These Foolish Things (12A)
- Consumer Advice: Contains moderate sex references
- Run time: 1 hour 47 mins
- Genre: Drama
- Release date: 10th March 2006
- Starring: Lauren Bacall, Anjelica Huston, Terence Stamp
- Directed by: Julia Taylor-Stanley
- Distributor: Swipe Productions
Plot Synopsis
Lily Evans, a successful stage actress and breathtaking beauty, sits at her dressing table amid bouquets of lilies and roses, her silk dresses draped over a Chinese ebony screen. She gazes at a photograph of a handsome young uniformed man, wistfully tracing his features. Diana, her delightful three-year old daughter watches intently as her mother dabs a touch of carmine on her pale lips and pins a diamond brooch to her dress.
As Lily takes to the stage, young Diana watches carefully from the wings, emulating her mother’s every gesture. Lily takes her bow, the audience gives her a standing ovation as the curtain descends. The rapturous applause continues as the curtain rises again, Lily takes another bow, staggers a little and a gasp goes up from the audience as she falls silently to the floor.
Diana, now alone in the world and a protégée of her Aunt and Uncle, grows up with only one desire: to be a successful actress like her mother. Unperturbed by the cruel mocking of her deeply unpleasant cousin Garstin (Leo Bill), and his friend Douglas Middleton (Mark Umbers), Diana defiantly follows her dream and enrolls at Lady Benson’s Drama School thanks to the generosity and encouragement of her beloved Aunt Ada (Haydn Gwynne). Soon she makes friends with Dolly (Eve Myles), one of her fellow drama students and together they tramp the streets looking for work.
When Diana meets handsome young Robin Gardner (David Leon), a struggling and penniless playwright, he helps her by finding digs at his shabby but homely boarding house, run by the kindly landlady Miss Abernethy (Julia McKenzie).
Diana is rejected at every turn, but nothing can dampen her spirits and she remains determined to fulfill her dream of the glittering high life. Her friendship with Robin deepens and she becomes his inspiration, but she longs for something more.
When Diana and Robin meet Christopher Lovell (Andrew Lincoln), an out-of-work actor turned director, at a society party hosted by the flamboyant Everard Carter (Jamie Glover) Robin becomes very much the worse for wear and Christopher accompanies him and Diana back to Miss Abernethy’s boarding house. There is clearly an attraction between him and the budding actress but Diana feels emotionally drained and confused, still desperate to experience romance and for Robin to show his feelings.
Diana persistently pursues theatrical agent Meadowsweet (Nickolas Grace) and persuades him to read Robin’s script. He likes the script but informs the pair that it will never be produced without a ‘star’ name. Robin suggests Douglas Middleton, now a faded matinee idol, and the script is put in the post. Douglas, keen to revive his flagging career, reads the script and eventually finds a backer for the play in doyenne and Patron to the Arts Lottie Osgood (Anjelica Huston) when she sweeps in to town from New York. Robin celebrates by taking Diana to the Ritz, and fuelled by too much claret, finally declares his love for her.
The play, thanks to Lottie’s financial support and advice from the Grande Dame of Theatre Dame Lydia Simons (Lauren Bacall) finally opens on the London stage with Diana in the leading role, fulfilling her dreams; but the struggle experienced by the three central characters in their desperate bid for recognition is overshadowed by the threat of war which is now imminent. Soon Diana is forced to make a heart rending decision that will affect all of their lives forever.