HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT
US, 1995, 109 minutes, Colour.
Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft, Winona Ryder, Maya Angelou, Alfre Woodard, Jean Simmons, Kate Nelligan, Dermot Mulroney, Johnathan Schaech, Rip Torn, Loren Dean, Mykelty Williamson.
Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse.
It was a surprise when Melbourne director, Jocelyn Moorhouse, (Proof) was asked to direct this very American piece. She has made a very stylish film, using her camera and lighting with great subtlety, that takes us into a particularly women's world, American style.
The project began as a thesis, research and writing by Whitney Otto - and became a best-seller. She found that the tradition of quilt-making brought women together to share their lives and feelings as they worked, communally, on quilts (with the strict rules for patterns, colours and design). The screenplay itself works as a cinematic quilt. Winona Ryder plays the young woman who comes to her grandmother's home for the summer to work out whether she loves her fiance and whether she should marry. As she listens to the women who quilt, she hears their stories. And these are presented as flashbacks which form the pieces of the quilt. Each has different texture, different emotion, different insight.
The film has a strong cast including Ellen Burstyn as the grandmother and Anne Bancroft as her sister. Standouts are the poet Maya Angelou as the woman who knows the rules of quilting and Lois Smith as the blunt and bitter Sophie.
The men are less present in the film, Rip Torn as Anne Bancroft’s husband, Loren Dean as the earnest young man who eventually abandons his wife. There were some emerging stars in the cast including Claire Danes, Samantha Matthis and Jared Leto.
The film shows us a cross-section of family lives with the sorrows and betrayals, the joys and the possibilities of love.
1. An interesting piece of Americana? Australian director and perspective?
2. The locations and times? The 1990s, the family home, the town? The flashbacks and the different times? Costumes and decor and period look? The visit to Paris? The musical score?
3. The tradition of American quilts, piecemeal, the styles of materials, designs, the patterning, the sewing? The work of the group of women? The bonds between them as they worked? Conversations, memories, humour?
4. The nature of a quilt? The screenplay and the design of this film as a quilt? The overall framework of the women working, as a gift for Finn’s wedding? The focus on Finn and her story, her encounters with all the women, their flashbacks, piecemeal, making a quilt as an enterprise for the interconnected stories?
5. At home with Hy, Finn’s grandmother, her past with her sister Glady Joe, bonds between them, their concerns about Anna and her place in the household, her pregnancy? Hy and the death of her husband, in hospital, her grief, her seeking out Arthur, his driving, the sexual encounter, the return, his estrangement from Glady Joe? Glady Joe’s anger, smashing things, making the wall? The reconciliation with her sister? Inviting her into her home, their living together – and later Glady Joe starting to dismantle the wall?
6. Glady Joe, the vivacity, relationship with her sister, her being hurt, the confrontation with her husband and his self-defence, smashing things throwing? Growing older, letting her sister live with her? Their growing old together? The two sisters and their smoking pot on the veranda?
7. Finn, her age, her absent mother and her various boyfriends, on the move, her influence on Finn distrusting men? In her relationship with Sam? The engagement? The bonds between them? Her meeting Leon, her being attracted to him, his being forward, asking her out, her talking of her engagement, kissing him, feeling that she was betraying Sam, Sam suddenly turning up, the issue of having children, the clash, his leaving? Her feelings? Leon coming by, the temptation, her resisting it and letting him go? Asking her grandmother and the other women about their attitudes towards Sam? As a student, not completing her studies, different theses, the criticisms of Sophia, her working on the thesis, ethnology, the storm and the pages all being scattered round the garden, her wanting to give up, the women collecting the pages, Sophia ironing the pages, reading them and encouraging her? The return of her mother, their frank talk, her mother wanting to get back with her husband after 20 years, Sally changing her mind, Finn not comprehending? Her leaving phone messages for Sam, his return, the bond between them?
8. Sophia, tough, blunt, straight talking to Finn? Her memories, her mother, her mother’s loose life, encouraging her daughter, her being a star diver, Preston seeing her, impressed by her, the outings, in the water, the marriage, the children? Her further ambitions being thwarted? Preston and his travels? The estrangement between the two? His trying hard, Sophia and her dominance, in the bedroom? His packing, leaving, never being seen again? Sophia and her memories, her bond with the women, the quilt? A softening of her attitude towards Finn?
9. Anna, the previous servant becoming the matriarch? Her rules for the making of quilts? Her personality, strength? Her support of Finn? Her daughter Mariana? Present at the quilt-making? Different from her mother? Anna’s memories, as a servant, in the household, her becoming pregnant, handling the situation, Hy and Glady Joe and their help? Mrs Rubens and placing Anna, the issue of the baby? Anna serving in the household, growing up with the two sisters, moving to a position of domination? Mariana, going to Paris, relationships, the glimpse of Winston, his consoling her, the love of her life but never seeing him again?
10. Em, when young, glamorous, in love with Dean, the posing, the pictures, the sensuality, his sexual response? The marriage? The years passing, his painting, his infidelities, Em living with them, forgiving him? Her never leaving the town, joining the quilt-makers? Talking? Her advice to Finn? Suspicions of Dean having an affair with Constance, her decision to leave him, her return home, sleeping on the couch, his coming to her, the reconciliation and forgiveness?
11. Constance, coming later to the town, her marriage with Howell, his illness, death, her grief? The home movies and his bond with her, love, posing, humour? The aftermath, her loneliness, the meeting with Dean, his propositioning her, inviting him in, turning him away? Her anger with the women? Her design for the quilt and the garden in memory of Howell? Her return, reconciliation?
12. Sally, love for her daughter, taking up with men, wandering around the country, the return, blunt, straightforward, the discussions with Finn, Finn being disillusioned by her mother’s attitudes, change of heart? Yet her mother supporting her?
13. This portrait of American society, past present, rich and poor, black and white, the more permissive society of the 1990s and young women struggling to find their identity, the meaning of life, the possibilities of love and commitment?
