Posted on 12/14/2004 5:13:28 PM PST by PatriotEdition
Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A film that celebrates a cleaning lady who helps women obtain illegal abortions continues to rack up film critic awards and nominations for others.
"Vera Drake" took home awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association over the weekend as top acting honors went to Imelda Staunton, who plays the lead role in the pro-abortion film.
Staunton was also honored at the 17th European Film Awards where the British actress also captured the best actress award.
Meanwhile, contenders for the prestigious Golden Globe awards have been announced and Staunton has been nominated for the best dramatic lead actress award.
Golden Globes are handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a small group of about 90 reports for foreign news outlets. However, the awards are often a good indicator for who will be top prospects to receive Academy Awards and Oscars.
Vera Drake, named best film at the Venice Film Festival of 2004, is set in the 1950s. Vera is a cleaning lady who "helps girls out" when they are pregnant and considering an illegal abortion.
One woman who has a covert abortion is a mother of seven who says she can't afford another child, another is fearful of telling her husband she had an affair.
Vera believes it is her duty to help the women have abortions, but hides her actions from her family. She visits women in their homes and helps them obtain secret abortions she performs at hospitals -- until she is jailed when one of the women is injured as a result.
Staunton is reportedly being considered for an Oscar for her role in the film.
In October, producer Mike Leigh told Ananova press that he is proud of the film and the pro-abortion message it conveys.
"I'm pro-choice but I hope this is a film that does not bludgeon the audience in black and white. It's a moral dilemma," Leigh said.
Vera Drake also swept the British Independent Film Awards taking six top honors and Imelda Staunton snatched another Best Actress honor.
Staunton has admitted to the San Francisco Chronicle that she worries about abortion becoming illegal again in the United States.
"Everyone is pro- or anti-, but it's not going to go away. (But) if the laws change and it becomes illegal, it could go back to how it was in the film," Staunton said.
In addition to capturing the Golden Lion prize at Venice, Vera Drake also garnered the Best Actress award.
The film had been rejected earlier in the year by the Cannes festival.
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So is sexual abuse of children a la "Kinsey".
Murder has always been popular. Why do you think the lions were so well fed? Evil always enjoys evil.
The director, Mike Leigh, has made some fine pictures, but he's another of those descendants of the "Angry Laborite" school of British film making, heavily entrenched in Pinterite polemics. At least he isn't as thuddingly unsubtle as Ken Loach is.
Likewise, a woman who seeks to kill her unborn should face that same condition. Abortion should be illegal in the states, and further the penalties for those that perform them should be exquisite. Abortion should be at least as dangerous as armed combat. 
ProLife Ping!
If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
Yeah, it sure is, but only among the overeducated elitists who call this film "art."
Thank you for verbalizing what so many of us feel in our hearts!
Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Ping!
No thanks. I don't wish to see a film about people who have forfeited their own right to life by way of murder. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
The Passion Completely Ignored by Golden Globes (Nomination list says it all)
He panned the film, essentially saying that it was merely a vehicle for pro-abortion propaganda, and had no independent artistic or moral merit.
Angel in the Waters -- New Pro-Life book for children [Tissue Alert]
I agree with both of you..........
My wife has an 80-year-old aunt who is unofficially schizophrenic. She "cracked" sometime in her '20s. That's not unusual for schizophrenics, but the circumstances regarding the change in her behavior are. The family has come to believe that she witnessed or assisted in an abortion when she worked as a hospital nurse.
One day she up and quit. She wouldn't tell anyone what happened, although she indicated that her quitting was precipitated by some event. And to this day she won't talk about abortion. She shuts down whenever the subject is mentioned.
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