Shirley Valentine (film) Shirley Valentine (film) Shirley Valentine is an award-winning 1989 British romantic comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert. The screenplay by Willy Russell is based on his 1986 one-character play of the same title, which follows middle aged Shirley Valentine in an unexpected discovery of herself, and rekindling of her childhood dreams and youthful love of life. Pauline Collins reprises the titular lead role as middle-aged housewife Shirley, which she had previously played in the stage production in London's West End and on Broadway, and Tom Conti plays Costas Dimitriades, the owner of a Greek tavern with whom she has a
Title role character need not be the subject of the whole title in a strict grammatical sense: Uncle Tom is the title character of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and Lee Marvin is often described as playing the title character in the film "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", as his character (Liberty Valance) is named in the title, even though the subject of the title is the person who shot him. A title character may be the main antagonist, e.g. Sauron in "The Lord of the Rings" or Bram Stoker's "Dracula". In "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", the wizard is the title character,