Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature
Soňa Šašinková The Films that Made it: Independent Canadian Women Filmmakers and the Recipe for Success Master‟s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr. 2011
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author‟s signature
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I would like to thank my supervisor doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr. for his valuable help and patience.
iii Table of Contents
Introduction ...... 3 1 Directors and Plot Summaries ...... 6 1.1 Patricia Rozema: Her Life and Work ...... 6 1.2 I've Heard the Mermaids Singing – Plot Summary ...... 8 1.3 Lynne Stopkewich: Her Life and Work ...... 9 1.4 Kissed – Plot Summary ...... 11 1.5 Anne Wheeler: Her Life and Work ...... 12 1.6 Better Than Chocolate – Plot Overview ...... 14 2 Issues and Aspects of Feminist Filmmaking ...... 17 2.1 Feminism and Absence of Male Figures in I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing ...... 19 2.2 Sandra, Subject and Object of ‘Gaze’ – Feminist Aspects of Kissed ...... 21 2.3 Male Characters in Better Than Chocolate ...... 22 3 Relationships and the Themes of Desire and Sexuality ...... 27 3.1 Polly’s (A)sexuality and the Images of Desire ...... 28 3.2 The Unlikely Love Triangle – Relationships and Sexuality in Kissed ...... 31 3.3 Relationships and Desire in Better Than Chocolate ...... 33 4 Character Development ...... 36 4.1 Polly Vandersma, the ‘Lone Heroine’ ...... 38 4.2 Warming Up to the Living ...... 40 4.3 The Daughter’s Coming Out and the Mother’s Journey to Enlightenment ...... 42 Conclusion ...... 45 Bibliography ...... 52
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2 Introduction
Norman Jewison once posed a question which addresses an issue that – though central to the very concept of filmmaking – is rarely discussed among film scholars: “how will the films created by [Canadian] filmmakers find their way to the cinema and television screens of the world”
(Posner vii)?
There can be no doubt that there are many great Canadian film directors; furthermore, thanks to NFB policy and government subsidy opportunities, Canada may well boast an especially large number of independent filmmakers. In the face of such variety, Jewison‟s question seems all the more substantiated.
In 1993 Michael Posner published a book which details the making, production, and development of ten independent Canadian feature films, providing valuable insight into their casting, photography and distribution. The films selected and discussed by Posner in Canadian
Dreams: The Making and Marketing of Independent Films all fulfil the following criteria: firstly, they are all made by Canadian directors, secondly, they are – for the most part at least – relatively low- budget productions, and thirdly, they “each [have] a strong and instructive story to tell”
(Posner xi).
One of the ten films explored in detail in Posner‟s book is a film by Patricia Rozema I’ve
Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987).
Second film that has undergone a successful journey of distribution is Lynne
Stopkewich‟s Kissed (1996). The third and final feature film which will form the group of three successful independent Canadian films to be discussed on the following pages is Better Than
Chocolate directed by Anne Wheeler. The reason for choosing the above mentioned directors and their films was based on them being those examples of Canadian works of cinematography which, despite their low production costs, earned critical acclaim, received numerous awards,
3 gained box-office success and sparked the interest of a broad spectrum of viewers.
The most significant common features shared by the three films are the directors‟ nationality and gender. Rozema, Stopkewich and Wheeler are filmmakers who share an interest in casting women as the main characters of their film narratives. Furthermore, each of the selected films deals with relationships and love in a distinct and non-traditional way: the topics of lesbian love and trans-sexuality are presented in Better Than Chocolate, Kissed focuses on necrophilia and
I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing centres on leading a fantasy life and relationships between women.
Moreover, there is a notion of omnipresent „strangeness‟ and a sense of alienation from society in the representations of the films‟ heroines – all three of them have a character and/or sexual trait which isolates them from their families and peers.
The aim of the thesis is to find and define the strategies employed in the making of the three films in question, especially with respect to their appearance in Canadian and international cinemas and their audience appeal, along with their gaining a certain measure of critical acclaim.
In order to do so, the thesis will identify and discuss the essential “ingredients” involved.
Furthermore, I will also address the issue of certain restrictions all of these filmmakers have had to tackle as well as exploring how they managed to overcome them.
The first chapter will introduce the three filmmakers. A brief overview of their personal background, work, and achievements will be followed by a plot description of the three films – in chronological order of their releases: Mermaids, Kissed and Chocolate. In the second chapter, the question of feminist criticism of the three films will be dealt with. I will make an attempt to define and analyze the position of male figures, and the issue of feminine gaze as introduced by a feminist film critic Laura Mulvey. Before the actual analysis, the key terms and ideas of Mulvey‟s essay Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema (1975) which serves as a basis for the films‟ reading in terms of feminist criticism, will be presented. The following chapter will be dedicated to the exploration of the common themes of desire, types of relationship as depicted in each film. The
4 fourth chapter will focus on the character development of Polly in Mermaids, Sandra in Kissed and
Maggie and Lila in Chocolate. In the final and concluding section, I will summarize the acquired notions from each film‟s analysis. I will make an attempt to identify the strategies or „ingredients‟ used by the directors and deployed in the making of the films in question. Most importantly I seek the answer to Norman Jewison‟s question.
5 1 Directors and Plot Summaries
This chapter will focus on introducing the three Canadian women filmmakers and their work.
The directors are discussed in chronological order of the making and releases of their work chosen for the thesis. Moreover, each of the films‟ plot summary is presented in each subchapter.
1.1 Patricia Rozema: Her Life and Work
Patricia Rozema was born in 1958 in Kingston, Ontario, her parents were strict Dutch Calvinists who believed in protecting their daughter from any outside harmful influences, resulting in her having seen her first film, The Exorcist at the cinema at the age of 16, certainly creating an experience notable for the filmmaker‟s future work. Eventually, Rozema dealt with the topic of her strict upbringing in one of her later features When Night is Falling (1995). Rozema majored in philosophy and journalism at Calvin College in Michigan, where she became aware of her sexual orientation and experienced her own coming out. After graduating, she worked as a journalist, followed by a job in theatre for a period of time, as well as in television in Chicago, New York and Toronto before she took a five-week course in film production and began the career of a filmmaker. One of her first film experiences included cooperating on David Cronenberg‟s The Fly
(1986) as his third and second assistant director1.
Patricia Rozema‟s first project, Passion: A Letter in 16mm, made in 1985, gained an award at the Chicago Film Festival. Passion is a short feature portraying a successful business woman Anna
(Linda Griffiths) whose personal and love life are affected by her belief in a strict ethical code.
1 Taken from Michael Posner's Canadian Dreams (1993), which served as a valuable and most informative source of information and observation on Mermaids.
