Season 36 - The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton (2006-2007)
Isabella Beeton was the first domestic goddess. Given that she was a wife and mother during the Victorian era, you probably have a very specific image in your mind of what she looks like, an image that this delightful movie pokes fun at while showing you the truth. Isabella wasn't a matronly woman with a large brood, she died at the age of twenty-eight with only two surviving children, suppositions of syphilis fitting the bill thanks to her husband's premarital dalliances. In fact, she didn't know much about being a housewife, but what she didn't know she set out to learn, resulting in the publication of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. It was an instant bestseller, which was a good thing, as her husband's finances were rather precarious despite the popularity of his publication, Boy's Own Magazine. In fact, the life we see here is one of highs and lows, scrimping by while babies die only to have huge success and another pregnancy. The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton is such a hard movie to categorize. It's almost as if it's manic depressive. There's a life-affirming quality to it that is undercut by the fact that Mrs. Hall is wandering around a cemetery talking about her life now that she's dead. The music box score and the illustrations give it a light Victoriana feel. And one could even say that being narrated by a ghost just doubles down on the whole Victorian vibe. The tale of Isabella's short life is a headlong rush. You just connect to the story and, even though it's narrated by her young ghostly self, you can't help but hope that the ending somehow changes. Because what Isabella Beeton did changed the world. While her book projected a certain idea of the perfect wife, she didn't want to be that, she wanted to be something more. She wanted to be an equal to her husband, who, despite his syphilitic dick, wasn't such a dick because he encouraged her. She was allowed to try to be something more, editor, writer, wife, mother. She was a radical that changed women's lives. She gave them a book to exert control over the domestic sphere. She gave them power when they perhaps felt powerless. Her book is still in print to this day. I, of course, bought the replica of the first edition after watching this movie because I fell in love with it the very first time I saw it. And despite how sadly it ends, I still adore it. It's so alive. The way the delicious J.J. Feild as Samuel and delightful Anna Madeley as Isabella play off each other makes them human and real. You believe in them. You want them to succeed. You want them to find happiness. You know that this isn't going to happen. She's going to die and he's going to end up penniless, but for that short brief moment they burned like the sun. And their legacies? The trail of that comet can still be seen.
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