‘Have you noticed,’ she said, ‘that evil people have a kind of force about them? A kind of independence? It’s a very powerful kind of thing to have. It’s a stillness, an absence of doubt, an indifference to the world. It draws people to them. The moral vacuum sucks people in. The weak go to the strong.’ An Iron Rose, Peter Temple
A cad is defined in many ways but it is always a man who behaves badly towards other people, particularly women. There is no female equivalent word. The word originated in 15th century France where a “cadet” was a younger son or brother. It moved into English in the 17th century as “caddie,” someone who did odd jobs. In the early 19th century, caddie evolved into “cad,” used by British university students to define a fellow student with bad manners.
A cad is not necessarily a sociopath (now defined as antisocial personality disorder) or a narcissist, but they share some personality traits, one of them being a lack of empathy. The lack of empathy spectrum can range from none to some, and we have all known individuals who fall into these various slots. (Certain people today, I’ve read, now consider empathy to be a sign of weakness.) Socially obnoxious behavior is a separate class of bad behavior and perhaps links better to the British 19th century definition of a cad. Think of Withnail and I for the perfect illustration. I do favor a robust antihero, however, and while not all of these films feature extreme villains, they do feature men who operate outside of the usual rules. There are far worse representations in film, but I have a strong disinclination to watch horror and violence. The psychology presented and examined in merely bad or criminal behavior is forever interesting as is the contrast and fight between our better and lesser selves.
ENGLAND’S ANGRY YOUNG MEN
England’s “angry young men” as described in the “kitchen sink” dramas of the 50s and 60s described this antihero type exactly. Just coming out of the Cold War, the plight of young English men oppressed by their country’s rigid class system, poverty, and lack of opportunity were being highlighted in literature and film. The backdrop of depressing industrial towns in northern England like Nottingham added to the harsh reality, and the movies were shot in black and white. The men described here here are canny, alienated, unselfaware, and more often than not imbued with a distinct lack of empathy.
ALFIE, 1966
Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Adapted from the 1963 play by Bill Naughton
Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Jane Asher, Vivien Merchant, Denholm Elliott,and Julia Foster
To me, this is one of the best examples of the genre — moody, stark, and gritty. You probably saw it many years ago, but when I watched it again, I appreciated the effectiveness of Alfie’s (Caine) back and forth with the audience, his comments to those watching. It emphasizes his underlying lack of sincerity, his flippancy, and his generally unfeeling and relentless womanizing. After one of his girlfriends gives birth to a child, they live together for a while and Alfie becomes surprisingly attached to the child. She finally leaves to find a marriageable man and father for her child, but Alfie is relatively unmoved. He spends some time in a sanatorium for a lung problem, and then impregnates another woman whom he casually leaves in his apartment to miscarry. After a certain amount of misfortunes, he is left to reflect on “what’s it all about” without knowing the answer to his malaise — the anxiety of a charming but selfish and unprincipled womanizer.
It was a much more dangerous world for women in 1966 when abortions were illegal and options were limited. (Current US prohibitions in our less emancipated states are threatening a return to this world.) There were few choices for women then — you could have an illegitimate child and face the world alone, marry someone you were not necessarily suited for, or have an abortion. That is why the more recent version of Alfie, made in 2004, loses its bite.
ALFIE, 2004
Directed by Charles Shyer
Jude Law, Susan Sarandon, Marisa Tomei, Sienna Miller, Omar Epps
Thirty-eight years later after the first Alfie was released, sited in New York instead of London, women and the times have changed. Women are no longer as confined by the threat of pregnancy, womanizing men, and social constructs. Jude Law takes up the role as a softer, less cruel, more introspective Alfie, but he still will not commit to a woman. He becomes aware of the hurt he inflicts on people, and wonders: “You screwed up. What’s going to happen with the rest of your life?” but his shallow reflections are less interesting in 2004 than they were in 1966.
