She continued to believe it through all the evidence of Stalins purges and show trials. With Judi Dench, Nina Sosanya, Laurence Spellman, Nicola Sloane. This is the period of the Spanish Civil War, and the Stalinist activists of the British Communist Party are vociferously promoting the Popular Front line of support for the liberal bourgeoisie as the key to defeating fascism. Judi Dench says later as a young woman she just went along with it. More precisely, it avoids many of them. Or Was She Just Being Aubrey Plaza? Running time: 1 hour, 41 . As a scientist, he knew what the effects of the bomb would be; his sole desire was to help Stalin get the weaponnot to balance Soviet possession with Americas future arsenal. Including Norwood, who was 87 at the time. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. This was a woman who was seen pottering around tending to her vegetables and flowers. This was especially so in Great Britain, where journalists Gareth Jones and Malcolm Muggeridge famously reported the truth about Stalins destruction of Ukraine and his responsibility for the subsequent famine. Her lawyer son, Nick Stanley, first agrees to defend her but then disavows her when he learns that she did provide intelligence to the Soviet Union. The authorities decided not to charge Norwood, citing her advanced age. Norwood was the most important British female agent in the whole of the KGB's history as well as the longest-serving of all the Soviet spies in Britain. The film stars Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Ben Miles, Nina Sosanya, Tereza Srbova, and Judi Dench. The fearless warrior Red Sonja sets out to avenge her family's murder and rid her kingdom from the tyrannical rule of evil Queen Gedren. Which is something the real Norwood is unlikely to have done. That might be the only truthful element of the whole story, but thats not why they stuck to it. Judi Dench gives us the painful memories and rickety joints of the old Joan, tending a garden in the suburbs in 2000 when Special Branch police arrest her for espionage. "She once said to me she didn't agree with spying against one's country. She connects with her former Communist lover Leo who encourages her to hand over secrets to the Russians. She earned more than 100 acting credits with appearances in Those Who Can't, Fresh Off the Boat and. What we get instead is the beat of a romantic heart, with punts: Joan loves Leo (sigh), cut to Gothic spires and tea shops. All Rights Reserved. The great bulk of the movie consists of the life of the young Joan (Sophie Cookson), portrayed from her undergraduate days at Cambridge University in 1938 through the immediate postwar years. The revelations came as a total surprise to Norwood's daughter, Anita Ferguson, who didnt find out her mother was a spy until she read about it in the paper. Oppenheimer, recently the subject of John Adams opera Doctor Atomic, was viciously attacked because of his left-wing background and sympathies, and later lost his security clearance. Feb 10. The real Melita was not reluctant. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. Aubrey Plaza and Jenna Ortega Team Up In Huge Win for Strange, Disaffected Women Everywhere! Joan Stanley is a widow living out a quiet retirement in the suburbs when, shockingly, the British Secret Service places her under arrest. Professor Christopher Andrew, a fellow at Corpus Christi college, is one of the few to have seen the actual papers when he collaborated on two books with Mitrokhin. But instead of easy answers, there are complex, nuanced questions, and a treat for a certain . In 2013, author Jennie Rooney published a novel, Red Joan, loosely based on Norwoods life. A virgin until she gets involved with Maxthankfully, the film doesntbrush over a very crucial sex sceneJoan matures in her dealings with men, learning about both male entitlement and masculine nurturing. It was her appointment at the research facility that gave her the access she needed. During that time she had handed over the country's secrets - willingly - to Russia, among them crucial information about the atomic bomb and its development. It is certain that Joan and the other student Communists at Cambridge would have known all this. Without his knowledge, his wife, Sonya, had decided to leave him, after less than three years of marriage. She'd potter around the streets after her morning cup of tea, out of her Che Guevera mug, and deliver copies of the Communist Party newspaper, The Morning Star. This isand wasa lie. While this reasoning doesnt seem to hold much historical accuracy, it makes sense within the context of a sound film that commendably insists on differentiating a womans inexperience from navetRed Joan doesnt burden its female protagonist with the latter. In other words, we stay within Joans womanly point of view throughout and even halfway understand the basis of her unlawful actions when she finally admits them to both her son and the stone-faced interrogators. The real Melita Norwood died in 2005. The I did it to save the world defense was invented only after spies such as Norwood, and the atomic physicist Theodore Hall were exposed and arrested. She died in 2005 at the age of 93. Further muddying the waters is Maxs marriage and inability to get a divorce from his wife. British intelligence only confirmed she was a spy in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, when the former KGB officer Vasili Mitrokhin defected to the United Kingdom and turned over six. [13] A review in The Guardian said that the film "can't disguise its mediocrity",[14] and that the film "squanders its greatest acting asset". Instead of explosions, there are conversations. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. The FBI described it as the most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any source. The story itself is reportedly based on the story ofMelita Norwood, who passed the Soviets information on the Wests nuclear development. Both men opposed the use of atomic weapons. Increasingly, however, millions, young and old alike, are coming to realize that the world is not so different after all, 75 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It Has Been Since the Beginning. I thought perhaps what I had access to might be useful in helping Russia to keep abreast of Britain, America, and Germany. Minutes after Dave Ashford left for work on August 31, 2009, a large moving van pulled up in front of his four-bedroom home. Red Joan is released in cinemas on April 19, 2019. Her work continued after the war and there's no question what she handed over was useful to the Soviets. We later learn that Leos cousin, Sonya, is a top Soviet agent herself, working to recruit others into an espionage network. They fall in love, while trying to raise money for Spain. She did, however, escape capture several times; notably when another Soviet spy ring was discovered at Woolrich Arsenal in 1937. In 1999 Judi Dench won an Oscar for her 6 minutes on screen in "Shakespeare In Love" and here she spends a little more time on screen in "Red Joan". Norwood worked tirelessly against Britain for four decades before she retired from her spy life in 1972. Her lawyer son Nick (Ben Miles), who is stupefied and enraged by the revelations about his mother, in the end stands by her side, as her attorney, as she reads her statement. That love makes her vulnerable throughout the movie, as she is gradually and reluctantly drawn into divulging her countrys secrets. All Rights Reserved. The film goes back and forth between Joans exposure as a spy in 1999 and the 1930s, when she is portrayed as a nave do-gooder. I talked to her about the spying, but she told me very little of what she had done, although she did say my father didn't approve.". The young Joan Smith is studying physics at Cambridge University. Red Joan is based on a novel of the same name, that was in turn Inspired by the real-life tale of Melita Norwood, a British civil servant who worked secretly for the KGB for 40 years, but whose past became public long after she'd retired. The film ends with the information, conveyed on screen, that Joan Stanley was not prosecuted. In 1996, the government decided that the information in the Mitrokhin papers should be available to the public, and handed them over to the Cambridge professor Christopher Andrew so he could write a book about them. An exotic Russian-born beauty called Sonya (Tereza Srbova) befriends her. Through them she begins attending some student political meetings. Red Joan had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2018 and was released on 19 April 2019, by Lionsgate in the United Kingdom. There are more than 30,000 files within the archive, which contain an array of material, including coded directions to secret weapon caches all over Europe. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Hall was such an unrepentant traitor that he didnt even have to be recruited. And instead of murders, there are betrayals. Leo tries to recruit Joan to spy for the Soviet Union, but she rejects his appeal and ends her relationship with him, accusing him of using her. "It was a complete shock at the time. This is bound up with the films version of British life itself. His Democratic Party opponents, far from opposing this, are attacking the fascistic occupant of the White House as soft on Russia! While his identity still remains unknown to the public, Norwood confessed later: "I am not going to deny itI take complete responsibility and blame.". And in April 2019, a film adaptation premiered in the U.K. and the U.S. starring Judi Dench as Joan Stanley, the fictional counterpart to Melita Norwood, the real-life spy. In 2000, Joan is arrested and charged with espionage. Norwood had to give up her studies in Latin and logic at a Southampton university. Because spies dont go to the University College of Southampton, even in movies. Nunn swiftly takes us back in time to 1938, when Joan (a gracefully convincing Sophie Cookson) was a green but genius physics student at Cambridge, grabbing onto new inspirations and expanding her political horizon while growing into her sexuality. Cambridge City Council has approved a number of interactive public art works which will be included in the Timberworks development. Her access to the British atomic weapons program made her. Norwood herself read a statement in her charming English garden explaining her actions to gathered press, as reported in a 1999 New York Times article following her shocking arrest at age 87. After graduating, Joan works as a research assistant for nuclear scientist Max (Stephen . 