6 I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987) is Rozema‟s first feature which she wrote, directed, edited and co-produced with her life and work partner Alexandra Raffé. In total, the cost of the film was $362,019. Rozema acquired $48,000 from two grants provided by the Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council. Originally, the feature was supposed to be a short television production, due to its length of 65 minutes. Rozema was forced to make a decision to either cut it down or to expand it by adding 15 minutes, thus creating a short feature and making it acceptable for the feature film funds. Determined, Rozema and her partner Raffé created a company, the Vos Production, acquired endorsements to support their credibility and prepared an exhausting presentation of the feature in order to send it to the Ontario Film Development
Corporation with a request for $85 000 (Posner 5). Eventually, Vos Production managed to receive $100 000 from OFDC and $163 000 from Telefilm Canada. Mermaids shone at Cannes
Film Festival in France, being awarded Best First Film by a Young Director as well as receiving truly unexpected six minutes long ovation. Subsequently, Rozema and Raffé were approached by
Harvey Weinstein from the American film production company Miramax who were interested in buying the film‟s distribution rights for the United States.
After negotiating the price, Rozema, Rafffé and Miramax agreed to cooperate and
Mermaids „found‟ its way to the cinemas and became financially successful, attracting audience while “[it] went to play in some 50 US cities and topping no 17 on the Variety billboard” (Posner
19). Mermaids brought Rozema worldwide recognition; gaining critical and financial success everywhere it was screened.
Rozema‟s work includes a wide range of film genres, spanning from a dark drama about an aspiring writer – White Room (1990), a lyrical lesbian romance When Night is Falling (1995), and an experimental documentary dedicated to J.S Bach Six Gestures (1997). In her fourth feature
Rozema chose to convert Jane Austen‟s novel Mansfield Park into a “deliberately „unfaithful‟ yet historically informed film adaptation which received positive reviews from critic and wide
7 audience” (Parpart 296). Later on, Rozema participated in the Irish project Beckett on Film, adapting Samuel Beckett‟s play Happy Days in 2000.
1.2 I've Heard the Mermaids Singing – Plot Summary
In order to establish a useful background for the following thematic and formal analysis of the film, I would like to provide a brief outline of its plot. The main character, Polly Vandersma
(Sheila McCarthy), is an unlikely film heroine. She is a thirty-one-year-old woman whose lack of organisational skills and ambition allows her to work only occasionally as a temping assistant in jobs offered by an employment agency.
Polly is given a job at a chic art gallery, owned and managed by a charismatic curator
Gabrielle St. Peres (Paule Baillargeon) who becomes Polly‟s role model, inspiration and the target of her romantic feelings. The film‟s opening scene shows Polly installing a camera in her flat and preparing to give a subjective account of actions taking place a few days earlier. Polly, living with her cat in a small flat somewhere in Toronto, is a solitary person who “gets a kick” out of her main and only hobby - taking photographs. While cycling through the city, Polly captures images of things she finds beautiful – buildings, boys playing in the street, mothers and their children, young couples in love – and develops them later at home. Through the medium of her photographs Polly enters the world of fantasy and daydreaming, where she experiences different, exciting lives, set in various places and times. In these dream sequences she also creates new personalities for herself and Gabrielle. With the arrival of Gabrielle‟s former lesbian lover Mary
Joseph (Ann-Marie MacDonald), Polly becomes aware of her feelings for Gabrielle and begins to question her knowledge and understanding of art, talent and sexuality. Gabrielle finds her assistant‟s behaviour pleasant and somewhat entertaining, invites Polly to her birthday party and eventually confides to Polly with her unfulfilled ambition of becoming a successful painter.
Gabrielle shows Polly breathtaking luminous „paintings‟ without being entirely honest to her
8 about who the author of the paintings is. Polly, smitten by Gabrielle‟s sudden demonstration of trust and the beauty of Gabrielle‟s work, secretly brings one of the paintings to the gallery. There she shows it to an art critic who is immediately captivated by its beauty and depth and writes a raving review. Inspired by Gabrielle‟s work, Polly decides to send some of her photographs to the gallery under a “pseudoname.” She is deeply disappointed when Gabrielle rejects the pictures, calling them “completely simple-minded,” assuming that the author must be a little girl.
Eventually, Polly discovers the truth about Mary Joseph being the true author of the luminous paintings and becomes furious. After she throws a cup of hot tea into Gabrielle‟s face, Polly flees to her flat with a camera „borrowed‟ from the gallery. In the safety of her home, determined to be honestly explain her behaviour and afraid of being punished and going to jail, Polly records her story.
1.3 Lynne Stopkewich: Her Life and Work
Lynne Stopkewich directed, edited and co-wrote the screenplay of her first feature film, Kissed, in
1996 and thus established her career of a filmmaker. Born in 1964, Stopkewich grew up in an
Anglophone family in a francophone part of Montreal, attended Vanier College in Montreal and then went on to study film at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. During her studies, Stopkewich made friends with other, then unknown and similarly to her incipient
Canadian filmmakers such as Mina Shum, Bruce Sweeney and John Pozer. Together, they cooperated on Pozer‟s film The Grocer’s Wife (1991) while Stopkewich dreamt of making her own feature film2.
Her debut Kissed is based on a story We So Seldom Look on Love written by Barbara Gowdy in 1992. In one of her essays on Stopkewich‟s work, Kalli Paakspuu claims that Stopkewich was
2 The details regarding Stopkewich‟s early years as a filmmaker and details of her cooperation with Molly Parker are taken from Dreaming in the Rain: How Vancouver Became Hollywood North by Northwest (2003) by David Spaner who derived the information from interviews with filmmakers and actors depicted in the book.
9 “haunted by for years by an interview of Karen Greenlee, an embalmer-in-training convicted of necrophilia [in the United States] in the late 1970s” and that in Gowdy‟s story “she found another strong female character” which she could use for her script (“Abject Sexualities” 386). For the role of Sandra Larson in Kissed, Stopkewich cast a young Canadian actress Molly Parker who also later starred in Stopkewich‟s drama Suspicious River (2000). Kissed opened at the 1996 Toronto Film
Festival, where it received a special jury citation for best new Canadian film and earned Parker a
Genie Award for her role of the „likeable‟ necrophiliac3. Eventually, “Kissed played Canadian and
U.S. theatres and was featured at more than thirty festivals, including Cannes and Sundance”
(Spaner 191). Despite its later success, the process of making Kissed was a long and a complicated one. Stopkewich‟s friends and family helped to finance the film; the equipment was borrowed from school, as Stopkewich explains in an interview with Kalli Paakspuu (74).
In 2000 Stopkewich wrote and directed her second feature film, Suspicious River, which opened the Venice International Film Festival in the same year and received intense reactions including silence and crying (Spaner 187-8). Unlike in the case of Kissed, which the director worked on “without ever having all the money to complete it”, she made the film with the financial support of William Morris Agency in Los Angeles which contacted her because of the success of Kissed (Paakspuu 74-5). The film depicts the story of a young, ordinary looking woman who is in charge of a motel in a small town, and her sexual encounters. It deals with the themes of violence, prostitution and rape. According to Stopkewich it is “a story about self-destruction and soul-searching” (Paakspuu 81).
