| The
lowdown: Produced in 1996 and directed by Michael Winterbottom,
'Jude' is a story of forbidden love in the
Victorian era. Based on a Thomas Hardy novel, 'Jude the Obscure', it stars Christopher Eccleson as Jude Fawley, a working-class man who has dreams of going to university and teaches himself Latin and Greek, after being inspired to educate himself by his schoolteacher, Richard Phillotson. Jude marries Arabella Donn in the belief that she is carrying his child, but it was a lie and the marriage ends. He travels to the university town of Chistminster, where he works as a stonemason and applies to study at Biblioll College. His application is rejected, with the master of the college suggesting that he "remain in his sphere", but he meets and falls in love with Sue Bridehead (Kate Winslet), despite the fact that they are cousins. Eventually realising that they cannot be together, he introduces her to Phillotson, who proposes to her. However, this marriage is also a failure, and Sue finds solace in the arms of Jude. David Tennant has a small
role as an undergraduate student who challenges Jude to recite the Creed
in Latin (which he
The
verdict: 'Jude' is a powerful film full of emotion and pathos,
and Eccleston and Winslet are both superb. It is
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