Event

The Secret Garden

Read the book and watch the film! Upstate Films and Oblong Books co-present this special screening, followed by an informal book group discussion.

Following a silent film version in 1919 and a dramatic rendition in 1949, Agnieszka Hollands THE SECRET GARDEN became the third, and to date the most definitive, adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnetts novel for the big screen. Both a critical and a commercial success at the time of its release, Maggie Smith received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in the film, and the British Film Institute today includes it in their list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.

Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly) is a solemn child with wide cheeks and pensive eyes that have never learned to cry. When her parents die in an earthquake in India, she is sent to live at her English uncles (John Lynch) estate, where she meets an invalid cousin she never knew she had, and where she discovers an abandoned garden. With the help of a local boy, Mary sets out to restore the garden, in the process discovering it has secret powers. Like a Victorian picture book come to life, Agnieszka (Europa Europa, Washington Square) Hollands film takes us from a prologue in India through a darkly enchanted recreation of Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire moors. Instinctively capturing the novels gravely magical tone, her SECRET GARDEN delivers both the storys emotional weight and the sweetness of the gardens blossoms.

(UK, USA / 1993 / Directed by Agnieszka Holland)
G / 1 hr 43 mins.