Stopkewich‟s later work features Lilith on Top (2001) which is a documentary about a travelling music festival Lilith Fair founded by the musician Sarah McLachlan. Stopkewich directed several episodes of various television series, including four episodes of a popular lesbian drama The L Word between 2004 and 2006, The Guard and Da Vinci Inquest.
3 The Genie Awards are given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.
10 1.4 Kissed – Plot Summary
Sandra Larson (Molly Parker) has been fascinated by dead animals since she was a little girl. She would create and perform her own rituals at their burials. When she befriended Carol (Jessie
Winter Mudie) they performed these rituals together, making little crosses from popsicle sticks, reciting prayers and saying grace. It is a beautiful friendship until Carol becomes uncomfortable with the somewhat morbid ceremony and runs away, leaving Sandra alone with small carcasses of chipmunks and her obsession with death. Sandra grows older without losing her interest in the dead, on the contrary, she becomes obsessed with death, wants to know more and “to understand the order, understand the perfection.” Her parents, ordinary people from a small town, are unaware of their daughter‟s strange interest. Her father owns a florist shop, where
Sandra helps him with flower arrangements and order deliveries. One day she is asked to deliver flowers to a local funeral home and becomes enchanted by the quiet and decent atmosphere of the place, and above all, by the close proximity of death. Without hesitation she applies for a job with Mr. Wallis (Jay Brazeau), a funeral home director who is an embalmer as well. He, having just lost an assistant, eagerly shows her around the place accepting her offer. Sandra starts working at the funeral home, at first doing small jobs, cleaning and driving. The very first day she works there, she experiences her first encounter with a dead body. The body waiting to be transported to the cemetery is that of her predecessor, young Tony who “died on the job.”
Sandra takes him to the cemetery, and while stopping on the way at a car wash, she cannot resist the temptation, opens his coffin and kisses him. While kissing him, white light fills the inside of the car, enveloping her and everything around her. The kiss initiates Sandra‟s journey to a process which she calls “crossing over4.” To get closer to the dead, Sandra decides to study embalming, asking Mr. Wallis to teach her the „art.‟ Mr. Wallis, surprised with her request, takes her to the embalming room, shows her the proceedings and tricks of preparing bodies for their last
4 The process of crossing over is to be discussed in more detail in the following chapters
11 journeys. At first, Sandra is disillusioned with his matter-of-fact approach which she finds cold and distant, compared to her own. Later, she performs her ceremonies, while trying to „get closer‟ to the corpses of young men that have been embalmed at Mr. Wallis‟s funeral home. Courses at the college where Sandra studies embalming provide her with everything she needs to know about the technical part of the job, in addition to knowing a lot from her own experience with the dead men.
One day, she meets Matt (Peter Outerbridge), a student of medicine who is “taking some time off” and who is clearly attracted to her. They start talking and suddenly, Sandra, overwhelmed by his interest and the streak of his understanding of her obsession with dead bodies, confides in Matt her carnal secret. To her surprise he is not shocked but fascinated and they become very close. While having a sexual relationship with Matt, Sandra continues with her rituals in the funeral home. As their relationship develops, Matt becomes obsessed by the details of her encounters; wishing to be present at one of her „crossovers‟ he becomes aggressive and pushy, thus scaring Sandra off. Sandra tries to explain her experience during her „intercourses‟ with the cadavers, however, Matt is taken over by jealousy and cannot understand her actions.
The film concludes with Matt, committing suicide in his flat in front of Sandra, fulfilling his wish of being as close to Sandra as possible.
1.5 Anne Wheeler: Her Life and Work
Anne Wheeler, born in 1946 in Edmonton, Alberta, is the eldest and most prolific of the three directors whose work is analysed in this thesis. After graduating at the University of Alberta in
1967 and achieving Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, she left Canada and travelled across
Europe and Middle East, returning only to enrol in a Master‟s program in music education.
Wheeler began her career of a filmmaker while working with some friends on short films
12 production, including a one minute commercial for the Canadian Dentist Association5. In the late seventies and early eighties, Wheeler worked for the National Film Board of Canada and Studio
D, making short documentaries, most notable of which are Great Grand Mother (1975), a short film about pioneering women and A War Story (1981), based on her father‟s diaries and describing his experience as a Japanese prisoner of war.
A number of short dramas made for the CBC followed, including Teach Me to Dance
(1978) and Change of Heart (1984). In 1986 Wheeler directed and co-produced her debut feature
Loyalties which “put her on the feature filmmaking map both as a Canadian director and as a woman filmmaker” (Cummins 78). The film deals with the relationship between a recent immigrant from England and her part-time nanny, a Métis woman, while “explor[ing] the racial, ethnic, and class nature of the community, and the dark secrets hidden behind a veil of propriety”
(Melnyk 169-170). Loyalties received seven nominations for the Genie Award, including Best
Achievement in Direction and won Wheeler Grand Prix at the Créteil International Women‟s
Film Festival in 1987.
Departing from the images of women and feminist interests, Wheeler directed Cowboys
Don’t Cry (1986). Based on a novel by Marylin Halvorson, Cowboys is a story about a dysfunctional relationship between an alcoholic father and his fourteen-year-old son. Bye Bye Blues (1989), written and directed by Wheeler, was nominated for several Genie Awards in 1990 but unfortunately “was in competition with Denys Arcand‟s outstanding Jésus de Montreal,” leaving the film with „only‟ Best Actress Award for Leading Role as well as for Supporting Role (Melnyk
171). A year later Wheeler directed a family film Angel Square (1990) which initiated a period of the director‟s work for television.
Anne Wheeler was contacted by a screen writer Peggy Thompson and a producer Sharon
McGowan who wanted her to work on Better Than Chocolate (1999). The film is a romantic
5 From the website Dictionary of Canadian Biography online, a section dedicated to Canadian women in film. http://www.biographi.ca/femmes/002026-719-e.html
13 comedy about a couple of young lesbian lovers Maggie and Kim and the relationship between
Maggie and her mother Lila, who, unaware of her daughter‟s sexuality, comes to live with them.
