5 Oct 2022

At The Movies - Catherine Called Birdy

From At The Movies, 7:30 pm on 5 October 2022

Catherine Called Birdy is a medieval coming-of-age film about a 13th-century girl with a 21st-century attitude.

English actor Bella Ramsey had one of the great launches in the TV series Game of Thrones where she played a fierce 13-year-old clan leader putting a bit of backbone into the backsliders.

Now she's been given her own movie - Lena Dunham's adaptation of Karen Cushman's novel Catherine called Birdy.

I won't keep you in suspense. I absolutely loved everything about Catherine Called Birdy which is on Amazon Prime.

But why wouldn't I? Aside from being set in medieval England, and starring Bella Ramsey, with a plot like a rustic, antique love-child of Jane Austen and Geoffrey Chaucer, every time a door opens, one of my favourite actors walks in.

Birdy's father, Lord Rollo, is played by Andrew Scott at the end of his tether, which is how I always like Scott.

Long-suffering Mum is played by Billie Piper, as a dire warning to Birdy about life for women in the Middle Ages.

She's permanently pregnant, though very few of those confinements go full term. The graveyard is full of Birdy's failed brothers and sisters.

But Birdy is approaching marrying age - a flexible number, depending on the wealth and prospects of potential suitors - even if she does the best she can to avoid that undesired outcome.

And to her credit she - and her best friend Perkin the Goat Boy - manage to fend off suitors like Russell Brand of Kent.

But Birdy will have to marry someone - and someone rich - since her father has managed to fritter away much of the family fortune. The fact is, women in the 13th century were a valuable asset - one of the few Lord Rollo can count on.

If Birdy could choose a husband, it might very well be her dashing Uncle George, fresh back from the Crusades and oozing heroic glamour.

While she realises that marrying your uncle isn't on the cards, she's still furious when Aelis, her other best friend, inconveniently falls in love with him too.

One major difference between a witty comedy of manners now and back in the Middle Ages is the precarious life-expectancy of those days. At any moment problems could arise - or be resolved - by people suddenly dying unexpectedly. But meanwhile, Birdy goes out of her way to keep everyone on their toes.

Dotted throughout the film are delightful characters - from Birdy's obnoxious brother Robert the would-be knight and her rather more sensible brother Edward the Monk, to the later arrival the fabulous Sophie Okonedo as a sort of Wife of Bath from The Canterbury Tales - there to give Birdy some much needed support.

Catherine Called Birdy features at least half a dozen familiar faces from Game of Thrones in supporting roles - writer-director Lena Dunham is clearly a fan - but above all it's a showcase for Bella Ramsey, and she's quite marvellous.

Bella's not remotely glamorous - she boasts an almost medieval plainness in repose - but she's hardly ever in repose.

Birdy's hilarious, touching, infuriating, fearless and irresistible,and the script and the performance deliver on every level.

As I say, why wouldn't I love it? The only way it could be more aimed at me would be if the music offered a semi-medieval take on old pop songs. Which of course it does.

'Honey From the Bee' an old '80s hit from a very young Billie Piper is just one of the light touches with which director Lena Dunham enhances Catherine Called Birdy.

My favourite scene though is Birdy visiting her brother at the monastery, and being told off for clambering up a statue of Jesus.

But you'll find your own favourites, I'm sure.

Catherine called Birdy is on Amazon Prime, and the good news is Lena Dunham has another film coming out this year, for which my expectations are now through the roof.

A good encouragement to Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emerald Fennell and Greta Gerwig to get their next projects up. too. though I see Olivia Wilde's new one is ready next week.

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