The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

For the novel, see Judith Hearne.

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
Video cover
Directed byJack Clayton
Screenplay byPeter Nelson
Based onJudith Hearne
by Brian Moore
Produced byRichard Johnson
Peter Nelson
StarringMaggie Smith
Bob Hoskins
Wendy Hiller
CinematographyPeter Hannan
Edited byTerry Rawlings
Music byGeorges Delerue
Production
company
Distributed byIsland Pictures
Release date
  • 23 December 1987 (1987-12-23) (United States)
Running time
110 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office£112,190 (UK)[1]

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne is a 1987 British drama film made by HandMade Films Ltd. and United British Artists (UBA) starring Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins. It was directed by Jack Clayton (his final theatrical film) and produced by Richard Johnson[2] and Peter Nelson, with George Harrison and Denis O'Brien as executive producers. The music score was by Georges Delerue and the cinematography by Peter Hannan.

The screenplay was by Peter Nelson from the novel Judith Hearne by Northern Irish-Canadian writer Brian Moore. The story presents "a character study film about a woman's rage against the Church for her wasted life".[3] Moore wrote the novel after leaving Ireland, in part because of the religious conflict there, and was living in Canada. The book was published in 1955 and was optioned for the stage and screen almost immediately. John Huston optioned it for a film with Katharine Hepburn. Director Irvin Kershner planned on casting Deborah Kerr. Eventually, Jack Clayton, a Catholic himself, was chosen to direct.

The cast also features Wendy Hiller, Marie Kean, Ian McNeice, Alan Devlin, Prunella Scales, Sheila Reid, and Aidan Gillen in his first film appearance. The novel is set in Belfast, but for the film the story was relocated to Dublin.

BBC Radio 4 produced a radio drama adaptation directed by Michael Quinn in 1995.

  1. ^ "Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing" (PDF). British Film Institute. 2005. p. 25.
  2. ^ Coveney, Michael (7 June 2015). "Richard Johnson obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kael was invoked but never defined (see the help page).