Chocolate primarily focuses on lesbian love, the heroine‟s coming out and censorship in a small lesbian and gay bookstore. Apart from these, it depicts the experiences of transsexual Judy, convincingly acted by Peter Outerbridge. The book shop in the film is based on a real life place, the Little Sister‟s bookstore in Vancouver which “have been kept from selling books that were being openly sold in other stores, they have been singled out6.” In a panel discussion, Wheeler admitted that the film is “very different from anything [she‟s] ever done before” and it is certainly a “sort of an attempt to make and entertaining kind of film, but it‟s also an attempt to get in the arena of money-making films” (Levitin 206). Similarly to Wheeler‟s other films, Chocolate was made on a very low budget, shot in only 22 days7, included a lot of music as well as numerous shots of Vancouver where the story is set. Chocolate became “Vancouver‟s big box-office movie of the 1990s” (Spaner 187). Also, Wheeler was invited to screen Chocolate at the Berlin Film Festival in July 1999, and it soon opened in Germany in a large number of cinemas. Chocolate was followed by Marine Life (2000) where Wheeler cast Peter Outerbridge again, this time as a young lover of a middle-aged lounge singer June (Cybill Shepherd). Since 2000 Wheeler has worked on several features, television films and series, including seven episodes of CBC‟s Da Vinci Inquest (1998-
2003) and Edge of Madness (2002), an adaptation of Alice Munro‟s short story A Wilderness Station, co-written by Wheeler.
1.6 Better Than Chocolate – Plot Overview
Better Than Chocolate opens with a scene in a lesbian night club in Vancouver, where the angel-like- dressed Maggie does her debut lip-synch performance. Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) is a nineteen-year- old lesbian, a recent university drop out enjoying her life and working part-time in a bookshop.
6 Ibid. 7 Taken from the director‟s commentary, included in the DVD Better Than Chocolate.
14 As she is walking home, two young skin heads begin to bother her because of her outfit.
Suddenly a van appears, driven by Kim (Christina Cox), a young and attractive artist on the road, travelling between festivals and cities. The men get scared and let Maggie go.
Without having a place of her own, Maggie sleeps on the sofa in the back room of the
Ten Percent Books, a bookshop selling everything from lesbian and gay literature, lesbian s/m safety manuals to sex toys. The shop is run by a somewhat uptight lesbian Frances (Ann-Marie
MacDonald), currently stressed over the censorship problems that she is having with Customs
Canada. Maggie receives a phone call from her mother Lila who is horrified to have found out about her daughter‟s decision to quit school in order to “learn about life.” Lila (Wendy Crewson), blissfully unaware of her daughter‟s sexuality, is getting divorced from her adulterous husband,
Maggie‟s stepfather, and decides to leave her home with her son Paul (Kevin Mundy), only to move in with her daughter in Vancouver. Maggie is forced to find an apartment not only for herself and her family, but also for Kim, whose home/car had been towed away. Kim and
Maggie immediately become attracted to each other and fall in love. Unfortunately for Kim,
Maggie, too afraid of hurting Lila‟s feelings, keeps pretending that she and Kim are only friends.
Paul, on the other hand, finds out the truth about Kim and Maggie almost immediately.
A number of humorous situations arise due to Maggie‟s inability to tell her mother the truth and letting her think that Maggie is „unable‟ to find a boyfriend. Lila is a nice but naive housewife, who gave up her dream of becoming an opera singer many years ago because of her husband and her children, and who spends her days cleaning and decorating the run down bohemian apartment that Maggie has found for all of them. The only joy in her life is music and chocolate, which she seems to be consuming incessantly, claiming that at her age, the chances of having sex are so low that chocolate might be her only substitute for physical pleasure. Because of her naiveté, she failed to notice that her husband was cheating on her and now is ignorant of the fact that her new best friend Judy (Peter Outerbridge) is actually a transsexual. Judy/Jeremy, condemned by her family, makes her living by singing in a lesbian/gay bar while trying to deal
15 with her affection for Maggie‟s boss, Frances. Eventually, Lila finds herself a job in a real estate agency, helps Judy find a flat and decorate it, slowly re-discovering herself.
In the course of one night, majority of the films characters experience a certain kind of their own „coming out.‟ Firstly, Lila finds a box of sex toys under her bed, yields to her curiosity and uses one of the vibrators which make her realise that there are things better than chocolate.
Secondly, Judy finally declares her love to Frances. And finally, Paul becomes involved with
Maggie‟s co-worker from the bookshop, the “omnisexual” Carla (Marya Delver), as Maggie calls her. The following morning the „reinvented‟ Lila realises that there might be something more between her Maggie and Kim than a friendship and confronts her daughter. Maggie panics and instead of taking advantage of the situation and expressing her feelings for Kim, she gets into a heated argument with Lila. Kim, disappointed and hurt, takes her things and leaves. Lila, shocked by the revelation of her supposedly heterosexual daughter being gay, runs to Judy to be consoled, only to finally find out that her girlfriend is actually a man.
Meanwhile, Maggie, enraged with the Customs Canada ruling to confiscate all the indecent material sold at Ten Percent Books, decides to stage a protest, strips herself naked with only the areas of her breasts and groin covered up with cardboard cut outs which read „pervert‟ and „obscene lesbian‟ and places herself in the shop‟s window.
In the middle of the night, several skin heads become enraged by her „art‟ and start shouting obscenities at Maggie. The situation is getting serious but then Lila and Judy arrive at the bookshop and scare them off. The men return a while later, throw a bottle rocket into the shop and chaos ensues. Fortunately, no one is seriously hurt, police are on their way and the film concludes in a happy reunion of Kim and Maggie.
16 Issues and Aspects of Feminist Filmmaking
A central female presence and notion of independence are two common traits shared by all three films. However, the women in the features – Polly Vandersma in I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing,
Sandra Larson in Kissed and their younger counterpart, Maggie in Better Than Chocolate – share more than a Canadian nationality and gender. The three women are the heroines of their respective films‟ narratives and characters which the audience – both male and female – can, in
Laura Mulvey‟s terms, identify with. On an associated “feminist” level, the films may be viewed as the individual directors‟ “authorial projections that unsettle patriarchal power hierarchies”
(Kaja Silverman qtd. in White 126). The female characters thus do not serve as mere objects of the gaze; instead, they become “bearers of the look” (Mulvey 347).
Based on the themes of these films as well as in relation to their directors‟ filmmaking ideologies, is it possible to read them as feminist film narratives? In this chapter, I will attempt to answer this question while looking at the position and portrayal of men and women in the three films.
The 1960s marked the second wave of the feminist movement and changed the focus from the first wave‟s initial issue of women suffrage to issues of social and personal inequality.
Subsequently, in the 1970s, as a result of the second wave of feminism, a/the field of women‟s studies emerged. A “fertile ground” (White 117) for feminist film studies was thus created and generated feminist film theory, focusing on films which were made by women, about women and for women. Until then, the power of filmmaking seemed to be only in the hands of male filmmakers and the image of women in films was merely an object of “erotic pleasure in film” as
Laura Mulvey describes it (344).
Laura Mulvey, British feminist film theorist and critic, published her essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, an influential work in the field of feminist film criticism, in 1974.
17 In the essay, Mulvey discusses the relationship between the cinematic text and the viewer.
There, according to Mulvey, the representation of a/the female body is connected with visual pleasure.
