Directed by
Ralph Fiennes
Cast
Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas
Producers
Gabrielle Tana, Stewart Mackinnon, Christian Baute, Carolyn Marks Blackwood
Synopsis
A woman’s past is held inside her, locked away – a painful secret. A past life, a past love is kept hidden. This is the dilemma of Nelly Ternan, the heroine of THE INVISIBLE WOMAN.
Nelly, a happily married mother and school teacher, is haunted by her past. Her memories, provoked by remorse and guilt, take us back in time to follow the story of her relationship with Charles Dickens, with whom she discovered an exciting but fragile complicity.
Dickens – famous, controlling and emotionally isolated within his success – falls for Nelly, one of three sisters – all actresses. The theatre is a vital arena for Dickens – a brilliant amateur actor – a man more emotionally coherent in his work, or on stage, than in life. The nature of performance and the life of the theatre are an important part of this film, particularly in regards to the perception of women in theatre and the ambivalence of their position. Nelly, in some ways a muse for Dickens, becomes the focus of his passion.
For both of them, secrecy is the price, and for Nelly a life of “invisibility”.