---
title: "Silas Marner"
year: 1985
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/silas-marner"
fi1m_id: "silas-marner"
imdb_id: "tt0090019"
tmdb_id: 59174
wikidata_id: "Q120333599"
fi1m_score: 76
critics_reviews: 1
published: "2026-10-07T11:02:57.198093+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-07T11:03:25.573816+00:00"
region: "ZA"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Silas Marner (1985)

Directed by Giles Foster · 1h 30m · Drama

## Identity

Silas Marner

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/silas-marner
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** silas-marner
- **IMDb ID:** tt0090019
- **TMDB ID:** 59174
- **Wikidata ID:** Q120333599
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090019/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/59174, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q120333599

**Fi1m score: 76** · Critics: 1 of 6 reviews so far

*In a sentence:* A weaver counts his gold, loses it, and gets a child instead; Ben Kingsley makes the swap look like a fair one

> Giles Foster’s version of George Eliot’s novel is small, careful and plain, and gives Ben Kingsley a part he plays with his whole bent body. The Cass family gets hurried through in ninety minutes; the weaver’s cottage is worth the evening.

## Synopsis

Raveloe, an English village in the early nineteenth century. Silas Marner (Ben Kingsley), a weaver, works the loom from dawn to dark in a cottage at the edge of the village and counts his gold by the fire at night. Up at the big house, Squire Cass (Freddie Jones) presides over two sons: Godfrey (Patrick Ryecart), who wants to marry Nancy Lammeter (Jenny Agutter) and has a secret that involves Molly (Angela Pleasence), and Dunstan (Jonathan Coy), who knows it and bleeds his brother for money. The neighbour Dolly Winthrop (Rosemary Martin) is the one villager who keeps calling at the weaver’s door. What Silas loses, and what later wanders in out of the snow, decide the rest of the film.

## Review

George Eliot’s shortest novel is about a man who swaps one love for another without meaning to, and Giles Foster’s 1985 film, which he wrote with its producer Louis Marks, keeps it short. Ninety minutes is not long for a story that covers decades, and the film makes its choice early: the weaver gets most of the time and everyone else gets what is left. Since the weaver is Ben Kingsley, that turns out to be the right choice. It is a modest piece, and we liked it more than we expected to.

Kingsley plays Silas as a man who has closed down. He peers through a squint, holds his shoulders up near his ears, and walks as if the loom were still attached to him. When he counts the coins at night he does it with the fingers rather than the eyes, and the small smile he allows himself is the only warmth in the cottage. It would be mannered if Kingsley did not keep it so still; he barely raises his voice, and when he does it is a shock. When he finds the hiding place empty, Foster lets him stand with a brick in his hand, not understanding, for longer than most directors would allow.

Then the child comes. We will not say how; the film treats it as a surprise, and we will respect that. The moment the weaver kneels to the hearth and sees gold curls where his gold used to be moved us more than we thought a teatime period piece could, and it was Kingsley who did it, slowly understanding what his hands were telling him. Elizabeth Hoyle and Melinda Whiting share the small Eppie, and both are allowed to be a nuisance. Rosemary Martin’s Dolly Winthrop, the neighbour who shows him how to hold the thing, is the film’s second-best performance, kind without being soft.

The Cass half of the story is where the ninety minutes bite. Freddie Jones gives Squire Cass a red face and a bark, Patrick Ryecart’s Godfrey is a handsome, weak man who keeps hoping things will solve themselves, and Jonathan Coy’s Dunstan has a horrible little grin whenever he has something on his brother. All three are right; none gets enough scenes. Angela Pleasence’s Molly has a handful of scenes that are among the film’s strongest and are over before they have begun. Jenny Agutter’s Nancy Lammeter is sensible and warm and, through no fault of Agutter’s, mostly waiting; the script tells us what she thinks of Godfrey rather than letting her show it.

Nat Crosby shoots the village in grey winter light and the cottage by firelight, so that the gold is the brightest thing in the frame. Gerry Scott’s Raveloe is mud, thatch and low beams, with the Cass house only a little grander, so the gap between the families is manners rather than money. Anushia Nieradzik puts Silas in the same brown coat for years and lets it fade. Carl Davis’s score is strings and a folk tune, used sparingly, though it swells once or twice at moments Kingsley had already carried on his own. Robin Sales’s editing is where the compression shows: the years pass in a cut or two, and the second half keeps arriving at scenes just as they end.