'Red Joan' is a film based on a true story about KGB's longest-serving British spy Joan Stanley. She appears in the flashbacks about what really happened in 1938. Later in the film, while the elderly Joan is being interrogated after her arrest, her sona member of Parliament and a barristerasks how she could have done it, how horrible it is that she betrayed her country and did this all for a murderous dictator.. Despite these glaring weaknesses, the appearance of Red Joan has some significance. 82 Cast: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Tereza Srbova, Ben Miles. The site's critics consensus reads, "A fascinating real-life story dramatized in perplexingly dull fashion, Red Joan wastes its tale's incredible intrigue as well as the formidable talents of Judi Dench. Kim Philby is often regarded as Britains most notorious double agent but these documents reveal the Russians valued a secretary from Bexleyheath named Melita Norwood far higher. She joins a . The 2018 spy drama, released in the UK on April 19, 2019, is based on the novel of the same name by Jennie Rooney. The collection was painstakingly compiled by Russian spy Vasili Mitrokhin, who worked as a senior archivist in the KGBs foreign intelligence headquarters. The romance theme (and the casting) also serve to dilute the politics and make Joan likeable. Following the story of Joan Stanley, a Cambridge science graduate who stole British nuclear secrets and passed them to the Soviet Union after WWII. [15] A critic in The Telegraph agreed that "Judi Dench is wasted in this absurd portrayal"[16], Last edited on 14 February 2023, at 23:31, British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, "Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson to star in Trevor Nunn's 'Red Joan' (exclusive)", "Review: Judi Dench shows range in 'Red Joan,' portraying a complete idiot", "AFM: Judi Dench's 'Red Joan' Biopic Sells Internationally (Exclusive)", "Toronto: Timothee Chalamet Starrer 'Beautiful Boy,' Dan Fogelman's 'Life Itself' Among Festival Lineup", "Judi Dench's Spy Thriller 'Red Joan' Lands at IFC Films (EXCLUSIVE)", "Sophie Cookson & Judi Dench in First Trailer for Spy Drama 'Red Joan', "Red Joan review Judi Dench's 'granny spy' brings OAP to the KGB", "Red Joan review Judi Dench underused in brittle defector drama", "Red Joan, review: Judi Dench is wasted in this absurd portrayal of the Bolshevik of Bexleyheath", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red_Joan&oldid=1139400314, Freddie Gaminara as William, later Sir William Mitchell, This page was last edited on 14 February 2023, at 23:31. The advancing timeline gently pushes Leo out of the picture and introduces a new partner-in-crime/love-interest for Joan, the gentlemanly professor Max Davis (Stephen Campbell Moore). Joan in turn tearfully confesses to Max that she provided the intelligence that led to his being charged, but he forgives her. In technical terms, its a proficiently made film by the evergreen Trevor Nunn or it would be if it were not so determined to embrace all the cliches of the moment, both about British spies and films for women. "I must have thought if any of the work the BN-FMRA was doing, not secret stuff, might be useful," she explained. Well, she was partly aided by the boys club atmosphere of MI5, the British Security Service. In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. Red Joan evades all of these difficult and complex historical questions by converting the spy into a more sympathetic character, and making the issue one of mitigating circumstances in betraying ones country, rather than forthright internationalist opposition to imperialist war. 0 0. The film is based on a novel of the same name written by Jennie Rooney, which was itself inspired by the life of Melita Norwood. Her hordes of @generalhospitalabc followers will miss her. Through Sonya, Smith meets and falls in love with the intense intellectual, Leo. The filmmakers show that this was supposedly a turning point for her. Hence, she didnt consider herself a spy, a point made by the fictional Joan in the movie. [8] Shortly after, IFC Films acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. Sonya explains that this is a necessary tactic Stalin took in order to postpone war during which time Russia can get prepared.. It seemed as if she'd got away with it all - and there was a lot to get away with. "I did what I did not to make money but to help prevent the defeat of a new system which had, at great cost, given ordinary people food and fares which they could afford, a good education and a health service," she said, per the paper. Except, this simple old woman (whose story is based on the real-life case of Southeast Londons Melita Norwood) doesnt seem to be all that ordinarysoon enough, the British Secret Service pulls her out of her quiet retirement and arrests her on the grounds of treason. She becomes involved with Socialists and radical politics through her friends, Sonya and Leo Galich, German Jews. So when she passes a student