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MARTHA, MARCY, MAY, MARLENE
US, 2011, 102 minutes, Colour.
Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes, Brady Corbet.
Directed by Sean Durkin.
The tongue-twisting alliterative title is an indicator of the identity problems that Martha is having. She was Martha originally. Who has she become?
Many commentators have brought up Charles Manson and his family as a reference for this film. They are probably right. However, writer-director, Sean Durkin, has stated that he was more interested in the story of someone who had escaped from an enclosed group like the Manson family. That is who Martha is – an escapee. We learn this almost immediately as we are led into the commune, isolated, agricultural, dependent on a charismatic leader, and extremely sexist, with the women eating together after the men. And sexist in sexual exploitation as well. Early one morning, Martha runs away. Martha is played with feeling and convincing irritation to her family and to the audience by Elizabeth Olsen.
She has lived in the commune for two years without contact with her family, subservient to Patrick, the scrawny, rather non-descript-looking leader (John Hawkes eerily charming, controlling and ruthless). She rings her sister who comes to get her and Martha begins some kind of rehabilitation. But, the film poses the problem of whether she can ever be truly healed. Is she too emotionally wounded, too mentally unstable.
This is clear as Martha lives with her sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and her upwardly mobile husband (Hugh Dancy) who suffers Martha’s presence only out of loyalty to his wife.
Martha is erratic in behaviour, offensive in attitude, wearing her benefactors’ patience very thin. But, incidents lead to memories and the film is continually reverting back to the commune and Martha’s life there, work, pleasing Patrick, dealing with the other men, with the other women, more work, petty jealousies, sexual expectations from Patrick. Late in the film, there is a chilling episode where the group intrude into a house, terrorise the owner, burglarise and kill without compunction.
Amidst Martha’s memories are dreams and possible hallucinations which show the precarious nature of Martha’s recovery.
The film does not take us beyond this initial stage. We are left wondering how Martha will cope after two years of oppressive experience. But, the dangers of the sect and the cult, the control of the leader and the damage to the members are dramatised with intensity.
1. The focus on a group, a cult, leadership, submission and membership? The memories of the Manson Family and their atrocities?
2. Independent film-making, the small budget, the cast?
3. An American experience, the ethos of cults and leadership, the contrast with mainstream life, capitalism? Affluence versus such communal groups? The role of a cult, leaders, the bonds, the effect and consequences? Moral and amoral?
4. The title, the different names, Martha’s identity? Her place in the family? Her place in the cult? Pretence? Patrick singing Marcy’s song to Martha – and the eerie atmosphere? The song Marlene during the final credits? Both composed by Jackson C. Franks?
5. The credits, the detail of the farm, the work? Meals? The men eating, then the women eating? The dormitories – and the women on the floor?
6. The early sequence of Martha waking up in the night, getting out of the house, escaping through the woods, Watts following her, at the diner, the meal, the kind of food she was eating? Talk with Watts? His letting her go? Phoning Lucy, talking?
7. Lucy coming to pick Martha up, the enigma, the two years without contact? Lucy and Ted and their lives? Taking Martha home? The house by the lake? Lucy offering to help her sister? Their kindness, the room, Martha and her sleeping, eating, behaving erratically? Lucy and Ted dealing with the erratic behaviour? Trying to live their own lives? In the house, Martha’s comments about it? the background of Lucy and Ted and their jobs, income, the planning for the baby?
8. The screenplay and its coping with Martha’s confusion, what was happening in her present, the intrusions of the past, memories or dreams, both? Comparisons? Lucy compared with the women at the camp? Ted and the comparisons with Patrick? The build-up in Marcie’s increasing memories, the final revelation? How well did the film define her character, amorphous, being shaped? Her needs? Her mental and emotional breakdown?
9. The cumulative effect of the past, the role of Patrick, his personality, charm, sinister? His relationship with the women, the initiation with drugs, sex? The babies in the commune? Caring for them? The background of the detail of work, farming? The preparation of the meals, eating? The women seeing themselves as chosen? Their reactions amongst themselves, friendship, antagonism, rivalry? Sexuality as manipulation, weapon? Patrick as a person, the nature of his leadership, charismatic, yet quiet, his song, and vindictive?
10. The characters of the women, what was required of them, the behaviour, the work?
11. The contrast with the men, the differences, dedication, the exploitation?
12. The final test, the intrusion into the house, the man and his possessions, under threat, his fear, defence? The robbery – and the build-up to the killing, Patrick and his commands? The pulling of the gun? Power and submission?
13. The character of Lucy, the past, in the family, her care for her sister, their interactions when girls? Her bewilderment about Martha’s disappearance? Offering to help? Psychological, physical? The importance of the sequences of conversation between them – the scene at the lake, Ted preparing the meal?
14. Ted, his love for Lucy, willing to accept Martha, becoming increasingly irritated, Martha’s intrusions, the nude swimming, her clothing at parties, her antisocial behaviour? Coming into the bedroom? Ted wanting her out of the house?
15. Martha, coping with her moods, the swimming, the faux pas, coming into Lucy’s and Ted’s room, her memories and dreams, confusion, being provocative? Her reaction to Ted and Lucy’s responses?
16. The names, their use, the songs? The final phone call and Martha identifying as Marlene? Her identity, the open-ended finale? Her future?
17. A particularly American experience? Cults, communes, power, submission, exploitation and the consequences?