Jim Broadbent turns up as Jem Rodney, the poacher Silas first accuses, and is funny and aggrieved in four lines. Patsy Kensit, as the grown Eppie, is bright and open and has little to do except be loved; the film’s last movement, which we will not describe, asks her to carry a scene the script has not built for her, and she nearly manages it.

This does not pretend to the scale of Eliot’s big novels, and is wise not to. It is a fable, told plainly, in a village you could walk across in ten minutes. Watch it on a winter afternoon with the curtains drawn, and do not expect the Casses to add up; expect Kingsley to, and he does. It runs 90 minutes and was first shown in Britain on 30 December 1985.

*Fi1m score 76, published 7 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is Silas Marner worth watching?**

*Silas Marner* is worth watching for anyone who wants a small, plain period drama carried by one performance, and we scored it 76. Ben Kingsley plays the weaver with a squint, hunched shoulders and barely a raised voice, and the moment he finds a child by his hearth moved us more than we expected. The Cass family's half of the story is rushed, so do not expect that side to add up.

**How long is Silas Marner, and what is it rated?**

*Silas Marner* runs 1h 30m. It is a drama film.

**Where can I watch Silas Marner in South Africa?**

*Silas Marner* is not on any streaming or rental service in South Africa at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How does Silas Marner compare to The Kid?**

*Silas Marner* and [*The Kid*](https://film.one/film/the-kid) are both stories of a solitary man taking in a foundling, but Chaplin's is a silent comedy that laughs its way to the sentiment, while Foster's is a quiet, firelit fable that stays still and lets Kingsley do the work. *The Kid* is the warmer and the more original of the two; *Silas Marner* is the better choice for a winter afternoon with the curtains drawn.

**Is Silas Marner based on a true story or a book?**

*Silas Marner* is based on George Eliot's novel of the same name, her shortest, and is not a true story. Giles Foster and Louis Marks keep it to ninety minutes, giving the weaver most of the time and compressing the Cass family's affairs into a cut or two. You do not need to have read the book; the film treats its turns as surprises and plays as a plain fable on its own.

**What should I watch after Silas Marner?**

After *Silas Marner*, try [*The Kid*](https://film.one/film/the-kid) (1921, Fi1m 84): Chaplin’s tramp takes in a foundling; the original of every unlikely-father story since. Then [*Paper Moon*](https://film.one/film/paper-moon) (1973, Fi1m 86): A con man and a small girl on the road, each getting the better of the other; and [*Middlemarch*](https://film.one/tv/middlemarch) (1994, Fi1m 78): Eliot at full length, with a whole town’s worth of bad marriages and good intentions.

### Reviews we read (1)

- **The New York Times**, John J. O'Connor (70/100, inferred): The headline presents the adaptation as a timely Victorian classic, suggesting a positive verdict. The accessible page provides no details about what the critic specifically praised. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/14/arts/tv-silas-marner-timely-victorian-classic.html)

## Details

- **Director:** Giles Foster
- **Director:** Giles Foster
- **Writer:** Louis Marks, Giles Foster
- **Novel:** George Eliot
- **Cinematography:** Nat Crosby
- **Editor:** Robin Sales
- **Music:** Carl Davis
- **Production design:** Gerry Scott
- **Costume design:** Anushia Nieradzik
- **Producer:** Louis Marks
- **Cast:** Ben Kingsley as Silas Marner; Jenny Agutter as Nancy Lammeter; Patrick Ryecart as Godfrey Cass; Freddie Jones as Squire Cass; Jonathan Coy as Dunstan Cass; Patsy Kensit as Eppie; Elizabeth Hoyle as Baby Eppie; Melinda Whiting as Little Eppie
- **Runtime:** 1h 30m
- **First release (the UK):** 30 December 1985
- **Genres:** Drama

## Where to watch in South Africa

Not streaming, renting or buying in South Africa at the last check.

Also available in: CA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *The Kid* (1921), Fi1m 84: Chaplin’s tramp takes in a foundling; the original of every unlikely-father story since. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-kid.md)
- *Paper Moon* (1973), Fi1m 86: A con man and a small girl on the road, each getting the better of the other. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/paper-moon.md)
- *Middlemarch* (1994), Fi1m 78: Eliot at full length, with a whole town’s worth of bad marriages and good intentions. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/middlemarch.md)
- *Babette's Feast* (1987), Fi1m 86: A hard, pious village thawed by a stranger; Danish, slow and quietly funny. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/babettes-feast.md)
- *Jean de Florette* (1986): Rural greed, a secret kept by neighbours, and a landscape that does not care.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/silas-marner