The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is a 1993 fantasy drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland, executive-produced by Francis Ford Coppola and distributed by Warner Bros. under their Family Entertainment imprint. Starring Kate Maberly, Heydon Prowse, Andrew Knott, John Lynch and Maggie Smith, the film's screenplay was written by Caroline Thompson, based on the 1911 novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The novel was previously adapted in 1919 and 1949. Set in the ominously beautiful landscape of the Yorkshire Moors, in Northern England, Yorkshire's Allerton Castle was used for most of the exterior shots of Misselthwaite Manor (the primary location of the entire story), as well as the interior shots. The film was critically and commercially successful, grossing around $40 million worldwide. Dame Maggie Smith was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and young lead actress Kate Maberly received a "Special Achievement Award For Outstanding Performance" at the 1994 London Critics Circle Film Awards. At the 1993 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, the film's composer, Zbigniew Preisner, won "Best Music" for the film's lush, impressive score. The film also features a song performed by Linda Ronstadt, called "Winter Light", which plays as the credits roll; the song features lyrics set to one of Preisner's orchestral themes ("Awakening of Spring") in the film. In 2005, the British Film Institute included it in their list of the "50 films you should see by the age of 14". Plot In 1901, after an earthquake kills her parents, orphaned 10-year-old Mary Lennox is sent from her home in British India to her uncle Lord Archibald Craven's mansion in the Yorkshire Moors, England. She is unloved and neglected by her parents, who Mary felt were selfish and materialistic. As a result, Mary is cold, stern and so repressed that she "doesn't know how" to cry.