Firelight

Firelight is a 1997 period romance film written and directed by William Nicholson and starring Sophie Marceau and Stephen Dillane. The film is about a woman who agrees to bear the child of an anonymous English landowner in return for payment to resolve her father's debts. When the child is born, the woman gives up the child as agreed. Seven years later, the woman is hired as a governess to a girl on a remote Sussex estate. The girl's father is the anonymous landowner. Filmed on location in Firle, England and Calvados, France, the film premiered at the Deauville American Film Festival on 14 September 1997. Firelight was Nicholson's first film as a director. Plot In 1837, French-speaking Swiss governess Elisabeth Laurier agrees to bear a child for an anonymous English landowner in return for money (£500) needed to pay her father's debts. They meet over three nights at a coastal hotel and have sex. Despite their wish for detachment, they develop a deeply passionate connection during their lovemaking by firelight. Their feelings grow after they converse on the beach and at the hotel. Nine months later (10 August 1838), Elisabeth gives birth to a girl, and as agreed, gives up her daughter to the care of the father. Over the coming years, Elisabeth never forgets her child. She begins to keep a journal of watercoloured flowers and plants, adding a page for each of the holidays and her daughter's birthdays which occur while they are apart. The anonymous Englishman is Charles Godwin, a landowner and struggling sheep farmer, who can barely keep the creditors of his philandering father, Lord Clare, at bay. Charles's wife, Amy Godwin, is paralysed and catatonic due to a horseriding accident. Amy's sister, Constance, runs the Godwin household. Seven years after giving up her daughter, Elisabeth gains employment as the new governess for the child, who is named Louisa. She has done so knowing that Louisa is her daughter. Initially, Charles rejects Elisabeth, and demands that she leave immediately. However, Constance insists that he should give the new governess a month to find a new situation. Showing Elisabeth his wife, Charles makes Elisabeth swear never to reveal to Louisa or anyone else the nature of their previous relationship.