Oscar and Lucinda (film)

Oscar and Lucinda is a 1997 romantic drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Cate Blanchett, Ralph Fiennes, Ciarán Hinds and Tom Wilkinson. It is based on the 1988 Booker Prize-winning novel Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey. In March 1998, the film was nominated at the Academy Awards for the Best Costume Design.

Plot

As a child living in Australia, Lucinda Leplastrier is given a Prince Rupert's Drop which sparks a lifelong obsession with glass.

After both her parents die she is left a wealthy heiress after her guardians sell off the vast farmland she lived on with her parents. She buys a glass factory with her money and takes to gambling after her accountant introduces her to it.

Meanwhile, a young Oscar is being raised as a Plymouth Brethren by his father but after receiving a sign from God he decides to join the Anglican faith. While studying he is introduced to gambling and becomes massively successful, using his winnings to fund his studies and giving the rest to the poor. He earns a scholarship to study in New South Wales. On the boat over he meets Lucinda and hears her confess to gambling which he denies is a sin. They play cards together until Oscar becomes panicked at the sight of a storm.

Oscar and Lucinda

Oscar and Lucinda is a novel by Australian author Peter Carey which won the 1988 Booker Prize, the 1989 Miles Franklin Award, and was shortlisted for The Best of the Booker.

Plot introduction

It tells the story of Oscar Hopkins, the Cornish son of a Plymouth Brethren minister who becomes an Anglican priest, and Lucinda Leplastrier, a young Australian heiress who buys a glass factory. They meet on the ship over to Australia, and discover that they are both gamblers, one obsessive, the other compulsive. Lucinda bets Oscar that he cannot transport a glass church from Sydney to a remote settlement at Bellingen, some 400 km up the New South Wales coast. This bet changes both their lives forever.

Inspiration

The novel partly takes its inspiration from Father and Son, the autobiography of the English poet Edmund Gosse, which describes his relationship with his father, Philip Henry Gosse.

Film

A film version released in 1997 was directed by Gillian Armstrong and starred Ralph Fiennes, Cate Blanchett, and Tom Wilkinson.