According to Mulvey, the cinema “offers a number of possible pleasures” (Mulvey 344), scopophilia8 being one of them. Mulvey draws on Sigmund Freud‟s “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality,” where he describes scophopilia as a part of humans‟ sexual disposition; it is the activity of looking at other people and subjecting them to a curious gaze, apparent in children‟s
“voyeuristic activities, their desire to see and make sure of the private and the forbidden”
(Mulvey 344). The film viewer, secure in the darkness of the cinema, can feel as a voyeur, looking into a “private world” (Mulvey 345) of the characters on the film screen. In the patriarchal space of Hollywood filmmaking, men are the heroes, the protagonists in the majority of films, therefore the viewers, can “identi[fy] with the image seen” (Mulvey 346).
Mulvey believed that “traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story and as an erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium” (347). The division between men and women in cinema, in world which is not sexually balanced, is that of active and passive, respectively. Man, “the bearer of the look,” influences the narrative and woman is the icon, the object of the gaze (Mulvey 347–8). There are two types of male gaze – “voyeuristic,” subjecting the woman to the gaze and stripping her of her power, and “fetishist”, which idealises the image of a woman and glamorizes her. Both gazes offer the male a possibility to escape his fear of castration which the woman, who lacks a penis and “holds the look,” thus implying her “to-be-looked-at-ness” (Mulvey 346).
Mulvey called for a change in the pleasure offered by cinema and the way women are seen in films. Her essay was criticised for a number of reasons, mainly because of the heterosexual perspective of this study, she does not make a distinction between women, their sexuality or gender differences in the audience. Despite the criticism, it remains influential in the
8 The topic of „scopophilia‟ had already been discussed by Christian Metz in The Imaginary Signifier (1977), in French.
18 area of feminist film studies and the key terms in her essay can be traced in the cinematic text analysed in this thesis.
1.7 Feminism and Absence of Male Figures in I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing
In order to identify a/the feminist approach in Mermaids and (thus) understand Patricia Rozema‟s artistic intentions – described by Thomas Waugh as “the most prominent of English Canadian lesbian filmmakers” – it is necessary take in account what Rozema herself says about her work
(500). In an interview from 1991, the director refuses to define her work as “distinctly feminist” and stresses that “gender is a category that doesn‟t interest [her]” (Brunette, 56). However, in
1993, Rozema claimed that “[her] films assume feminism, ... it‟s in their foundation” (Cole and
Dole, 183). In Rozema‟s cinematic work, the main characters are predominantly women, single or in heterosexual or lesbian relationship. Several of her film features depict or touch upon lesbian love, a theme most ostensibly shown in Mermaids and When Night is Falling. In Mermaids, Rozema accentuates the relationship between the three main female characters – Gabrielle and Mary
Joseph‟s love affair is juxtaposed with the less tangible relationship between Polly and Gabrielle.
The only male figures that appear in the film are men who come to the gallery, art critics, and male friends at Gabrielle‟s birthday party, their presence does not appear fundamental to the development of the story, the space of the narrative is dominated by women.
Brenda-Austin Smith claims that “[Polly] is never an object of the cinematic gaze in the sense of being fetishized by a camera acting as a stand-in for a male heterosexual character in the film, or a male heterosexual spectator in the audience” (217). Interestingly enough, there is a moment in the film where Polly acts as the object of gaze, male focused gaze within the story. In this scene, Polly is looking at herself in a mirrored façade, trying different faces and expressions.
While doing so, Polly is being watched by a strange man, a nameless passer by, who actually stops to look at Polly, somewhat aroused by her. The behaviour of the man can be read as depiction of the male gaze of the audience described by Laura Mulvey and the main character‟s „to-be-looked-
19 at-ness.‟ Polly, as soon as she notices him watching her, stops and hurriedly leaves on her bicycle.
In the terms of Mulvey‟s criticism, the gaze is promptly shattered, the female character loses her position of a mere object of the gaze, feminist aspects of the film are established.
Moreover, George Melnyk identifies the feminist filmmaking approach in Mermaids and argues that “[the] feminist aspect of the film relates to the female-empowered universe of Polly‟s life and to the importance of careers as essential vehicles of women self-expression” (174).
Rozema, by placing Polly behind the camera, allows her to become the director of the film in the film. Polly, though blissfully unaware of her „power,‟ is in charge of the narration. Rozema goes even further, and „shuffles‟ the initially allotted roles of mentor – the educated and distinguished
Gabrielle and apprentice – eager and naive Polly. In Polly‟s fantasies, Polly imagines herself as the mentor, switches roles with the real life Gabrielle and bestows the curator with her pondering on gender and relationships, “I believe that gender is irrelevant in the matters of the heart, desire follows the heart.” Polly‟s statement duplicates Rozema‟s assertion about gender being a category that is of no interest to her. As an auteur director, Rozema imprints her opinions into Polly‟s, albeit only existing within the fantasy life, personality, thus making Polly speak for her.
Rozema‟s contradictory statements regarding her interest in feminism have led to her being strongly criticized in some instances. Namely, Marion Harrison claims that “Mermaids only fools us to thinking it is a feminist film; the attention to the filming technique, the narrative construction, the characterisation and the treatment of voyeurism and sexuality all reveal that the so-called positive images of women in this film are undermined” (25). Harrison is probably referring to the portrayal of Polly as a somewhat impractical and strange person, whose behaviour does not fit to the image of a strong independent woman.
It is not possible to perceive Mermaids as a distinctly feminist work, because the gender related issues are relegated to second-order considerations and the story itself „comes first.‟‟
20 Overall, Patricia Rozema tends to do things – make films – in “her own way” without being constrained by film genre definitions or the expectations of film critics.
1.8 Sandra, Subject and Object of ‘Gaze’ – Feminist Aspects of Kissed
A definite focus on strong female characters is apparent in Stopkewich‟s first two film works,
Kissed and Suspicious River. Both Sandra in Kissed and Leila in Suspicious River are women in charge of their lives, defining their position in the society through their actions, however unconventional the audience might find them.
In Kissed, despite the dark themes of the film, death and the potentially taboo subject of necrophilia, Stopkewich allows the heroine accept her „deviant sexuality9‟ while presenting her as a nice next-door girl.
Sandra‟s boss, Mr. Wallis, is portrayed as (almost) a sleazy, unpleasant man, disdained by
Jon, the caretaker, for his „interest‟ in the dead. Melnyk argues that “[i]n feminist terms the film celebrates the hero[ines]‟s female sexuality, while condemning the male funeral director‟s implied necrophilia” (219). John‟s character serves merely as a counterpoint of Sandra as the „nice necrophiliac.‟ If Sandra‟s necrophilia is connected with gentleness and spirituality, then Mr.