There have been many adaptations of the song, “Alfie,” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It became a hit in Britain for Cilla Black, and for Dionne Warwick, Cher, Cynthia Erivo and others in the US. Sonny Rollins made a soundtrack album for the 1966 film that featured Kenny Burrell, J.J. Johnson, Jimmy Cleveland, Phil Woods, Robert Ashton, Danny Bank, Roger Kellaway, Walter Booker, and Frankie Dunlop, a stellar lineup. This is Cilla Black, the first to sing the song.
In 2004 Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) with contributions from Joss Stone, Cheryl Crow, Nadira “Nadz” Seid, and Gary Cooper made an excellent soundtrack album for the more recent movie with Jude Law — part rock, blues, jazz, and a little rap — including the nicest “slow dance” instrumental rock song I’ve heard in a while, “Counting the Days,” with Jagger and Stewart.
ROOM AT THE TOP, 1959
Directed by Jack Clayton
Adapted from the novel by John Braine
Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, and Heather Sears
Harvey plays an ambitious, working class man from Yorkshire who leaves his small town for a larger one to work as an accountant in the local Treasury Department. He is looking for a woman to marry, preferably one from a wealthy and socially prominent family, and meets the perfect one, Heather Sears, his boss’s daughter. He also meets an older, sensual, unhappily married French woman — Signoret — with whom he has an affair. Harvey is supposed to be 25 in this film but seems more mature for his years (he was actually 31) and is a bit too polished, not to mention wooden. Signoret is the more compelling character and exposes Harvey to some harsh truths about himself. (She won an Oscar and a Bafta for this role.) There is a complicated and tragic ending resulting in Harvey’s marriage to Sears. Class conflicts and social behavior are the touchstone for this movie.
SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING, 1960
Directed by Karel Reisz
Adapted from the novel by Alan Sillitoe.
Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, and Rachel Roberts
Albert Finney’s first starring role launched his career. He is Arthur, a hard-drinking, cocky, yet powerless, cog in the capitalist wheel — a machinist in a bicycle factory in Nottingham, a bleak, industrial factory town. A small but unforgettable scene in the factory has Arthur handle a dead rat and then eat lunch (without washing his hands). His role in life is scripted by his background — hard work, marriage, children, death. He is smart enough to know that this is not what he wants; his rallying cry is “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” but his confidence is not enough. He has an affair with the wife of a fellow worker, Brenda, but also tries to seduce a younger, more conventional, woman from a wealthy family, Doreen. The ensuing drama illustrates the classic clash between rebellion against the known and predictable and the desire for something new and challenging, and the regret that follows the acceptance of one’s fate. It is also, for the time, a frank look at adultery, abortion, and class oppression.
THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER, 1962
Directed by Tony Richardson*
Adapted from a short story by Alan Sillitoe
Tom Courtney, Michael Redgrave, Alec McCowen, and Colin Smith
Another film in the grand tradition of angry young men dramas takes a sullen and belligerent teenaged troublemaker in a dreary industrial town – Nottingham once again. He and a pal steal cars, rob slot machines, and pick up two girls. The four of them go to the seaside for a breath of fresh air, sex and an escape from the utter tedium of their lives. He is sent off to a borstal (reform school) for a theft where he attracts the attention of the warden with his running skill. The warden is determined to win a big race against a fancy public (private) school, and fixates on Courtney as the means to his end. Courtney diligently trains for the five mile race and begins to lose himself in the beauty of nature and memories of his past. Running becomes a metaphor for the life he’s leading, full of indecision and uncertainty, and is a form of reflection, almost a meditation. His choices are anchored in rebellion, not rehabilitation.
Borstal boys singing “Jerusalem,” a song taken from the 1808 William Blake poem and set to music in 1917 by Sir Hubert Parry. It serves as an alternative to the English national anthem.
*Richardson also directed A Taste of Honey, another example of the “kitchen sink” genre that I previously reviewed in Variations on a Theme.
EARLY HISTORICAL BAD BEHAVIOR
Every court has its scalawags, but the following two examples — mythical and fanciful historical fiction — provide the opportunity for conspiring individuals to plot, betray and build dramatic tension. The third example is about the artist, Caravaggio, whose life is well described by Peter Robb in M, The Man Who Became Caravaggio. The movie is more an artistic impression than an historically accurate portrayal.
