Ryan’s Daughter is a 1970s American film directed by David Lean, starring Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles. An emblematic film for an entire generation, “Ryan’s Daughter” is set in the tormented Ireland of the 1910s… It tells the story of a young Irish woman’s impossible love affair with a British soldier who has come to take command of a garrison.
1916. Rosy Ryan lives in the quiet village of Kirrary on the Dingle Peninsula. Daughter of the local tavern owner, she married Charles Shaughnessy, a schoolmaster more than 15 years her senior. But Rosy is not happily married: although in love, her husband fails to live up to her expectations. Longing for more romance, Rosy meets Major Randolph Doryan, a British man who has come to take control of the region. Charmed, she decides to make him her lover… despite the tense political situation, pitting the Irish against the British…
The film is clearly inspired by Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary”. Filmed in the heart of the most beautiful landscapes on the Irish west coast, “Ryan’s Daughter” is a film full of momentum, which has seduced a whole generation (winning 2 Oscars and the David di Donatello award).
Although the genre is classic, it allows us to project ourselves into the Ireland of the 1910s, at the time of the Easter Rising, the Irish War of Independence and then the Civil War. A story that better illustrates the torn Ireland of those years, while pushing the metaphor to the couple formed by the 2 lovers.
A lovely film, which has certainly aged, but still retains all its power!
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