Wallis‟ character is left to represent abuse, violence and disrespect for the dead. Indeed, during
Sandra‟s crossings over (the process where she has a sexual relationship with the dead bodies and releases them to „the other side‟) the atmosphere is „spiritual‟: Sandra is being enveloped in blinding light, the scenes are tinged with religious-like music, high voices are heard in the background. It could be argued that Stopkewich tries to „excuse‟ or even „glorify‟ Sandra‟s necrophilia. As Sandra looks into the light, it spreads around her hear, appearing similar to a halo.
9 Stopkewich in an interview with Kalli Paakspuu comments on Kissed and Suspicious River: “[to] me the sexuality isn‟t perverse sexuality, it‟s deviant sexuality. In other words I don‟t want to label or judge it” (76).
21 Maurie Allioff supports the notion, claiming that “necrophilia is portrayed in this film as a sacred ceremony.” Each time Sandra „crosses over,‟ she connects with the dead on more than a physical level. Sandra‟s gaze is focused on the male body; the power of the “bearer” is given to the main female character. Parpart observes that “Sandra‟s vision is emphasized in ways that place viewers in radically new territory with respect to the capacity for a female gaze at the male body” (263).
On one hand, Sandra is in charge of the „journey to the light,‟ she is fascinated by the predominantly handsome dead men who are subjected to her gaze. On the other hand, during her “crossing over” ritual, she dances and whirls around the embalming table where the body is placed until she loses control. It is usually in this moment the light begins to shine and the above mention music can be heard that she can finally climb atop the body and finalize the ritual.
Technically, the sexual act is never explained or shown, the viewer can only assume that a form of cunnilingus is performed. In the relationship with the dead, Sandra is the active character while during her sexual encounters with Matt, she becomes the passive one, the object of the gaze. As long as Matt is alive he cannot be subjected to her gaze, and it is only after he dies that the camera slides over his body, as if following Sandra‟s look.
As an independent filmmaker, Lynne Stopkewich chooses to depict powerful female characters as the heroines of her feature films. With respect to Mulvey‟s above mentioned feminist criticism of male-dominated cinema, Stopkewich may be perceived as a filmmaker whose relationship with feminist filmmaking is hardly a simple one.
Without „waving the flag of feminism‟, she manages to write and direct adaptations of feminist works, such as Gowdy‟s story, while “bringing female sensibility” into the darkness of her film characters‟ lives (Melnyk 219).
1.9 Male Characters in Better Than Chocolate
22 At the beginning of he filmmaking career, Anne Wheeler worked predominantly on documentaries with personal meaning, for example in Great Grandmother – inspired by her own grandmother‟s experiences – and in A War Story, based on her father‟s work in the Second World
War, as well as in her dramatic short films. Her work for the National Film Board and Studio D established her as a filmmaker whose films deal with gender representation “alongside racial and ethnic differences” (Lord 313). While Better Than Chocolate does not fall into the category of drama issues of gender hierarchy and race (as is Loyalties), it centres on female characters and relationships. Chocolate is an example of George Melnyk‟s claim that Wheeler‟s “track record in using women-authored material and creating strong female characters for her films is outstanding” (173).
In order to analyze the position of male and female characters in the film narrative, it is necessary to identify the male characters10. Kathleen Cummins asserts us that “a secondary element of Wheeler‟s feminist signature is her destabilization and interrogation of masculinity through her depiction of two male figures, the disenfranchised and/or marginalised romantic catalyst and the afflicted, fallen, and/or absent father” (69).
Despite the fact that Cummins is discussing male characters in Wheeler‟s other films (i.e.
Cowboys Don’t Cry and Loyalties), her notions may be applied to Lila‟s cheating husband. Even though he is not Maggie and Paul‟s biological father, he fits into the category of dysfunctional father figure that hovers in the background without actually being introduced to the viewer „in person.‟ The absent husband serves as a catalyst in Lila‟s decision to leave (her) home and come to Vancouver to begin another stage of her life, a departure from her previous status of a disappointed, naive housewife.
Tony is another male character in the film, an Italian café owner, a typical macho man, chasing after any woman who comes into his sight. He is extremely sure of his good looks and
10 The female characters and their relationships will be analysed in the following chapters.
23 charm. Judging by the genre of the film, a romantic lesbian comedy, Toni might be a purposely ridiculed male character who, in a lesbian-occupied space of the film‟s narrative, has a position of no major importance in the story development. Despite the perpetually humorous depiction,
Toni is the one of the very few “bearers of the look” who directs his gaze at the female characters. His café is located next to Frances‟s bookstore, but despite his awareness of the nature of the books and objects sold there, and the sexuality of the women working there, Toni banishes Maggie and Kim because “no kissing” is allowed inside his café.
Depicted as a male whose gaze is harmless, Toni and his Italian family ethics merely colour the diversity of the cultures and sexualities in the film.
Furthermore, there is Maggie‟s brother Paul, an innocent young boy, still under age. Paul does not seem to be a crucial character of the film, perhaps accentuating the different kinds of sexuality and relationships in the narrative. His affair with the bisexual Carla culminates with a sexual encounter, with Carla inserting one of her toys into his anus. Their affair represents the only heterosexual relations in Chocolate. Paradoxically, despite the film‟s explicit scenes of female nudity and lesbian sex, it was the “straight sex” scene with Paul and Carla which caused complications. In the film‟s commentary track, Wheeler explained: “in terms of the censorship of the film itself, we didn‟t have too many problems except for the heterosexual sex, the butt plug scene was the one that seemed to cause the most problems in how to rate the movie.”
In a sequence of the film narrative which portrays the book shop‟s censorship problems,
Mr. Marcus (Jay Brazeau) is presented. He is an employee of Canada Customs, a boring, uninteresting clerk, authorized to make decisions which can affect the life and work of the book shop‟s owner Frances and her employees, Maggie included. Mr Marcus represents the absurdity of the censorship system of pornographic material, when assuming that “Little Red Riding
Hood” is a piece of pornography and confiscating it together with a number of other books.
24
While the previously discussed male characters do not claim a dominant position among the female characters, Judy/Jeremy is a character who is a part of one of the film‟s subplot themes of liberation, and tolerance. The transgender Judy represents the femininity with the perfection of make up, the clothes she wears, the gestures she uses and mainly her way of communicating. During her performances in the Cat‟s Ass club, Judy intentionally exaggerates her staged femininity as a part of her act, but in her everyday life, she is “almost a woman.” Judy is positioned in juxtaposition with Maggie‟s mother Lila, as the two characters, despite Judy‟s original sex, have a lot in common. This notion is supported by Cummins, according to whom
Judy is “[an] outcast, an „other‟ to be despised, [she], like Lila, is a marginalised „woman‟ – unemployed, middle-aged, and unmarried. Like Lila playing housewife, Judy performs a version of femininity, too, albeit a transgression, a subversion of his maleness, a rejection of masculine ways” (83). Interestingly enough, Judy is clearly perceived as an „outcast‟ in only one scene in the film. A scene which follows Judy‟s singing performance is the only one depicting a negative interaction between the representatives of the GLBT minorities. When Judy enters the ladies‟ room in the bar to retouch her lipstick, she is, at first verbally and then physically attacked by the bar‟s visitor, another woman who tells her to go to the men‟s rooms as she “is a man.” Judy refuses to fight, she quietly accepts the attacker‟s insults, until she is saved by the shocked Kim and Maggie.
