Space in the Fiction Films on Margaret Thatcher
Résumé
The purpose of docudrama is to inform the widest possible audience on topical issues in a fictional way. When dealing with well-known and easily identified places, there arises tensions between the representations of these places and their evocative power, tensions between their configuration in real life and how the filmmaker chooses to represent them. This is particularly true for films on prominent figures who evolve in prestigious places, like politicians in the public eye. One such person was Margaret Thatcher who was the subject of many docudramas, the most memorable ones being The Falklands Play and Thatcher: the Final Days. Whatever the intentions of the filmmakers who opt for docudrama, the result will inevitably be influenced by a genre that lends itself to empathy. The private nature of the places, for example the ones where the protagonists of the two films mentioned above evolve, acts as a reminder of the dramatic stage and increases the suspension of disbelief needed for empathy. Opponents of docudrama were quick to pinpoint such a shortcoming for a genre that has often been intended to compete with investigative journalism. Unlike verbatim fiction, which puts a premium on the words uttered by the politicians and gives weight to the messages conveyed by being rigorously respectful of what was declared, docudrama avails itself of all the elements of fiction to achieve credibility and particularly references to exact places. The purpose of this speech was to try and examine the role of places, whether indexically featured or represented in detail, in the evidential claims of the docudrama filmmakers.
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