Rosamunde Pilcher: Certainty of the Heart

Movie
Original title	Certainty of heart
Country of production	Germany , Austria
original language	German
Publishing year	2003
length	85 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Dieter Kehler
script	Charlotte Drews-Bernstein
production	UFA television production ; on behalf of ZDF
music	Richard Blackford
camera	Holger Greiß
cut	Aljo Fazlagic
occupation
	Nicole Heesters : Dorothy Mellows; Michael Degen : Bill Chapman; Sonsee Ahray Floetmann : Jane Burn; Johannes Brandrup : Richard Mellows, Dorothy's son; Doris Kunstmann : Mary Burn, Jane's mother; Francis Fulton-Smith : Steven Sky ; resp. Steven Sackstone; Nina Sonja Peterson : Suzan Sackstone; Peter Böhlke : Arthur;

Certainty of the Heart is a German-Austrian television film directed by Dieter Kehler from 2003. It is the 48th episode of a television series on ZDF with works by the successful British writer Rosamunde Pilcher . The main roles are cast with Nicole Heesters and Michael Degen as well as Sonsee Ahray Floetmann and Johannes Brandrup .

action

33 years have passed since Dorothy Mellows, now a successful art dealer , hastily left her native Cornwall in southern England and went to Canada . Now she comes back with her son Richard to meet Bill again, the man she left three days before the wedding. Both are excited and apprehensive, but they don't dare to touch what's really going on inside them.

Richard, on the other hand, is happy, shortly before he confessed to his mother that he had just met the woman of his life, to which she replied dryly: “At last.” In Bill Chapman's house, Richard then meets the woman again, who makes him so deep impressed vet Jane Burn. However, he is disappointed to hear that there is already a man at her side, the sculptor Steven. Both live on the property, as does Mary, Jane's mother, who runs Bill Chapmann's household.

The next day Dorothy goes to the art dealer Bentley, her former boss, to give him the painting The Lute Player , which he should keep for her. Both talk about the fact that what was once mistaken for a painting by Watteau , but has now been identified as a real Gainsborough , is now of enormous collector's value . It also comes up that there is a second picture that is a counterpart to the lute player , with the title The Girl on the Swing . Together these images would be even more valuable. Dorothy notes with a certain sadness that she saw The Girl on the Swing 33 years ago and never again. She has one more request for the art expert. She tells him that a customer of hers doubts the authenticity of a picture that she has conveyed to him because there is no expertise . It's a $ 40 million painting. Dorothy is absolutely certain that the picture is real, and asks Bentley to help her with what he says to her.

Mary, who acted very strangely towards Dorothy from the start, indicates to her daughter Jane that something bad happened in the house 33 years ago and she did not believe that Dorothy would ever come back. But she doesn't want to tell Jane exactly.

When Richard accompanied Jane as a vet the next day on her tour across the country, it turned out that he took a call on Stevens cell phone , which he probably left in the car, which is quite mysterious. The woman on the other end probably thinks he is Steven and threatens him if he doesn't come to the meeting point she says she will notify the police . Before Richard can reply, she hangs up. Richard goes to this meeting and learns from Suzan Sackstone that she has been the wife of Steven Sackstone, who now calls himself Steven Sky, for eight years, and shows him pictures of their two children. She also tells Richard that her husband embezzled £ 3.5 million from his bank and was wanted by the police. When Richard Steven asks about his wife and children and demands that he tell Jane everything, Steven initially denies everything, but feels increasingly cornered. Mary finds him with a bottle of brandy and asks if she could help him. Steven wants to know from her what to do if someone threatens the happiness of life. Mary, who doesn't know what it's really about, says attack is still the best defense. Steven takes this as a request and lures Richard into a trap. He leads him to the tool shed and then hits him over the head with a shovel with full force. When he set the shed on fire, he injured his leg and couldn't move on his own.

Luckily Jane sees the smoke rising, alerts the fire department and runs to the tool shed, where she helps Steven escape the blazing shed. Richard wakes up briefly and sees desperately that there is a fire everywhere. With the last of his strength he can call for help. The fire brigade just manages to rescue him from the burning building. The men come to the hospital. Steven has only sustained minor injuries, Richard, however, is in mortal danger, he has suffered a traumatic brain injury that can lead to death. There is a blood clot in his brain, if he is lucky it will resolve on its own without leaving any consequences.

When Jane tells Steven about this, he hopes Richard will not regain consciousness and succumb to his serious injuries, and tells Jane that Richard started the fire to kill him. Only because the door had slammed before that he was trapped himself. Jane doesn't know what to believe. When she speaks to Richard's mother, Dorothy implores her that one must listen to one's heart in love, that one's own heart always knows best for whom it is beating. She sadly adds that she ran away from her heart back then. Richard wakes up from his coma and after a few days can be released on the estate, where he first has to stay in bed.

When Jane accompanies her mother Mary to Steven to the hospital, they both get caught in the unpleasant scene that Suzan and the police are at the bedside of Stevens, and thus learn what this man has done. Dorothy and Richard have since spoken out and realized that they both succumbed to a mistake and gave away so many happy years. You don't want to part now. And Gainsborough's pictures also come together again. Bill had The Girl on the Swing .

Jane resents Richard for not speaking to her. But when he comes to her and tells her that he loved her from the very first moment, everything is forgotten and she happily returns his kiss. In the end there are two happy couples and a double wedding.

Production, background, DVD

Trelissick, mansion, one of the film locations

The manor at Trelissick Garden in Cornwall was the home of Bill Chapman. It is located in Feock, a district of Truro , where other film scenes were made, for example “The Market Inn” on “Lemon Quay”, the Mansion House auction house on Princes Street and the pavilion in Victoria Garden. Bosvigo House on the outskirts of Turo, a Georgian mansion with gardens, was also used as the film location. Furthermore, Jane can be seen in a film scene at Godrevy Point with the lighthouse. The scenes with the injured goat were made in St. Clement; Dorothy's walk with her son Richard took place around St Mawes Castle , a fortress from the time of Henry VIII. The wedding scenes were filmed in St Just Roseland Church, a 13th century church.

The Swing by Jean Honore Fragonard , one of playing a role in the film image

The thing about the pictures is not shown correctly in the film, there are both painters, but one picture with the title The Lute Player is once by Michelangelo Caravaggio , another picture of this title is by David Teniers the Younger (which is shown in the film) , Frans Hals painted the picture Buffoon Playing a Lute . There is the picture The Swing by Jean Honore Fragonard , which is also shown in the film.

The film was first broadcast on ZDF on November 9, 2003.

DVD