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Becky (Antonia Bill, center) trusts two women and is transferred to another prison for doing so
Photo:
Jon Ailes / ZDF
When “common clichés and role models” are to be broken in a “Rosamunde Pilcher” film, that makes one suspicious at first. After all, the romance film franchise isn't exactly known for dispelling stereotypes. On the contrary: In Cornwall it is mostly about the heteronormative love between white, slim, wealthy people. Before the happy ending, the couple has to overcome some wooden dialogues and other obstacles, inheritance disputes, illegitimate siblings, the bankruptcy of the notary's office. Most of the time, tears are shed on cliffs, hair is disheveled in the wind and women are saved. That is the cliché of the clichés. On Sunday, however, a new part of the series will be broadcast, which should be different.
It is of course about "big feelings", it says in the press announcement, and in the end "true love" wins, but clichés and role models are also broken.
ZDF has tried that before: in 2019 it showed the first gay love story.
The press coverage was great, but the film remained rather an exception.
Now the station wants to give the popular heartache slot on Sunday evening another boost in diversity.
»Rosamunde Pilcher« sets off from Happy Land to the present.
Does it work?
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Becky has a crush on Adam
Photo: Jon Ailes / ZDF
In "In the Seventh Heaven" the heroine Becky (Antonia Bill) gets into trouble right at the beginning: The young vicar marries a homosexual couple without permission, of course with a rainbow-colored sash around her neck.
For this, the rebel is transferred to a nest in Cornwall by her strict superior.
Of course that turns out to be a stroke of luck - we're still on »Pilcher« and not in a Netflix series.
Because Single Becky quickly falls in love with the blonde architect Adam (Jeroen Engelsman).
The catch: he's engaged.
And then his fiancée (Charlotte Woolfe) confides in the vicar in a confession.
She wants absolution for an affair.
The drama is inevitable, as is the happy ending.
Queerness is just a fig leaf
A cursory glance is enough to criticize all of this. The fact that two women are married in the first scenes is of course great. But their appearance lasts a few seconds - and is merely staged as a disruption and a brake on your career. Her queerness has to serve as a fig leaf in order to then tell what one expects from »Rosamunde Pilcher«: tears on steep cliffs and women in foamy baths. In addition, drone flights over the southern English postcard idyll, bouquets of dried flowers and lots of gravel that creaks under the soles of your shoes.
But it's worth taking a closer look.
With the character of Vicar Becky, the screenwriters Martin Wilke and Jochen S. Franken did not necessarily break the cliché of the "Mr Right" -seeking, googly-eyed protagonist.
But they have removed a little plaster from the aging facade.
Becky has nothing against being alone.
She believes God can be a woman.
She listens to their needs instead of chasing after unattainable ideals.
Give your opinion, never a judgment, and defend other women against sexist stereotypes.
Stand up for justice.
And then the vicar falls in love with an engaged man.
Becky is not one of the most committed feminists, but her figure seems more complex than many a crime scene investigator.
Feminists need feminist partners
It's a shame that in the end - and that's not a spoiler, but a reference to the genre - she still finds her "true love". Not because she is not granted private happiness. It's because Adam is such a destructive bore that you'd rather look into the Bible than into his eyes. She won't be happy with him. And neither do the viewers.
If ZDF really wants to give its Herzkino series a boost in diversity, queerness shouldn't just be used as a token, of course.
And don't just talk about white, beautiful, rich people.
In order to really arrive in the present, one should show not just one "true love", but many.
And you should finally take care of the men.
After all, feminists need feminist partners, otherwise there will be nothing with the destruction of “common clichés and role models” - or patriarchy.
"Rosamunde Pilcher: In Seventh Heaven": Sunday, 8:15 pm on ZDF.