Leave All Fair is a 1985 New Zealand made film starring

John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud ( ; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Britis ...

John Middleton Murry John Middleton Murry (6 August 1889 – 12 March 1957) was an English writer. He was a prolific author, producing more than 60 books and thousands of essays and reviews on literature, social issues, politics, and religion during his lifetime. ...

the husband of

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the Literary modernism, modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world and have been ...

. He is presented as a sanctimonious exploiter of her memory, who ill-treated her during their association.

Jane Birkin Jane Mallory Birkin ( ; 14 December 1946 – 16 July 2023) was a British and French actress, singer, and designer. She had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema. A native of London, Birkin began her career as an actress, ...

plays both Mansfield in flashbacks and the fictitious Marie Taylor who finds a letter from the dying Mansfield to Murry in his papers. The theme was developed by New Zealand director Stanley Harper, but he was fired two weeks before shooting, and John Reid took over the project, introducing the "ghost" element and the two time frames. Shot in France at Moulin d'Ande and St Pierre du Vauvray with finance raised by

Pacific Films Pacific Films is a film production company in New Zealand.Not to be confused with other companies with the name, including the film company in Hawaii that produced '' Phantom Below''. History The Pacific Film Unit was established in Wellington ...

, the film had to be finished before the 1984 cut-off date for New Zealand tax breaks.

Plot

The film is set in France in 1956, 33 years after the death of Mansfield and a year before Murry's own death. Murry visits André de Sarry a (fictional) French publisher who is about to publish an edition of her collected letters and journals. Murry is presented as struggling with his conscience as he recalls the ill and alone Mansfield (seen in flashbacks), and decides to publish almost all of her work. de Sarry's New Zealand partner Marie Taylor reads Mansfield's work and among Middleton Murry's papers finds a letter to him from the dying Mansfield. She confronts him as "another exploitative male" who makes a sanctimonious speech at the book launch. The letter from Mansfield says (rather ambiguously): ::''I should like him to publish as little as possible …He will understand that I desire to leave as few traces of my camping ground as possible .... All my manuscripts I leave entirely to you to do what you like with .... Please destroy all letters you do not wish to keep and all papers .... Have a clean sweep.... and leave all fair, will you.''

Cast

as both

and Marie Taylor *

Féodor Atkine Féodor Atkine (born 27 February 1948) is a French actor of Russian-Polish origin. A screen performer, he has participated in numerous plays, films and television series in France and abroad. Life and career Féodor Atkine was born in Paris to ...

as André de Sarry *

Simon Ward Simon Anthony Fox Ward (16 October 194120 July 2012) was a British stage and film actor from Beckenham, England. He was known chiefly for his performance as Winston Churchill in the 1972 film '' Young Winston''. He played many other screen roles ...

as young John (John Jeune) * as Lisa *

Maurice Chevit Maurice Chevit (31 October 1923 – 2 July 2012) was a French actor. Maurice Chevit made his theatrical début just after the Second World War, and made his first screen appearance in 1946 in René Clément's film ''Le Père tranquille''. ...

as Alain * Mireille Alcantara as Violetta * Leonard Pezzino as Alfredo

Film reception

Helen Martin says the film is "beautifully shot in the European tradition" and it was described at the London Film Festival as "arguably the best film to come out of New Zealand so far", but others criticised the portrayal of Middleton Murry as "simplifying the KM/Murry relationship into a cliché". ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' said it was "an affecting experience".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0089467, title=Leave All Fair
''Leave All Fair''
at NZ On Screen (with video extracts) 1985 films New Zealand drama films Films set in France 1985 drama films Films set in the 1950s Films shot in France 1980s New Zealand films 1980s English-language films Cultural depictions of Katherine Mansfield