EXCALIBUR, 1981
Directed by John Boorman
Nicol Williamson, Helen Mirren, Nigel Terry, Nicholas Clay, Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, Cherie Lunghi, Katrine Boorman
If you are in the mood for an old fashioned romp through a medieval legend, John Boorman’s adaptation of Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur is the one for you. It is violent and gory with at least ten battle scenes to endure as armor clanks, torches burn, horses whinny, and spears and battle-axes thump into chests and necks. The movie is a visual treat — an extravaganza of beautiful scenery, diaphanous skirts, and battle scenes, and the complicated plot is head spinning. There are many villains in this movie, but the worst villains, the adult Morgana and Mordred, appear later in this fable and are sufficiently evil to make up for any prior romanticizing.
A brief synopsis: The Duke of Cornwall’s wife, Igraine, mesmerizes King Uther Pendragron. He demands that Merlin help him and “floats in the dragon’s breath” to seduce her by taking on the shape of her husband. She becomes pregnant and her son, Arthur, is taken by Merlin as a reward for his success in facilitating Uther’s night with Igraine. Her young daughter, Morgana (later played by Mirren), apparently has the prophet’s gift as well as Merlin, and foretells the death of her father on the battlefield. (One editorial glitch: Merlin says “whoa” when lightning strikes rather than the more appropriate “forsooth.”)
Years later, Arthur manages to pull Excalibur out of the stone and becomes King. The Round Table is established, Lancelot shows up, Arthur marries Guinevere, and there is peace in Camelot. As we all remember, Lancelot and Guinevere fall in love, and therein ruin lies.
Morgana, no longer a child, tricks Merlin and turns him into a statue. She also bewitches Arthur (her step-brother) into sleeping with her and bears his child, Mordred. Devastation comes to the land, and Arthur determines the knights must search for the Holy Grail in order to restore peace and prosperity. Ten years ensue.
In the meantime, Mordred, son of Arthur and Morgana, and Morgana live in the woods and either kill the searching knights or turn them into slaves. Perceval survives his encounter with them, finds the Grail, and returns to Arthur and tells him what is going on. Arthur rides out with his remaining knights, Merlin returns, Mordred kills his mother, the fog rises and allows Arthur to vanquish Mordred’s knights but he is mortally wounded. Perceval is ordered by Arthur to take the sword and return it to the lake. He leaves Arthur to die and returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. Arthur is put on a boat with three nuns and floats into the mist to Avalon. The End.
Questions abound but besides trying to track everyone’s relationship to each other, I had two main questions: were horses harmed in the making of this movie and how much time did knights actually spend wearing armor? Armor was not exactly casual wear, and must have been very uncomfortable and heavy. Very limited research revealed that, according to the American Humane Association “no horses were seriously injured or died in the production,” and that armor was only worn for a few hours a day, during combat, because of its weight, and required assistance to put on.
FIREBRAND, 2024
Directed by Karim Ainouz.
Based on a novel, Queen’s Gambit, by Elizabeth Fremantle.
Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Erin Doherty, Anne Askey.
This is a highly imaginative, historically inaccurate, version of Henry VIII’s marriage to his 6th and last wife, Catherine Parr. The young Elizabeth, Henry’s daughter, is the narrator, but Henry is the star of this movie. It begins with his return from fighting in France as Catherine was named regent in his absence. Although he is nearing his death, he still swaggers and cajoles despite his painful leg infections. As King he is considered to be appointed by God and is capricious, vicious, petulant and abusive. His changing moods are influenced by the forever-plotting Seymours (connected to him by his marriage to Jane Seymour, his third wife and mother of his son, Edward VI) and he swings from love to hate in short order. The film emphasizes the storm around the use of Latin in church ceremonies, a radical and treasonous belief at the time, and emphasizes Catherine’s involvement with the Protestant preacher, Anne Askey, who was later tortured and burned. The court is well portrayed — jesters with their monkeys and dogs, the feasts, the dancing, and the gossiping, plotting nobles. You also get a sense of the filth of the reeking villages, and the despair of the common folk.
