Lillian Hellman’s landmark 1934 play “The Children’s Hour” has twice been adapted for the big screen, both times by director William Wyler, and neither film really did right by it. The Hays Code could be blamed for the absurdly straightwashed watering-down of the 1936 version “These Three,” and while 1961’s “The Children’s Hour” could be more open about the same-sex attraction driving its tragedy of ruinous gossip, it was still timidly ginger around the subject. In her handsome, stirring sophomore feature “The Education of Jane Cumming,” German filmmaker Sophie Heldman bypasses the Hellman play entirely to shed light on the real-life 19th-century case that inspired it — a tale defined not just by societal homophobia but colonial-era racism.
The result is easily the most satisfying screen outing yet for this story material: a classically well-made and affectingly performed period drama that should enjoy a long festival run after its premiere in Berlin’s Panorama program,…
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