I’m not sure why the creators of the film ‘Notes on a Scandal‘ (2006) insisted on adding a disclaimer at the end of the credits that claims that ‘any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental’. The disclaimer is standard, but it seems inaccurate in this case. The film directed by Richard Eyre is an adaptation of a novel by Zoë Heller, who in turn openly stated that the story is inspired by the real case of American teacher Mary Kay LeTourneau, a case that has also inspired other fiction and documentary films, including the recent ‘May December’. It is true that the plot of the film is complex and the story is moved to London, but the basic premises of the case are very similar. Richard Eyre, a solid television and film director, does not shy away from difficult and delicate subjects, which he approaches successfully, as is the case here with the help of a dream cast.
‘Notes on a Scandal‘ is the story of lonely people connected by the kind of relationships that society condemns morally and sometimes even by law. The stage is a high school in an area of London inhabited by not very wealthy families, many of them immigrants or their descendants. Barbara Covett is a rather elderly history teacher, severe with her students, distant and condescending towards her fellow teachers. One of her secrets is that she shares her experiences and feelings with pedantic writing in personal diaries. At least one full shelf has already been gathered, perhaps collected over decades. Her younger colleague, art teacher Sheba Hart, is new to the school, having returned after many years in which she had stayed home to take care of her son, an autistic teenager. Still beautiful, Sheba is married to a university professor, much older than her. A friendship develops between Barbara and Sheba, a relationship in which the two women see very different things. Barbara is manipulative and wants much more than just friendship. When Sheba starts a forbidden relationship with one of her students, a 15-year-old teenager, and after the affair is discovered, she confides in Barbara as to a good friend, the only one who can help her. In fact, the older woman’s intentions are completely different.
In the good tradition of classic British cinema, dialogues and acting are decisive for the quality of the film. Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett are two formidable actresses (with one Oscar statuette and two, respectively, already in their records) and their screen meeting is carried out at the highest level. Both actresses give depth to their characters, lonely women each in her own way, one faced with the unfulfillment of previous relationships due perhaps to a tendency to excessive control, the other with the consequences of an early marriage to a much older man. The script and the novel that inspired it choose a different outcome than the one in the real case for the relationship between the teacher and the underage student. The script also contains a dose of social criticism, related to the public school that comes out with a not very positive image in this film and the sensational press that rushes in with the ferocity of predatory animals destroying any trace of privacy. Despite the calm British atmosphere, the film does not end on a very optimistic note. Neither of the two heroines will find peace and the problems that pushed them into crisis found no solutions. As viewers of this film, we are left with the meeting and interaction on screen, in a dramatic story, of the two great actresses.