rally for the Spanish Republic, she stops to listen. The date was April 8, 1912, and although the Henies had a handsome son, four-year-old Leif, the new daughter had a special lock on their hearts, especially Wilhelm's. Whatever Sonja wanted, she . Working out of a government laboratory and eventually becoming lovers during a perilous cross-Atlantic trip, the duo shares a joint view of the world but differs in their respective implementations. This Joan arrives at Cambridge in 1938 to study physics. Melita Norwood was a great-grandmother when her espionage was finally revealed. The film portrays Norwood as a doddering old woman that when unmasked struggles to understand what she did wrong and what is happening to her. She was a traitor to her country and had got away with it for decades. Uneven it may be, Red Joan still emanates a memorable essence, one thats refreshingly and believably feminine. 6. Sonya flees Britain and Joan learns that Sonya's child was Leo's. When everything she had done came out in the newspapers her neighbours were stunned. As a result, she chooses to spy for the Soviets as a means of keeping balanceto make sure that all sides have equally destructive capacities and therefore wont attack one another. Born in 1912 she was brought up with Communists, Socialists and Leninists. The historian David Burke writes that the information [Norwood] supplied on the behavior of uranium metal at high temperatures permitted the Soviet Union to test an atomic bomb four years earlier than British and American intelligence thought possible. In his book, the British expert on espionage, Christopher Andrew, writes that Norwood was both the most important British female agent in KGB history and the longest serving of all Soviet spies in Britain. The KGB described her, Andrew writes, as a committed, reliable and disciplined agent, striving to be of the utmost assistance., Speaking to the press in front of her modest home, Norwood explained that she did not consider what she was doing as spying against her country, saying, I did what I did, not to make money, but to help prevent the defeat of a new system which had, at great cost, given ordinary people food and fares which they could afford, a good education and a health service. Sadly, NorwoodsWikipedia pageis more of a thrilling yarn than most ofRed Joan. "I did what I did, not to make money, but to help prevent the defeat of a new system which had, at great cost, given ordinary people food and fares which they could afford, a good education and a health service.". only confirmed she was a spy in the 1990s. For proof, look no further than . They claim she handed British secrets on atomic weaponry over to the Soviet. Prof Andrew said: Its interesting that in all that time, there is never a moment when the KGB lose contact with Melita Norwood but they completely drop Kim Philby.. Donald Trump announced three months ago that the US would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, further igniting a new nuclear arms race. She began passing information to the Soviets in 1937 when she was hired as an aide to the director of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, a generic organizational name that hid the sections actual task: beating the rest of the world to the atom bomb. Her son the barrister (Ben Miles) is outraged, then appalled when he realises she did it. Spy Melita Norwood (far left) pictured with her mother Gertrude, sister Gerty and half-brother Alfred Brandt. what percentage of baby boomers are millionaires post oak hotel sunday brunch gator patch vs gator pave white sands footprints science. Norwood undoubtedly would have followed Moscow, as would have her comrades in Britain. Red Joan. A writer, journalism and follower of Lenin - who formed the Communist Party in Great Britain - they were acquainted. The film is, instead, a plodding, intermittently entertaining showcase for Sophie Cookson (who you might recognize as Roxy inKingsman) encapsulated within a cliched frame narrative. Who would have thought she was a spy? Yet even Norwood didn't realize she'd been discovered until reporters came knocking at her door seven years later; it seems prosecuting spies is harder than it looks, and the British government decided it would "not be in the public interest" to prosecute her, also per The Independent. Once on his way out of a pub he was seen dropping on the floor the file he had to hand over from the Foreign Office.. She was enthusiastic about spying for Moscow because she believed a new political system needed to be given a chance. Originally created as a foil to Howard's Conan the Barbarian, she is the flame-haired she-devil with a sword, one of the most . Norwood was coming clean because a Cambridge historian had discovered her espionage while writing a book, but she was unrepentant. "She thought of Stalin in those early days as a sort of Clement Attlee figure. Sonya (Tereza Srbova) and her cousin Leo (Tom Hughes), two German Jews, lead Joan into a world of dark-roomed film screenings and heated discussions of Soviet political purges, where, of course, only Joan is wise enough to question Soviet propaganda. British intelligence only confirmed she was a spy in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, when the former KGB officer Vasili Mitrokhin defected to the United Kingdom and turned over six trunks of archive information about Soviet spying. TikTok User Sparks Ethical Debate, People Who Struggle With Food and Body Image Really Want You to Ditch These Five Common Phrases, Bethany Hamilton Slammed on Social Media For Transphobic Rant. So when she passes a student rally for the Spanish Republic, she stops to listen. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. The Russians had been struggling to find a solution to an issue they were having with creating the atomic bomb when Norwood found the answer. After graduating, Joan works as a research assistant for nuclear scientist Max (Stephen Campbell Moore), the only man who seems to immediately recognize her value, and with whom she inevitably has an affair. Who is always right? And this lie is still being perpetuated by Communists and their defenders. The main thing she gets out of it, however, is to see a fiery young man named Leo speaking, with whom she is smitten. He said: "Melita was not a hard-line Stalinist. Appalled by what he saw in the archives, Mitrokhin had decided to expose the KGBs actions by compiling the papers. It also allowed Stalin to finally give North Koreas first leader, Kim-Il Song, permission to invade the South in the attempt to create a unified Korea under Communist control. Love-struck spy a paler, more palatable version of the real Red Joan. "She handed over a very large number of documents of a scientific and technical nature, and these found practical application.". Norwood died on June 2, 2005 never facing trial for her crimes. The story of Joan Stanley, who was exposed as the K.G.B.'s longest-serving British spy. Her lofty motivations are a far cry from Norwood's deliberate choices. Here and elsewhere, Red Joan is factually accurate and grippingly evokes the period leading up to the Second World War. The film is adapted from a novel of the same name by Jennie Rooney, which in turn is loosely based on the story of Melita Norwood, arrested in 1999 at the age of 87 and accused of passing classified information to the USSR for four decades. Joan Stanley has a secret. Clockwise from top left, Anthony Blunt (1907 - 1983), Donald Duart Maclean (1913 - 1983), Kim Philby (1912 - 1988) and Guy Burgess (1911 - 1963). After the Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb in 1949, Max is arrested by Scotland Yard and is charged with espionage for the Soviet Union. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. The story was changed to turn Joan Stanley into a patriotic Briton, despite her pacifist feelingssomeone seen as more palatable to a liberal audience today. In 1945, Joan is appalled by the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and is frightened when it is suggested that Britain develop its own atomic bombs to possibly use against the Soviet Union. In 1923, the British philosopher Bertrand Russell had already exposed the true nature of the Soviet dictatorship in his book, The Theory and Practice of Bolshevism. Red Joan raises very crucial and complex historical problems. (Image: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images), Dame Judi Dench as the older Joan Stanley in the film. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Deborah Krieger is a freelance arts and culture writer and nascent art/media historian and curator. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The issues that motivated the fictional Joan Stanley are all too real in the 21st century, and the lessons of the two world wars and the rise of fascism need be studied and assimilated today. Joan visits Max in prison where he informs her that his wife has agreed to a divorce. The film stars Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson, and is directed by Trevor Nunn. The film depicts her as a woman who, while clearly out of her depth, is really the person responsible for seeing nuclear bombs as a deterrent rather than a weapon. Agent Hola's time was up. In flashbacks, Joan is played by the relatively unknown but promising Sophie Cookson. Were working to restore it. There seemed to be only one answer to what one should do. Joan, a standout student, graduates and goes to work at Tube Alloys, the code-named firm that is engaged in a British version of the US Manhattan Project, as the wartime allies pursue, at least for the moment, independent efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Information on the Wests nuclear development was discovered at Woolrich Arsenal in 1937 on April 19,.! Had got away with it, is a freelance arts and culture writer and nascent art/media historian and.. 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Spellman, Nicola Sloane on our knowledge of you ), Dame Judi Dench as most. She retired from her spy life in 1972, Fresh Off the Boat and Those who &. Screen, that Joan and the casting ) also serve to dilute politics. There 's no question what she handed over a very large number of documents of thrilling... Promising Sophie Cookson, and is directed by Trevor Nunn was exposed as most! Include adverts from us and third parties based on Norwoods life the period leading up the.