CARAVAGGIO, 1986
Directed by Derek Jarmon
Photography by Gabriel Beristain
Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, Tilda Swinton, Michael Gough
Caravaggio was a notorious and dissolute late Renaissance painter who died in his 30s, famous for his extraordinary painting but hounded by personal demons. It is the photography in this movie that makes it memorable, not the plot. As Caravaggio lies dying tended only by his faithful servant and two crones, his memories come and go. His flashbacks begin with his early patron, Cardinal Del Monte, possibly also his abuser, his purchase of a mute child whom he trains to prepare and mix his paints, and continues to the love triangle with his model and prostitute, Lena (Tilda Swinton in her first movie role) and street fighter Ranuccio (Sean Bean), to the murderous conclusion. The arch juxtaposition of contemporary language (“cheap thrills”), modern objects (typewriter, calculator, magazines, cigarettes, motorcycles), and the music (jazz) that flick back and forth between the centuries is not particularly successful and unnecessary. The tableaux created by living models to illustrate individual paintings is very effective. They are contrasts between light and dark, the same chiaroscuro effect Caravaggio achieved in his art, and illuminate the creation of specific paintings in dramatic fashion, vivid and full of emotion.
MORE CONTEMPORARY BRITISH REALISM AND COMEDY
SLEUTH, 2007
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Based on a play by Anthony Shaffer
Michael Caine and Jude Law
This is an engrossing, stylish, theatrical (screenplay by Harold Pinter), two actor performance with a good soundtrack (composed by Patrick Doyle) and interesting photography (Haris Zambarloukus). Caine is Andrew Wyke, a wealthy and very successful mystery writer with an impressive estate that includes an elaborate garden maze and a starkly modern interior with a high-tech surveillance system. The interior is cavernous, full of very uncomfortable looking modern furniture, imposing, hard edged metal sculpture and an elevator. The lighting is unsettling with its dark off-angle and jagged perspective adding to the air of menace. Milo Tindle, an out-of-work actor, part-time chauffeur, and possibly also a hairdresser, (Jude Law) and Wyke’s wife are having an affair and want to marry. Tindle comes to Wyke’s house to discuss a divorce at which point Wyke, with restrained menace, embarks on an elaborate scheme to implicate Tindle in a theft. Wyke remains cold and calculating; his desire for revenge is paramount. Both men are quick witted as they test each other about their intentions, and the unpredictable plot is constantly surprising. The 1972 movie version starring Laurence Olivier as Wyke and Michael Caine as Milo would also be interesting to see but is not streaming anywhere at the moment.
NAKED, 1993
Directed and written by Mike Leigh
David Thewlis, Katrin Cartlidge, Lesley Sharp
This is not an easy movie to watch because it is violent, and quite different from many of Leigh’s usual, wryly affectionate and poignant depictions of British working class and families. There are rapes and brutal sex so be warned. It is an acting tour de force for Thewlis, however, and he won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival; Leigh won Best Director. Thewlis plays an intelligent but self-destructive and violent man with unrepentant and violent encounters with women, street people, a security guard, a waitress, a poster hanger and finally a gang of toughs. He never stops talking. Manipulative narcissists are perhaps more easily identified today, but Thewlis is a poster boy. Just for good measure, there is another truly repellant man in this film, a landlord, but his role is limited.
BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY, 2001
Directed by Sharon Maguire
Based on the novel by Helen Fielding
Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Salmon Rushdie (as himself)
In my continuing quest for a decent comedy, this very funny movie directed by Welsh director, Sharon Maguire, is quite satisfying. Additionally, the cast is excellent and the soundtrack is good. From the first parental Christmas party (turkey curry and pickles on toothpicks) to hilarious phone calls (Bridget picks up her phone saying “Wanton sex goddess with a very bad man between her thighs.” Pause. “Mum, hi.”), there is much to enjoy. When Grant first appears on screen his face just ever so slightly leans into a charming, devilishly seductive mask, and you know at once that the bad boy (not vicious or evil, merely unprincipled) has made an appearance. There have since been changes in the workplace and social expectations, but this lighthearted movie serves as yet another marker in that evolution.
