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Culture & Living
The trailer for Ammonite, the queer period piece starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, just dropped
Queer romance? Desolate beaches? A wealth of bonnets? Sign me up
As the proud owner of a 3XL-size Portrait of a Lady on Fire T-shirt that I had to special order online, you can imagine the excitement that coursed through me when I read the news that a new film would star Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan as two 1800s-era Englishwomen finding love against a rugged oceanic backdrop. Queer romance? Desolate beaches? A wealth of bonnets? Sign me up. Watch the full trailer below:
In the film, which is titled Ammonite and will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Winslet plays a fossil hunter who is tasked with helping Ronan’s character, the melancholic wife of a wealthy tourist, convalesce as her apprentice. “I don’t like the water,” insists Ronan, who’s seen in the trailer wearing a wide variety of excellent, Little Women–worthy hats, but something tells me she’ll warm up—not only to the water, but to Winslet’s presence in her life.
Between the seaside bonding, the hired artisan meets rich girl dynamic and the queer romance blossoming in plain sight, it’s easy to compare Ammonite to French director Céline Sciamma’s gorgeous 2019 film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which won the Queer Palm at Cannes and was nominated for an Independent Spirit award, a Critics’ Choice award, and a Golden Globe award. Could Ammonite’s director, Francis Lee, follow in Sciamma’s footsteps?
Sure, it’s hard not to wonder whether stories about women who love women always have to be dreamy, Vivaldi-scored period pieces, as writer Jill Gutowitz recently noted on Twitter, but we’re so starved for queer media that any good-faith bit of representation still feels like a win—and truly, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t desperate to watch Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan exchange looks of longing over fossil-laden shores.
This article originally appeared on Vogue.com
