Ethel & Ernest

Ethel works as a maid in a house. Ernest is a milkman. They meet in London at the end of the twenties; she looks out of a window, he passes on his bicycle and waves. They marry, buy a small house and have a son. From then the film watches the same house for forty years: the war, the shelter, the arrival of electricity, television, their son going to art school, and the two of them growing old. The great events all happen outside and enter the house as news. Roger Mainwood directs. Jim Broadbent and Brenda Blethyn provide the voices. The source is Raymond Briggs's graphic novel; Briggs was describing his own parents and the book is an award winning work. The animation was drawn by hand and the pastel manner of the book is kept directly. What the narrative builds is ordinariness; neither character enters history and the film does not present that as a lack. The difference in political opinion between Ethel and Ernest continues throughout, and the film gives it not as a conflict but as a habit. The ending is direct and unsoftened; the last section shows old age and death plainly. Paul McCartney wrote a song for the film and it is used over the close. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet animation and narratives resting on family history. Who it is not for: little happens, the pace is slow, and the last section is heavy.