VANITY FAIR, 2018
Directed by Jonathan Entwhistle
Adapted from the book by William Makepeace Thackeray
Olivia Cooke, Tom Bateman, Claudia Jessie, Johnny Flynn, Martin Clunes, Michael Palin
Lest I omit a female example of cad-like behavior altogether, let me point out the extremely entertaining, seven episode long, adaptation of Vanity Fair. Thackeray (Palin) announces at the beginning of each episode: This is “a world where everyone is striving for what is not worth having.” The indomitable Becky Sharp (Cooke) embodies all of the characteristics of an anti-hero as she lies, steals, and claws her way upward in society, taking a distinct and not-so-subtle pleasure in inflicting humiliation on those less driven and fortunate. Cooke has perfected the art of the flirtatious backward glance which is used as an exclamation point after each transgression. While it is Major Dobbin who is the virtuous hero of this tale, it is Becky who carries the scene every time.
US BAD BEHAVIOR
OH, CANADA, 2024
Directed and written by Paul Schrader
Based on the novel Foregone by Russell Banks
Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Jacob Elordi
This Schrader-directed movie is much, much better than Gere’s other 2024 movie, Longing, where the unforgivable ending culminates in a wedding between two young dead people. Shrader’s 1980 film, American Gigolo, made Gere a star. In that movie he played a calculating, sexy loner with a sympathetic streak.
Here, Leonard Fife (Gere), is a famous documentary film maker who left the States and moved to Canada during the Vietnam War and is dying. Two of his former students, now well known themselves, want to film him as he reminisces about his career. Elordi plays Fife as the younger man as he delves into his past and describes the journey of his youth. Thurman, his wife of 30 years, is shocked by the revelation of unpleasant truths from his previously unknown and undisclosed past. Fife is a complicated man used to getting his own way; his desires are paramount and betrayals and deception are a part of his past. He says: “When you have no future all you have left is the past. And if your past is a lie, then you cease to exist.” This is the crux of the story and a confessional as well as a plea for forgiveness.
JOHN LE CARRE ADAPTATIONS
THE NIGHT MANAGER
Directed by Susanne Bier
Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Coleman, Hugh Laurie, Elizabeth Debicki, Tom Hollander, Alistair Petrie
The six episodes of the British TV version of LeCarre’s 1993 book are excellent, and they do justice to the wide ranging geographic span of the story which takes place in Zermatt, Cairo (but filmed in Marrakesh), Majorca and London. Hiddleston is Jonathan Pine, a former soldier who loses himself in the anonymity of night manager at the elegant Nefertiti Hotel in Cairo. He becomes involved with the mysterious mistress of a dissolute, wealthy Egyptian who gives him confidential papers to hold in case anything happens to her. When that occurs he goes to Angela Burr (Olivia Coleman), the head of a British intelligence unit. This provides the impetus for his recruitment by Burr to capture international arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). Hiddleston does an excellent job as the calm, nerves-of-steel, dedicated agent. Laurie is perfect as the murderous, cunning and malevolent arms dealer who has set up a military kingdom in the middle of the desert with mercenaries obedient to his command. He is surrounded by a sinister collection of associates, particularly Tom Hollander as Major Lance Corkoran and Alistair Petrie as Sandy Langbourne. Elizabeth Debicki is Jed Marshall, Roper’s mistress, a lovely, willowly blonde with a secret. John Le Carre has a cameo as an irate restaurant goer, and was also an Executive Producer. Hiddleston, Laurie and Coleman won Golden Globe Awards, and Bier won two Emmys for Best Director.
ANTIDOTE TO ALL THE PREVIOUS BOORISH BEHAVIOR
If you feel the need to remedy all of this bad behavior, please immerse yourself in some Jane Austen movie adaptations that will soothe and amuse. Jane Austen’s world exists in a less complicated and more homogeneous society where good manners and adherence to laws and decorum were assumed, depending on your class, and where marriage was a battle won and lost on many fronts. There were downsides to this strict social structure, especially for women and the poor, but these movies are an effective buffer from the shock of harsher portrayals. While there are some villains here and there, you are certain they will not prevail.
