Enlightenment philosopher and author Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was a pioneer in the fight for equal rights for women.
Now the British woman’s life is being made into a film in Sweden, among other places - with a Norwegian in the lead role and a French director.
“I’ve probably never been so culturally confused. Or linguistically,” says Renate Reinsve with a laugh.
The Norwegian, who, like Stellan Skarsgård, was nominated for an Oscar earlier this year for her role in Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” says she studied English pronunciation for six months before starting filming “If Love Should Die”.
“This has probably required more preparation than I’ve ever done before. Not just the language, but learning about that time, about how she thought, how people lived at that time,” she says.
I am very humbled to play a British historical figure and hope I will be forgiven for my English.
“Deep empathy”
In order to play Mary Wollstonecraft, Renate Reinsve has spent a lot of time in London and had long conversations with a historian who was involved in the script.
Sometimes it’s hard to turn off the character, she admits.
When you become so deeply involved in someone’s life and the details of that life, you feel a very deep empathy for that person and that time, says Renate Reinsve.
It’s very hard not to be affected. She had a very challenging life, so I think a lot about what she might have felt.
“Pioneer in feminism”
The team has a total of eight days of filming in Sweden. The next few days will include time at the Gathenhielm House in central Gothenburg - which in the film represents Mary Wollstonecraft’s home in London.
“If Love Should Die” follows Mary Wollstonecraft around the time of the French Revolution, when she wrote her most famous work, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.”
The film is written and directed by Frenchwoman Mia Hansen-Løve, who had no intention of making a historical film at all. But when Mary Wollstonecraft’s fate gripped her, there was no turning back.
“It wasn’t a rational decision. It wasn’t that I decided to make a film about a pioneer in feminism,” says Mia Hansen-Løve.
But it felt like a calling to make this film. I had to tell her story.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and women’s rights activist.
Her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman from 1792, is considered a feminist classic. In the book, Mary Wollstonecraft argued for women to have the same access to education as men.
For a few years, during the time of the French Revolution, she lived in Paris. Later, she also travelled to Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
At the same time, her private life was marked by tragedy. She gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Fanny, in 1794 and attempted suicide when her relationship with the girl’s father broke down. A few years later, after becoming pregnant again, she married the writer William Godwin.
She died just a few days after her daughter Mary was born in 1797. The daughter later wrote, under her married name Mary Shelley, the novel “Frankenstein”.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica and others.