The location of the attack, the Cat‟s Ass bar, a place of entertainment and Judy‟s workplace, is a female/lesbian occupied space, and perhaps a utopian example of a harmonic lesbian community. However, the above mentioned scene makes the film more realistic, while undermining the initial portrayal of the lesbian community as tolerant and accepting. As previously mentioned, the space of the narrative is a female-occupied space with the main focus on women and expressions of their needs, opinions and position in society. Cummins claims that
25 “Wheeler‟s feminist sensibility and vision ... is expressed through her privileging of the female point of view and female desire” (68). This is to be seen also in the case of Judy‟s character, who was, as she says “born in a man‟s body but has always been a woman.” Chocolate can thus be read as a work of feminist filmmaking, based on the allegedly secondary position of men in the film and the principality of female subjectivity. The images of female desire are to be further discussed bellow in “Relationships and Desire in Better Than Chocolate.”
26 2 Relationships and the Themes of Desire and Sexuality
How does a filmmaker generate interest in the average film viewer? How is he or she to attract an audience, especially if the film in question falls outside of popular blockbuster genres?
Defining genre in connection with the films discussed in the thesis may prove to be a problem: in an interview, Anne Wheeler described Better Than Chocolate as “lesbian-themed romantic comedy” (Thompson 98); such a description may create certain limitations for the filmmakers, as a film thus labelled might only appeal to a specific group of viewers.
According to Thomas Waugh, Chocolate is “a breakthrough romantic comedy that filled the void in mainstream lesbian representation and became instant classic” (534). Susan Lord does not share Waugh‟s excitement and defines the film as “a „romantic comedy‟ about sexual minorization, filled with hyperbolic and generally uninteresting characters” (317). Indeed, this specific one of Wheeler‟s numerous features is one that is obviously mainstream-focused,
Wheeler herself does not consider Chocolate to be an art film but calls it “an attempt to make an entertaining kind of film, but … also an attempt to get in the arena of money-making films”
(Levitin 206). Based on the mentioned classifications, Chocolate can be described as „lesbian romantic comedy.‟
I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing is probably the hardest one of the three films to identify in terms of genre. When considering the plot and the main character‟s whimsicality, I will have to agree with Wyndham Wise‟s description of Mermaids being a “gentle comedy” (106).
Stopkewich‟s Kissed is arguably a drama; however, some critics have even likened the work to horror films – despite the fact that “its horror genre is subverted by a naturalization of deviance through the character‟s personal voice and its grounding in the typical and everyday”
(Paakspuu 390). Furthermore, Stopkewich, in an interview with Adam Richardson, admitted that the topic of Kissed was not an easy one to work with, “for [her], the biggest challenge was getting
27 over the shock and horror of the necrophilia.” Kissed is thus classified here as a dark drama with aspects of (necrophiliac) romance.
It appears that none of the three films belong to film genres which could be described as blockbusters11 – gaining immense profits from screening, video or DVD sale and related merchandise – as is the case with many Hollywood-produced features. If they are not representatives of any traditional genres (so often appreciated by the broad audience), what is it that makes them attractive for the potential viewer? What attractions does the film offer outside of the genre „bracket‟?
It may be argued that an audience chooses a film according to its topic, whether that topic be more or less traditional – either a romance (Chocolate) or a „fantasy life‟ (Mermaids) – or, on the other hand, very unconventional – a „strange‟ sexuality (Kissed). As previously mentioned, each of the film depicts a female-centred story dealing predominantly with women characters and their life stories. The main themes of these films portray the main characters‟ relationships, sexualities and – most importantly – desires.
In this chapter I would like to focus on the interconnected topics and images of relationships as they are depicted in each film. Firstly, I will attempt to examine the relationship between Polly and her employer Gabrielle. In the second subchapter I will define and analyze the types of desire appearing in Kissed, and finally, I would like to focus on the relationships in
Chocolate, be it the romantic relationship between Maggie and Kim or the relationship between
Maggie and her mother Lila.
2.1 Polly’s (A)sexuality and the Images of Desire
11 The definition of blockbuster 1. “An extremely expensive, generally long, and lavishly made film that requires a great financial return to be profitable.” 2. “A film that is an enormous financial success.” Koningsberg, Ira. The Complete Film Dictionary. New York: Penguin. 1997. 36.
28 Themes of reluctance and desire are closely connected with sexuality and relationships in I’ve
Heard the Mermaids Singing. André Lavoie observes that “Rozema refuses categorically to give a label to Polly‟s sexual orientation” (143). To define Polly‟s sexuality, it is necessary to look closely at her relationship with Gabrielle. From their very first meeting, Polly is fascinated and enchanted by Gabrielle, who „has it all‟ – the curator is beautiful, smart, stylish, eloquent in art and relatively rich. In her video confession, Polly declares her love for the curator, comparing her love for woman, the curator, with the only imaginable love, which is that for one‟s own mother. From looking at Polly‟s understanding of love, lesbian love in particular, we can come to the conclusion that rather than a sexual desire it is a different kind of emotion which Polly experiences.
As opposed to Polly‟s admiration for Gabrielle, it is the suggested, but not overly exposed to the viewer, sexual relationship between Gabrielle and Mary Joseph, which assumes lesbian love in Mermaids. As it has been already said, Polly is in love with Gabrielle in the sense of admiring her, picturing her as her role model without feeling any physical attraction. Even though Polly‟s opinion of physicality is not clearly stated, there are several implications that she might be ignorant of sexual relationships between other people. At the beginning of the narration, Polly mentions the existence of boyfriends in her life but emphasises that she couldn‟t talk to them about what she really thought and felt. There is no mentioning of any kind of intimacy or a relationship on a physical level. An example of Polly‟s „sexual innocence‟ is the scene where Polly follows a young couple that is looking for privacy. She is completely unaware of the inappropriateness of her behaviour or the fact that to the couple she must appear to be a voyeur.
