The first trailer from Ammonite, which stars Kate Winslet as British paleontologist Mary Anning and Saoirse Ronan as her lover circa the early 19th century, is out, and the imagery is stunning.
The movie, which Parasite's Neon picked up at Sundance in January, is another in a list of period pieces about lesbian and bisexual women that includes Neon's Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Favourite, Colette, and Lizzie, Tell It to the Bees, and Vita and Virginia, whichwere all released in theaters over the past few years. The '50s-era Summerlandwas just released on streaming as theaters are closed.
The director of the acclaimed gay-themed film God's Own Country, Francis Lee, helmed Ammonite, which stars Winslet as a woman obsessed with her work, who combs the English seaside for fossils that she uncovers. All the while, she's undervalued for her contributions to the science. Meanwhile, Ronan's Charlotte is an unhappily married woman from the upper class whose husband abandons her at the seaside with Mary while he sets off on an adventure. As Charlotte becomes a mentee to Mary, the women strike up a mutual admiration and a romance.
Winslet has played queer before in Heavenly Creatures and Iris, and Ronan starred in last year's Little Women. She told The Advocateat the time that it's absolutely accurate to interpret her Jo March as being on a queer spectrum.
Ammonite costars out actress and Killing Eve favorite Fiona Shaw (who was in Colette and Lizzie).
Watch the sparks fly between Winslet's Mary and Ronan's Charlotte below.