Truly Madly Deeply

Truly Madly Deeply

Truly Madly Deeply (1991)

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Half a year after the world wept over a dead man coming back to throw pottery with Demi Moore, a small British film did something similar and had the nerve to make his return complicated.

TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY (1991) stars Juliet Stevenson in a performance of shattering grief. Her character Nina is undone by the sudden death of her love, a cellist, played by Alan Rickman. Then he simply reappears in her flat, and for a while it is heaven.

But this ghost is no idealized fantasy. He keeps the heat cranked to tropical because he is always freezing, and invites his dead friends over to watch old movies all night. She begins to suspect he has come back only to annoy her.

Truly, Madly, Deeply premiered at the London Film Festival under the title Cello in November 1990 before being widely released in 1991. The working title was an intentional pun on "cielo," the Italian word for heaven.

It was the first film by Anthony Minghella, who wrote it specifically for Juliet Stevenson. Minghella would go on to win the Oscar for The English Patient.

About the Film

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR... IT JUST MIGHT COME TRUE.

Directed By
Anthony Minghella
Runtime
106 minutes
Released
May 3, 1991
Certification
PG
Country
United Kingdom
Starring
Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Michael Maloney, Bill Paterson, Christopher Rozycki
More Credits
Genres
Fantasy, Drama, Comedy, Romance
Language
English
Origin
GB
Studios
Winston, BBC Film, The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Written By
Anthony Minghella
Produced By
Robert Cooper, Mark Shivas
Cinematography
Remi Adefarasin
Music
Barrington Pheloung
Also Starring
David Ryall, Deborah Findlay, Jenny Howe, Carolyn Choa, Keith Bartlett

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  11. I love them both. I’ll be watching this tonight! It’s on Amazon prime. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this gem.

    If you like this genre, you will love a more recent film, titled ”All of Us Strangers.” It also employs magical realism to mine similar themes of loss, regret, missed opportunities and love. It also doesn’t hurt that it stars Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, with Claire Foye and Jamie Bell as the protagonist’s long dead parents. It’s powerfully moving and sent me to bed in tears.

  28. Europeans love to tout their “films” as complicated, as an insult to the vastly superior American film industry. Tired eurocentrism doesn’t put butts in seats. Or retroactively make mediocre copies of superior American movies any better.

  54. Beautiful, warm funny, tragic and ultimately uplifting despite all the sorrow at the start for her. I loved both performances they matched so well. You felt their connection as friends and as lovers. Having to watch someone move through their grief and finally be able to not cling to it so desperately, but instead hold the hand of another is so well shown by Alan, as is her guilt and she starts to realise that life is opening up for her again and it’s ok to live but also to love again.
    I think for those bereaved, that message is so important, not even falling in love again, but living again, finding happiness in living again, because it seems so impossible at the start. ❤️❤️❤️

    2. Tamsin Lord Fabulous score – with the 2 characters singing to “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”! Every time I watch this film, I have to play that scene over and over again!

      One of my all-time favourite films! Thank you (posthumously) to Anthony Mingella for giving us this gift! Still hard to believe that both he and Alan Rickman are gone … 💔

    1. Marcus Heslop When it came out, I heard this a lot. I saw it at an art theater in Cambridge, MA (because it didn’t get widely released–b/c of GHOST? or b/c British?) It’s been my personal favorite movie for years. The thing I love about it is that it is exactly as big as it needs to be–my favorite example is Juliet Stevenson asking (rhetorically) “We don’t know what period they are from… And why are they all men?” in regard to the dead friends that Alan Rickman’s character keeps bringing ’round. It’s never answered, but it’s so in character that she would point that out, and I love that the script entertains those questions, which I assume a lot of that “thinking” audience would also have.

  74. I’ve only seen this once, but it’s sooooooooo sad 😭 I developed a terrible crush on AR after he was the sheriff of Nottingham! Then to see him play a softer character in this film sealed the deal! 🥰

  83. OMG I loved this film as a kid. I think i can only have seen it a couple of times on the telly but it really stuck with me. The scene with the snotty, uncontrollable crying, choking to death on a bone, his voice in her head, telling her to walk in the road, so she’s visible and safe, the crumbling flat and Polish (i think 🤔) builder friend, the annoying ghosts and then, when they’ve gone and she’s ok, the mice come back. I’ll have to re-watch it but those little nuggets really stuck with me.

  84. At the time this film came put, I attended a monthly party just off Suicide Bridge in Archway. After the tubes stopped, the survivors would sit wrapped in blankets watching videos until the morning. One of our number said “You must watch this new film!!!!!!!!!! It’s just like us!” And it was.

  96. One of my all time favourite films. It was the first time I saw Alan Rickman and I fell hard. Every cast member is perfect, but Juliet Stephenson’s portrayal of grief is exceptional.

    Favourite moments:
    “I miss him, I miss him, I miss him.”
    “Drugs! Yes! Give me drugs!”

  98. Saw this when it came out and it affected me profoundly. I too fell under Alan Rickman’s spell and it was so much easier to relate to Juliet’s character because she’s a real woman not a size 0 with fake body parts.

      1. No. No one has desecrated “Truly, Madly, Deeply” in this country with a “remake” (or worse – a “re-imagining). I meant “Ghost” which is a saccharine filled mess. I think of “Ghost” as a kiddie movie. I think of “Truly, Madly, Deeply” as a movie for grown-ups. Every character in it is wonderful. It is one of my favorite movies.

  125. My husband passed away at 26. I was just 23 with a 3 year old daughter. This movie truly helped me grieve and work through all my guilt over continuing to live. To this day, I sob uncontrollably whenever I watch or think about this amazing piece of work.

