steel.
Dir Georgia Oakley, Pro Hélène Sifre, Screenplay Georgia Oakley, Ph Victor Seguin, Pro Des Soraya Gilanni Viljoen, Ed Izabella Curry, Music Chris Roe, Costumes Kirsty Halliday.
Kleio Films/BBC Film/BFI Film Fund/Great Point Media-Altitude Film Entertainment.
97 mins. UK. 2022. UK Rel: 10 February 2023. Cert. 15.