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, 1995
Directed by Ang Lee
Adapted from Jane Austen’s novel
Screenplay by Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson, Kate Winslett, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, Hugh Laurie, Gemma Jones, Greg Wise, Harriet Walter
The outstanding cast ably demonstrates the triumph of love over all as it is earned through devoted acts of kindness. Elinor Dashwood (Emma Thompson) is smitten with Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) and Marianne Dashwood (Kate Winslet) is taken with the dashing Willoughby (Greg Wise) even as the older Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) is equally bedazzled with Marianne. The constant concerns of marriage and money are roiled by betrayals, broken engagements and misunderstanding but all ends happily after many cups of tea are consumed.
PERSUASION, 2007
Directed by Adrian Sherwood
Adapted from Jane Austen’s novel
Rupert Penry-Jones, Sally Hawkins, Tobias Menzies
I preferred this BBC adaptation of the book, primarily because of my preference for Rupert Penry-Jones who makes a sympathetic and attractive Frederick Wentworth. Anne Elliot (Sally Hawkins) breaks off her engagement with Wentworth, then a naval officer with few prospects, but continues to yearn for him. After he returns, now a wealthy man, they re-ignite their mutual attraction and love with the help of more tea, the British panacea and social crutch for all occasions big or small.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, 2005
Directed by Joe Wright
Adapted from Jane Austen’s novel
Keira Knightly, Matthew Macfadyn, Carey Mulligan, Rosamund Pike, Rupert Friend, Simon Woods, Brenda Blethyn, Judy Dench, Donald Sutherland, Tom Hollander
This all star cast does an excellent job with Austen’s tale of snobbish folks whose disdain for people perceived to be of lesser status is withering. Five girls, almost all of marriageable age, are stage managed by their fussbudgety mother (Blethyn) in an effort to find a suitable match. Knightly as Elizabeth Bennet is very effective as the stubborn, frank, and independent second oldest daughter and father’s favorite (Sutherland). She has a piquant and intelligent quality about her that is very interesting to watch. Mr. Darcy (Macfadyn), is initially hostile and rude, and then eventually begins to see the light. There is a similar scene here to one in Persusasion when a gentleman caller arrives and everyone swirls around to clean the room and arrange themselves in artful poses — decorously reading a book, sewing on ribbons, and contemplating nature through the window — presumably to emphasize the image of calm, restorative occupation.
To throw in a non-Jane Austen example, I was highly entertained by the 1991 movie, Impromptu, which has a good cast and describes the various bohemian friends and relationships of George Sand.
IMPROMPTU, 1991
Directed by James Lapine
Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Julian Sands, Ralph Brown, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters
Don’t watch this to think you’ll learn much about George Sand’s work, but you will get an idea of her forceful character, courage and disinclination to submit to 19th century standards for women. She smoked in public, she wore men’s clothes and she had many lovers. Judy Davis brings her to life as a woman ahead of her time. It is a lighthearted look at a group of talented, bohemian friends swanning around country estates — Grant as Chopin, Patinkin as Alfred de Musset, Sands as Franz Liszt, Brown as Eugene Delacroix, Thompson as the Duchess, and Peters as Marie d’Agoult — and the social climbers who court them. Grant is quite astonishing since he plays the frail, tubercular, seemingly sexless musician without his usual befuddled mannerisms and gentle leers. And there are duels at dawn!
Can too much fantasy jeopardize your grip on reality? Probably not. My preference is always for realistic portrayals, but the calming aspect of watching Suits, Gray’s Anatomy, movie versions of Jane Austen or any other period piece is needed at certain times to calm the mind and spirit. At the moment, my preferred form of escapism is reading or listening to English writer Anne Perry’s detective novels (the William Monk series), set in mid-19th century London. Her knowledgeable, detailed descriptions of the English class system and its intricate customs, the legal system, the state of medical and health conditions, and her descriptions of Crimean War battlefield conditions are addictive. (Anne Perry published 102 novels before her death in 2023. When she was 15 and living in New Zealand, she and a friend murdered the friend’s mother. They each served 5 years in prison for the crime. Perry returned to England, assumed a new name, and started writing after a stint as an airline stewardess. A complicated woman.)