LEONIE

This is the true story of Leonie Gilbert : a fiercely independent American woman who constantly defied taboos at the turn of the 20th Century when she became the Editor, then Lover, then Mother of the child of Japanese poet Yone Nogucci in New York. And then when he abandoned her and his son to go back home to Japan and his wife (that she knew nothing about) Leonie followed him, and in society where women were even more scorned than in the US, she raised their son on her own to become the world famous artist Isamu Noguchi.

The story starts when Leonie as a Bryn Mawr graduate answers a newspaper advert and becomes the N.Y. Editor of the yet unpublished poet. She soon also becomes his mentor and co-writer and is the one who persuades publishers to accept his work. When she falls pregnant with his child, the rather cold and restrained writer cannot hot-tail it quick enough to get out of there.  And when the US political climate changes and outlaws inter-racial marriages Leonie takes her son to Japan to claim her rightful place besides Yone as his wife.  

Snag is, he has one of those already, something he had failed to mention previously. When this is revealed Leonie moves into the Japanese countryside, not knowing a word of the language and very little of its customs, and sets on a meager living as a English teacher.  Along the way this woman, out casted by most of the local society, and ignored by Yone (unless he wants something edited) gets pregnant again .... presumably by one of the pupils, but that is never revealed.

Young Isamu is perpetually playing truant from school and Leonie has sensed that whilst he has no aptitude for general subjects such as mathematics he is displaying an extraordinary aesthetic for every aspect of art.  As the family are about to move again, Leonie entrusts her ten year old son to design their new house from scratch.

As a young man Isamu asks to go back to the USA to study, and when he graduates, Leonie and his half sister join him there. And they live happily ever after.  Almost.  For the next six decades until his death in 1988 Isamu becomes a renowned artist/sculptor/landscape designer  and furniture designer (the Herman Miller Company still produce some of his designs).  What is clear from this account of his mothers, it is her free spirit, openness and courage that helped shaped her fatherless son against all odds to succeed.  He straddled the two cultures with the same ease that she eventually managed. and much of his artistic legacy is, as the NY Times enthused in his obituary 'bridges both the East and West.'

This movie co-written and directed by Hisako Matsui has been languishing on a studio shelf since it was completed in 2010 and I am not sure why. True, it lacks a little clarity in some of the story line, but overall it is an impressive account of a 'great woman behind a great man' story of the last Century.  Emily Mortimer, a discerning Brit actor who often makes some unusual career choices, is compelling as the determined and resolute Leonie. The nearest thing she has to a best friend is Catherine, is played by Christina Hendricks ('Mad Men') who helps narrate the story.   Shidô Nakamura ('Letters from Iwo Jima') plays Yone as such a cold fish, its kind of tough imagining what a young Leonie would have seen in him .... besides the poems.

Beautifully photographed too (New Orleans stands in for old New York) and something of a wee gem, even if like me, you are ignorant enough to have never heard of either Noguchi, let alone the daunting Miss Gilmour.

P.S. Ailes Gilmour, the other child, went on to be one of the early pioneers of American Modern Dance and was one of the first members of The Martha Graham Company, who her brother sometimes designed Sets for.

★★★★★★★★ 

Available on DVD and AMAZON VOD