‘That Emotional Moment’: The Execution of Ruth Ellis in Pierrepoint (2005)

In 1955, Ruth Ellis became the last woman hanged in Britain. A 2003 appeal, which sought to revise her murder conviction to manslaughter, was dismissed on the grounds that “battered woman syndrome” was unknown at the time of her trial. In representing her hanging in slow motion, with an exchange of POV shots between Ellis and her executioner, Pierrepoint (2005) visualizes facets of Ellis’ contested legacy: the continued refusal to recognize the suffering of women caused by abusive men, and the extent to which Ellis’ conviction was shaped by prevailing cultural stereotypes which identified her as degenerate on grounds of her appearance and lifestyle. Pierrepoint recreates Ellis’ death but suggests her legacy remains “alive”: an ongoing injustice yet to be remedied.