PAPERHOUSE
UK, 1988, 94 minutes, Colour.
Charlotte Burke, Elliot Spiers, Gemma Jones, Glenne Headley, Ben Cross.
Directed by Bernard Rose.
Paperhouse is an unusual British psychological drama directed by video film-maker, Bernard Rose, who went on to direct Immortal Beloved and Anna Karenina.
It boasts a good cast with the young Charlotte Burke very effective as the somewhat sinister little girl, Anna. Ben Cross is her father and American Glenne Headley very effective as her mother. Gemma Jones is the doctor and Elliot Spiers is the little boy in Anna's dreams.
The film is based on a novel by Katherine Storer called Marianne Dreams. A young girl draws a paper house and sees it in her dreams - and continues to draw and to make the house and its inhabitants alive. At times it turns into a nightmare. This also relates to the young patient of Anna's doctor - and whether he will live or not. The film relies on atmosphere rather than a great deal of logic, but the audience is caught up in Anna's dreams. A small film but effective.
1.Interesting thriller? Psychological thriller? Action? Dreams and reality?
2.The English settings, the town, the railway, school, the cliffs, the paper house? Realism and dreams? Real and unreal landscapes? The musical score?
3.The title and the focus, the credits and the drawings, Anna and her drawings of the paper house, her dream experiences and adding to the drawings? The crisis with the drawing thrown out? Trying to recover it and make good in the paper house?
4.The paper house and dreams? The dreams of a young girl - wilful, running to the house of her own creation, shaping the house, the little boy, his inability to walk and her trying to remedy this, the radio in the room, the staircase and his ability to move around as well as hers? Her illness and the angers? The barred window, her sinister father? The psychological and oedipal undertones of the presence of her threatening father? Blocking the door, his smashing the window and coming into the house? Helping the little boy (animus figure) to come alive? The explanation of the dreaming, his wanting to get her to wake up or to change the drawings? The lighthouse? The escape? The possibility of life - death? The dreams gradually diminishing for Anna? Age 11, her 11th birthday, the psychological effect of the young girl on the verge of puberty? Relationships of family, the boy?
5.Anna as a character: drawing in class, wilful with the accident and unseating the girl in front? The teacher ousting her? Her telling lies, making the children laugh, fainting, the dreams? Her mother's coming, telling her the truth and her mother taking her back to school? With her girlfriend and the afternoon off, playing hide and seek, the police finding her? Her illness, the doctor? Her being sick at home, the drawings and the dreams? The intermingling? The doctor and her story of the little boy, identified as Mark? The deterioration of the boy? Her being more eager to help him, less self-centred? Her tantrum and the garbagemen trying to recover the page? Her mother and her exasperation, love for her daughter? Her father's appearance in the dream, in reality? The doctor and her care? The death of Mark and its effect on her? Her relating to him in the house, friendship, in the dream, the threats? Getting him to walk? The lighthouse, the holiday and her discovering the lighthouse, locked? Running to the cliff, his note about the helicopter and dying, her reaching out, Mark not wanting her to fall over the cliff, rescued by her mother? The effect of these experiences on her life?
6.The mother, the absent father, working, love for her daughter, tantrums, taking her back to school? Concern when the police search for her? The illness, looking after her, the phone calls, talking to the doctor? Overheard by Anna? Her husband coming back, their mutual care of their daughter? Her concern over the boy? The final rescue?
7.The absent father, the memories of his drinking problem, the photo? Appearing as sinister in the dusk? In the house, the threats, threatening his daughter, the violence? The contrast with the reality, his return home, care for his daughter?
8.The doctor, kindly, friendly? Encouraging Anna, keeping her in bed? The stories of Mark, his illness, lack of will to recover, deterioration, death? Anna proving to the doctor that the boy in her drawings was Mark?
9.Mark, in the upper room in the window, unable to walk? His real life and his dream? The friendship with Anna, fixing the radio, the stairs, moving around, the threats? Wanting her to draw things for safety? The great friendship, his death, the note, going in the helicopter, warning Anna of the dangers?
10.School, cantankerous little girls, the teacher and her ousting Anna? The suspicious teacher walking along the corridor?
11.The British atmosphere and reticence in dealing with such a psychological drama, action thriller? The value of the reticence and its impact?
