Miss Potter

Colour, 35 mm
United Kingdom, USA, 2006, 92 min
Section: Horizons

About the film

London, 1902. Beatrix Potter is a 36-year-old spinster living in the grip of her affluent, authoritarian parents. Everything changes however when she finally publishes her illustrated children’s book about Peter Rabbit. Suddenly she is rich and famous – and a new world opens up for in which her congenial publisher Norman Warne and his emancipated spinsterish sister Millie play important roles. When Beatrix accepts Norman’s offer of marriage, she finds that her pretentious parents refuse to give their consent to having a “tradesman” in the family. The life story of British illustrator, author, and naturalist Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) is the inspiration for a stylised story about a talented, educated, and intelligent woman struggling to reconcile her own vision of life with Victorian prejudices. The leading roles in the film, which combines elements of romantic comedy and biography, are played by Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.

About the director

Chris Noonan (1952, Sydney) took his first film award at the age of 16 at his home-town Sydney Film Festival. He studied at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and began his work in television where he made primarily serials, including the war series The Cowra Breakout (1984) with Philip Noyce. He received international box-office success, acknowledged with an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and six Oscar nominations (for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director, among others), for his family comedy about a smart pig, Babe (1995), which was adapted from the Dick King-Smith’s best-selling novel. As an executive producer he contributed to the box-office success of Feeling Sexy (director Davida Allen, 1999), the story of an art student, which was shown at the Karlovy Vary IFF in 2000 (Forum of Independents). After Miss Potter (2006) he is now planning this year’s cinema release of a variation on Macbeth based on a novel by Rebecca Reisert, The Third Witch.