  133. One of my favourite films,he came back coz she was struggling to teach her that you can’t live life with the ghost of what used to be and you have to live in the here and now,the end is sad and happy when he knows he has accomplished what he came back to do.

      1. Nikki Hirst No no but I do think time can be spent and decisions can be made so that they don’t look like complete idiots. Starting with not choosing an instrument for the scene that is so difficult to fake. Guitar piano and all of the wind instruments ask much less of the actors body. Those instruments are hard to play but they’re easier to fake play. There have been a couple of shows with good cello scenes in movies Robert Altman’s l.A. stories and River King with Edward Burns.

  146. One of my favorite movies ever. On the day it came out on videotape, TWO friends showed up at my door to bring me copies, because they knew I loved it so much. I miss Alan Rickman more than I can possibly say.

  153. Juliet Stevenson gives an epic performance. Her husband, played by Alan Rickman, returns from the dead to help her learn to live a life without him. When he looks out the window and knows he has succeeded, it is so sad. Excellent movie.

  178. This movie affected me so strongly that i had to be helped from the theater by an usher and my friend…a few yeats later i met Stevenson and Alan Rickman while taking a Shakespeare course at Oxford. I’ve never been able to watch TMD again though.

  190. My obsession with Alan Rickman started after I saw him in that horrid Robin Hood movie where he stole every scene. So the next movie after that debacle was this lovely gem. At the time considered an art house movie so I truly had to seek it out. Found it showing in LA somewhere. I was so excited to see him in another role! There was i think me and a few other people in the theater. Expected. I had a row all to myself. That is until this random dude sits right.next.to.me! They whole theater with endless open seats to choose from. He just kept being weird, constant shifting in his seat, clearly not watching the film. I thought if I move is he gonna follow me? Long story short, I have no idea what i watched. I had to wait til it came out on video. Oy vey. 🙄

  216. Both Alan Rickman and Michael Malony, along with the unforgettable Juliet Stephenson…fantastic film..love Bill Patterson in it too (“a wee suck on a strepsil and it would never have happened “😅)

  238. What an odd take you have on him coming back. He didnt come back to annoy her, he came back becos his death was sudden he felt her enormous grief at his tragic leaving, unfinished business of paving the way for her to emerge. Nina was crushed absolutely crushed and couldnt see a life without him, they were entwined like vines to each other, the brutality of him being gone, no goodbyes nothing filled her consumed her and she shut herself down away. Him being in her head and in their home, is either hallucinations or the spirit is genuinely there. Its been years since i saw it but you sense he brings others over as a message to her that not only he needs others but then so does she. He enlists their help to tell her to live her life again, start over, its not too late for her. It’s a perfect piece of misery.

  252. I bought it recently after searching online and watched again.. it is one of my all time favourite films.
    He is gorgeous!
    She is an amazing actress who portrays grief in such a raw and emotional manner. I sob every time!! Just a beautiful film!! 👍

  253. I cried so much watching this, when the letter is read, I had to leave the room as I didn’t want my husband to see me sob. He had not long been diagnosed with an incurable disease, which I was still coming to terms with. It is the only film I cannot bear to watch again. Juliet and Alan’s acting was phenomenal.

  323. I absolutely love this film. I cry every time I watch it. Juliette puts in a stunning portrayal of grief. She is so heart broken and her lost love cannot bear it so he comes back to help her see that she can release her memories and move on with her life. One of my favourite moments is where she is playing the piano part of a duet and he suddenly starts playing the cello.

  351. Saw this in the UK when it was first released. Stevenson’s portrayal of grief is heart breaking. The ghosts send her to the video store to get them all the movies they liked whilst living. Spoiler Alert: Stevenson’s character’s flat is infested with eats. When the ghosts show up, the rats are gone. But when the ghosts depart, ….

  372. One of the most powerful dramas about loss and grief ever. Superb casting, beautiful cello background music and a wonderful rendition of “The Sun Ain’t Going to Shine Any More.”
    Sadly, we’ve lost both Minghella and Alan Rickman, but, with Juliet Stevenson, what an A Class team.

  376. One of the things I love about the film is that it’s never made clear if the ghostly visitations are real or hallucinations produced by Stephenson’s grief. But the distinction doesn’t matter; because the film is so well written, it works beautifully either way.

  402. I watched this one matinee in a central London cinema on its release. My first solo cinema treat! Moved to tears alone in the darkness – was quite an experience – but felt liberating & safe & quite beautiful ❤️

  405. I was lucky enough to be at the BFI when his dearest friends played tribute to him, including EMMA THOMPSON..SIR IAN MCKELLAN…RUBY WAX and they played this film after…dont think there was a dry eye in the house….what a wonderful actor and beautiful soul…………….

  408. Just the best. When I was romantic and 15 and this film came out, it felt like it had been made for me. I didn’t just want the sensitive lefty cello player, I wanted the caring job, the (implausibly costly) flat in Highgate, the Spanish crocheted bedspread, the Bach, and Michael Maloney. 😁 Anthony Minghella introduced me to, and gave me a lifelong love for JS Bach. Bach is a golden thread that runs through many of his wonderful films. I wish he were still with us.

  425. Totally totally amazing film. When she cried it was real – snot and all ! I simply adore this film. Real grief and the journey/passage that we go through with the loss of a loved one Jane Webb-Sankey 🇨🇦

  432. The first time I saw this gil was whilst I was living as a student in a flat in Bristol, where some of it was filmed. I watched it with my flatmate and we both sobbed our way through it. Such a tender portrayal of grief but new beginnings. I love this film.

  433. I loved this film. The poem at the end where Nina decides to embrace life is wonderful. Jamie comes back to let her know he was, in life, really annoying. I cry every time I watch it and sometimes it’s loud and ugly crying to annoy husband who just doesn’t get it

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