Albert Cobbs

Last night was a total surprise to me. I saw a film with a perfectly ordinary looking name " Albert Nobbs". But its impact was anything but ordinary. Based upon a novella by an Irish novelist George Moore and directed by Rodrigo Garcia and starring Glenn Close as Albert Nobbs, Janet McTeer as Hubert Page, Mia  Wasikowska as Helen Dawes and Aaron Johnson as Joe Mackins, Pauline Collins as Mrs. Baker, the film give a few glimpses over the fate of certain working women in 19th century Dublin. The film script was co-written by Close with John Banville..

As the film opens, we see a party by some high class people at a hotel. A young man, Joe carelessly dropped some of the 4 pieces of luggage down some steps upon the shoes of a big fat rich man walking in front of him on the crowded steps. He apologized and offered to shine the tarnished shoes for him but was refused. The self important rich man suggested that he be dismissed. His superior showed some reluctance but the man gave him a look of displeasure. Joe was dismissed. Eventually he met Helen and shacked in with her at the maid's quarters of another hotel, the one where she was working with the protagonist of the film Albert Nobbs, who had been working there for some 30 odd years. The hotel needed to get its boiler working for a party the next day. Joe got the boiler of the hotel working and was asked to stay on as a live in technician and odd jobs man.   A little later, the hotel needed some minor repair works. Hubert appeared but as he arrived late, he needed a place to pass the night. Mrs. Baker, the boss of the establishment asked that Hubert share Albert's bed. Albert looked terrified and suggested that his bed was not suitable as it had lumps all over it. Mrs. Baker and frowned and said it had just been repaired not three months ago. Albert tried to resist, the obsequious, hypocritical, exploitative and harsh owner of the hotel, who was all smiles in front of his aristocratic hotel guests, gave him one of her looks. He backed down.

Night time came. We see Albert waiting until the very last moment before entering his room. He found Hubert already sleeping in his bed and made some proposal that he himself sleep on the floor. Hubert would have none of it. Then Hubert gingerly climbed on to the bed, careful to keep his back towards Hubert and was sleeping close to the edge of the bed. But soon, he began to feel an itch. It was getting intolerable. He thought it was a flea brought on to his bed by Hubert. So he took off his shirt. By accident, Hubert turned around saw that he was wearing some corsets. Albert asked Hugh not to tell anyone. Hugh said that if Albert liked, he could sleep on the sofa outside. Albert said that if Hubert were to do that, Mrs. Baker would give him a hard time and decided to sleep on the floor instead. Albert was in mortal fear. He begged Hubert again not to tell anybody about it and was extra careful and nice with Hubert the next morning for fear that Hubert would not keep his promise. On the second night they were together, Hubert asked Albert why she pretended to be a man. Albert told him that she was a bastard of noble lineage and was raised in a convent as an orphan but when she was 14, her mother died and she was kicked out and living alone. Then one night, a gang of five men raped her. She was desperate and started looking for work. By chance she found that the Freemasons were at that time extremely short handed for one of their big parties. So she bought herself a second-hand man's suit and tie and applied for a job as a waiter. To her surprise, she was accepted. Since then she has been working as a waiter in various cities, London, Manchester, Liverpool etc and eventually ended up in Dublin where she is now working. Feeling that she was fidgeting so uncomfortably when he is around, Hubert pulled off his shirt and showed Albert an enormous pair of breasts! Hubert told her she too had been working as a male painting worker from a young age because she could not find any work as a woman and that she was now "married" to another dressmaker and milliner called Cathleen, that they looked after and cared for each other and was very happy with the arrangement and that if Albert wanted, there was no reason "she" could not do the same and find herself another mate. His work done, he left the following morning.

Hubert's visit triggered a tiny ripple in Albert's mind. For a long time now, he/she had been fancying the young kitchen maid Helen. Albert gingerly started to ask her out. But Helen was in love with Joe, an illiterate who was always dreaming of going to America, and had some hesitations. However, Joe encouraged her to do so so that Helen could swindle Albert, whom he believed had saved up lots of money, first to buy her some expensive chocolates, then wine and perhaps other things. Helen did as she was told. Then one day, Albert took her to look at a run down shop at a cheap district in Dublin. We see Albert's dream: a tobacconist shop below and living quarters above with a warm fire burning quietly at the fireplace and Helen doing some knitting by the fireside on a comfortable one seater sofa. Albert asked Helen what she thought of their opening a tobacconist shop together there. Helen asked Albert what he meant when he said "we". Albert said he intended to marry her. Helen queried how he could marry her if he hadn't even "kissed" her once to show that he loved her. Albert gave her a tiny peck on her face. Helen told him that's not the way to kiss a woman and proceeded to show him how. But she told him that she was in love with Joe. Albert told her Joe would never take her to America but that only he would really look after her. By this time, Albert had nearly scrimped and saved nearly 600 pound stirling, quite sufficient for him to fulfill his little dream! 

But eventually, as was expected, Helen got pregnant with Joe's child. Joe was furious because it meant the end of his scheme to use Helen to swindle all money from Albert so they could emigrate to America. They got into a row. Albert heard it and went inside her room to her aid and got knocked down by Joe. His head hit the wall. He was bleeding in the ear The following morning, he died. All his savings which he had carefully hidden and hoarded under the floor board by 6 pence and 8 pence over the years were taken by Mrs. Baker who proceeded to decorate her hotel asking Hugh to do the 200 pound stirling repainting job the price of which she previously had asked but didn't order to be done because it was considered completely beyond her shooting range. Hubert came and saw Helen, holding a baby and asked her how she was. Helen said Mrs. Baker told her she would not kick her out into the streets "out of Christian charity" , Joes having emigrated to America. Hubert said Mrs. Baker was a nice woman. Then Helen told him she could stay only if she continued to work  for Mrs. Baker at no pay!  She said that if she disobeyed Mrs. Baker, she would throw her and her baby into the streets. By this time, Hubert's wife Cathleen had died of a recent typhoid epic, which also caused the hotel to be closed and the financial ruin of Mrs. Baker. Hubert asked Helen the child's name. She said she had decided to call him Albert Joseph. Hubert asked to hold her baby. She hesitated and then passed him to Hubert. Hubert told her "we" could not allow that to happen, with a tender look upon "his" eyes.The film ends.

It was an extraordinarily well made film. The mood was quiet, unexaggerated and the acting excellent. Glenn Close portrayed so well the introvert rigidity, the timidity, the fear which had been oppressing Albert's life for more than three decades from teenage onwards, an extremely careful disposition which had turned her into an almost mechanical "waiter", her look of envy at Hubert's "family" when "he" visited "him", her inability to walk on high heel shoes in a lady's dress as a woman again at the beach when after Cathleen's death, they could pay attribute to her by wearing some of the beautiful dresses she made and walking out on to a beach as "ladies" once again. They discovered to their surprise that by dint of three decades of having lived, talked and acted as men, they had lost the ability to "be" women again. So they reverted to their assumed "male" roles. The acting was sensitive and very touching. Both Close and McTeer had been nominated for best actress and best supporting actress for the 84th Academy Award but they won the best actress and best supporting awards at the last Tokyo Film Festival.  I also like the music which is quiet and suits perfectly the mood of the film. The film ends with Sinead O'Connor singing an Irish ballad like song "Lay your head down"  composed specially for the film by Brian Bryne. A very pleasant surprise indeed!