Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases


Biddy (1983)

Director: Christine Edzard

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A meticulously realised, perfectly nostalgic picture whose subject is a Victorian nurserymaid. Biddy's voice, decorated equally with passages from English literature and pithy homilies, runs on and on (all other voices are surreal noises-off) marshalling the forces of the nursery and the pattern of her charges' lives. She revels, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle-like, in mending, clean linen and the laying of tea, happiest when 'everything is in its proper place, everything is in order'. But even as this spare, deliberately wrought film so carefully points and extolls the virtues of Biddy and those many others like her, it is apparent that what is really being celebrated is the paraphernalia of these lives. The sewing-boxes, the button-hooks, the pieces of treen and piles of handworked lace, these are the real stars of the film.

Author: FD

Time Out Film Guide


What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Top Stories

Ridley Scott interview

Ridley Scott interview

Director Ridley Scott tells Cath Clarke why he's making a science fiction comeback

Cannes Film Festival 2012: half-time report

Cannes Film Festival 2012: half-time report

Dave Calhoun reports on the hits, misses and a shocking new masterpiece from Michael Haneke

Wes Anderson interview

Wes Anderson interview

Cath Clarke talks to the director of Cannes's opening film

Open-air movies in London

Open-air movies in London

Cath Clarke rounds up this summer's crop of outdoor film screenings

The 100 best French films

The 100 best French films

In honour of Cannes, we reveal the best French films of all time

Ken Loach interview

Ken Loach interview

Ken Loach talks to us about his Cannes Film Festival entry 'The Angels' Share'