It took Canadian writer/director Mort Ransen the best part of a decade to find a way of making a movie from a screenplay he had co-written called The Glace Bay Miners' Museum. Those approached in the process reportedly found the subject matter too grim, the contact points for an audience unfamiliar with either Nova Scotia or the coalmining industry too few and far between.
They reckoned without Ransen's determination - and without the emotional power Helena Bonham Carter would eventually bring to the role of Margaret MacNeil, the character who sets up the Glace Bay Museum in the 1950s.
Ransen's dogged determination to get the film made eventually convinced production companies and film support agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. And the power of Bonham Carter's performance in the central role - as different as it could be from the polite, repressed characters who have become her stock-in-trade in the Merchant Ivory films - doubtless had something to do with the decision to change the title.
Filmed in the late summer and early autumn of 1994 in Scotland and on Cape Breton island off Nova Scotia, Margaret's Museum is the story of a love affair and the oppressive background against which it flowered. Margaret's grandfather is dying of Black Lung disease, and both her father and her brother have died down the mine. Neil Currie (Scottish actor Clive Russell), recently arrived from Scotland with a fondness for his homeland's national drink and a determination to play the bagpipes whenever possible, is not at all Margaret's cup of tea.
But the bond between them strengthens, despite the opposition of Margaret's mother (Kate Nelligan), who does not believe Neil's promise he will never go back down the mine. She is right, of course. Times get hard, and the mine is the only option.
After his death, Margaret throws her energies into the Museum, which contains not only relics of the coal industry, but relics of the miners, too...
Cerca de una década tardó el director y escritor canadiense Mort Ransen en encontrar la forma de hacer una película con el guión que habia co-escrito, llamado The Glace Bay Miners' Museum. Aquellas personas con las que conectó encontraron eltema demasiado oscuro y los puntos de contacto entre una audiencia poco familiarizada con Nova Scotia o con la industria de la minería demasido escasos y alejados.
La determinación de Ransen para que la película se realizara acabó convenciendo a las companías productoras y las agencias de apoyo al cine a ambos lados del Atlántico. Y la fuerza de la interpretación de Helena Bonham Carter en el papel principal - todo lo diferente que cabe de sus educados y reprimandos personajes en las películas de Merchant Ivory - ha tenido sin duda algo que ver con la decisión de cambiar el título de la película por el de El Museo de Margaret.
Filmada a finales de verano y principios del otoño de 1994 en Escocia y en la isla de Cape Breton de Nueva Escotia, El Museo De Margaret es una historia de amor que florece a pesar de los momentos opresivos que la rodea. El abuelo de Margaret se está muriendo de tuberculosis, y su padre y hermano ya murieron en las minas. Neil Cume (actor escoces Clive Russell) acaba de llegar de Escocia, con su apetito por la bebida de sus país y una determinación por tocar la gaita en todo momento, no parece entusiasmar demasiado a Margaret.
Pero el lazo entre ellos crece a pesar de la oposición que impone la madre de Margaret (Kate Nelligan), quien no cree en la promesa de Neil, de nunca mas bajar a la mina. Por supuesto ella tiene razón. Llegan tiempos duros y la mina es la unica opción.
Después de su muerte, Margaret, se mete de lleno en su museo, que contiene no solo reliquias de la industria minera, sino de los mineros tambien...
Prod co: Ranfilm, Imagex, Tele-Action, Skyline Pictures, with the participation of Telefilm Canada, British Screen, the National Film Board of Canada, Nova Scotia FDC and SOGIC.
Prod: Mort Ransen, Christopher Zimmer, Claudio Luca, Steve Clark-Hall.
Dir: Mort Ransen.
Guión (Scr): Mort Ransen, Gerald Wexler, based on a short story by Sheldon Currie.
Foto (Ph): Vic Sarin.
Art dir (Prod des): William Fleming, David McHenry.
Mus: Milan Kymlicka.
Mont (Ed): Rita Roy.
Ints (Cast): Helena Bonham Carter, Clive Russell, Craig Olejnik, Kate Nelligan, Kenneth Welsh.
Ventas (Sales): Malofilm.
Duración (Running time): 114 mins.
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