GREEN CARD
US, 1990, 107 minutes, Colour.
Gerard Depardieu, Andie Mac Dowall, Bebe Neuwirth, Gregg Edelman, Robert Prosky, Anne Wedgworth.
Directed by Peter Weir.
Green Card is the lightest of Peter Weir’s films. He made it immediately after The Truman Show. It preceded Fearless. Weir had made an impression in Australia with Picnic at Hanging Rock, Last Wave and Gallipoli and moved onto the international scene with The Year of Living Dangerously and Witness. He makes comparatively few films but they are finely crafted including Master and Commander.
Green Card is topical in terms of arranged marriages for people visiting the US on tourist visas to remain there because of marriage – and then able to get a Green Card to work. Andie Mac Dowall portrays a young woman who is a horticulturalist and could inherit a large garden if she had the money. She agrees to marry Gerard Depardieu, a composer. They go through the marriage formalities, are questioned by the authorities, spend a lot of time in each other’s company in order to prepare for a more detailed interrogation – and fall in love. Both actors are quite endearing in this film. Bebe Neuwirth is amusing as Andie Mac Dowall’s best friend.
1.The work of Peter Weir, issues, the light tough?
2.A piece of Americana, arranged marriages, the role of the Green Card, the role of the authorities?
3.The New York settings, the film at home in New York, the apartments, gardens, restaurants, streets? The score?
4.The facts of the marriage, the issue of the Green Card? Later romance? The advertisement: the story of two people who got married, met, and then fell in love?
5.Bronte, her character, her literary name and her feelings towards it, her family, the visit of her father the writer, her mother? Her relationships? Her gardens, her motivation?
6.Georges Faure, the composer, his life, going to New York, his composing?
7.Anton, the agent for the arranged marriages, meeting in Paris, the arrangement in New York, engineering the meeting between Bronte and Georges, his working in the restaurant? Going for the ceremony, the aftermath, the other brides and grooms and their joy? The immediate separation? Bronte seeing Georges at the restaurant with Phil? The issue of the vegetarian? His being sacked?
8.The interrogation, the couple together, the issues? The need for a further examination?
9.Georges moving in, their studying the details of each other’s lives, working together, information, being more at ease, yet the tensions, making up the stories, the untruths, inventing? Bronte banning him smoking in the house, from coming into the garden? Georges and his easy way, making the coffee, talk, looking at the photos?
10.The shopping, the meeting with Lauren, her comment about Jung and the French? Being invited to dinner, the effect? Bronte and her busybody neighbour, the questions, the panel asking her questions about moving in, the old lady in the lift, wanting to know about the authorities?
11.The visit to Lauren’s parents, the chat, Georges coming with Lauren, talking with him, the tension about his playing the piano, his modern work, the tenderness, the poem about the trees – and the effect on Lauren’s mother?
12.Bronte’s parents, seeing Georges as the handyman, the father talking with him, seeing through him, the marriage certificate, the father talking about his marriage to his wife, the mother being happy?
13.The build-up, the clashes, the need for separation? Waking up, running to the office? The questions, Bronte answering all of hers, realising that she loved Georges, Georges and his answers, the mistake? The official and his being found out?
14.The end, Georges leaving the country, the farewell to Bronte, realising that they were in love? The possibilities for the future – but the film ending?