Polly‟s definition of love for Gabrielle could thus be read as the expectation of intimacy in the sense of being open to and sharing ideas and opinions with another person. Her ideal would be a relationship without any kind of physical contact. Polly says herself: “I think I fell in love with the curator, … I didn‟t want the kissing and all that stuff.” In her essay Gender is
Irrelevant Brenda Austin-Smith observes Polly‟s character in connection with sexuality in Mermaids:
29 “Given the ambiguities in the film, it is not at all certain that Polly achieves lesbian consciousness,
… let alone that she feels or acknowledges lesbian desire” (218). Lesbian consciousness understood as Polly‟s sexual desire for Gabrielle cannot be identified in Polly‟ actions or thoughts. The true desire that Polly feels is the desire to express herself through art and to be appreciated. Robert L. Cagle agrees that “Mermaids is about desire to create a work of self- expression and the impossibility of this task” (186). Polly considers herself to be an artist and she can be perceived as an artist on two levels. The former being developed through the photographs that she takes and which express her understanding of the beauty in everyday objects and scenes which she witnesses on her trips around Vancouver. The latter level being Polly‟s artist‟s personality within the sequences of her fantasies where she is the creator, the artist as well as the object. Cagle claims that “her reverie is not built around an image of another, but instead, around an idealised image of herself” (186). This is because in her fantasies Polly sees herself as a woman of knowledge, taste and intelligence. When Polly finally decides to present herself as an artist, a skilful photographer and send her photographs to Gabrielle, her dreams are destructed, her desire shattered when Gabrielle condemns the photos as childish and of low artistic quality.
Polly, having placed her boss on an imaginary pedestal, does not realise that Gabrielle desires to be a successful artist, famous and – most importantly – an accomplished painter. Her parents had supplied the money for her gallery and even though she is an art curator and the gallery belongs to her, her dream has not been fulfilled either. Mary Joseph, unlike Gabrielle, is a talented person, but does not enjoy the attention of either crowds or critics – this is also the reason for the curator and her lover to agree on performing a „small play‟ where Gabrielle is the supposed artist behind the paintings. The desires of all three women are connected to art and artistic expression, to being accepted as artists: either publicly, or – as in Mary Joseph‟s case – incognito.
30 2.2 The Unlikely Love Triangle – Relationships and Sexuality in Kissed
When Sandra and Matt meet for the first time, it is he who approaches her in a coffee shop.
When Matt tries to engage in conversation, Sandra is initially cold and standoffish, leaving abruptly; however, she cannot stop thinking about their conversation. When they meet again, she acts in an almost friendly way; her body language shows that she is glad to see him. They begin to talk about her work and his studies and Matt is genuinely impressed by the fact that she works in a funeral home. Sandra, excited about his interest in death, shares her secret with him and tells him that she makes love to dead bodies. To her surprise, he acts as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Matt is apparently attracted to Sandra and she, despite her necrophiliac obsession, is attracted to him as well, although it appears that her affection originates from her being intrigued by their shared interest and Matt‟s explicit understanding of her attraction to dead bodies.
From what has been said, it is clear that there are two types of relationship in the narrative. From the beginning, it appears that Sandra is only capable of having feelings for the dead, the “crossing over” she experiences with them is her spiritual fulfilment and she considers herself to be a guide of the dead to the final part of their journey.
As the narrative unravels, a second type of relationship emerges: a relationship between
Sandra and Matt. While Sandra‟s sexuality is linked with spirituality, for Matt, on the other hand, sexuality is a matter of physical pleasure. Their first intimate contact is awkward, Matt‟s previous sexual experience is not explained and despite her previous „intercourses,‟ Sandra is a virgin in the conventional sense of the word. When she comes back to his place, she acts as if she were expected to have sex with him. When considering Sandra‟s meditation over Matt‟s reaction (to her carnal secret: “it was like he knew [me], like he saw right through me,” it is possible to perceive her coming to his flat as a further step in sharing the experience with him. Paradoxically, after sexual intercourse with Matt, Sandra feels the urge to go back to the funeral home and
31 experience her „journey to the light‟ again. The scene which follows is the first one where we see the complete process of Sandra‟s „crossing over‟, depicting her ritual dance, her climbing naked atop the body, the scene being accentuated by Sandra‟s heavy breathing and key lighting directed at Sandra‟s face.
Sandra‟s need to go back and perform her ritual implies that she does not find the sexual experience with Matt fulfilling. She does not see nor feel him the same way she does his dead
„rivals‟, her feelings are less intense. “I feel everything from body, I see it” Sandra explains to
Matt, she speaks of “look[ing] into the sun without going blind.” Each of the dead men is different and Sandra who is able to feel their individual experiences, their emotions, their wisdom. Both Matt and Mr. Wallis are certain that the bodies cannot feel anything, Sandra opposes the belief. Moreover, she can feel the differences between them, “I have never met two of the same” she says, only to be accused of schizophrenia by Matt. Matt claims that he is trying to understand but he cannot perceive her „skill‟ fully. Sandra‟s dealing with the dead is similar to her handling the carcasses of animals in the past, caressing their bodies and stroking them gently.
Roger Ebert comments on Sandra‟s attachment to the cadavers, noting that “[they] are so lonely
[and] when she comforts them with a farewell touch from the living, the room fills with light, and an angelic choir sings in orgasmic female voices.” As Sandra becomes alienated from Matt, he refuses to accept her cold feelings and makes further attempts to get closer to her.
In her essay Abject Sexualities Kalli Paakspuu defines the type of relationship between
Sandra and Matt as “an oscillating love triangle where a live man cannot possibly compete with the dead” (387). Accordingly, despite his initial excitement over her „relationship‟ with dead bodies of young men, Matt begins to lose understanding of Sandra‟s perception of “crossing over,” and attempts to „compete‟ with the dead.
Eventually, Matt comes to terms with Sandra‟s obsession and realises that the only way he can reach understanding and, according to Sandra, feel her real love, is to kill himself.
32 Only then – by the very act of killing himself in Sandra‟s presence – does Matt finally succeed in joining the „ranks‟ of Sandra‟s cold and silent lovers. By „abandoning‟ her in real life, he can be much closer to her in death, thus becoming her partner on a relationship level she prefers; only by leaving her can he return to her again. Stopkewich thus manages to arrive at a point where she blends both types of Sandra‟s relationships together, creating a „happy ending‟ within the resources of the film genre without making it seem inadequate or kitsch. As Lee
Parpart puts it: “Kissed remains one of the most radical narrative treatments of non-normative heterosexual female desire in Canadian film” (Feminist Ambiguity 51).
2.3 Relationships and Desire in Better Than Chocolate
Anne Wheeler‟s Better Than Chocolate does not „fit in‟ with the two remaining films in terms of either narrative structure or plot. Apart from the two preceding films discussed, it is Chocolate which is perhaps the most traditional work, with a plot which is in many respects quite predictable.
Indeed, the plot generally develops in compliance with the romantic comedy genre, i.e. as a “film dealing with the relationship of a man and a woman who, after many trials and tribulations caused by their own misunderstandings, a number of obstacle figures, of both are finally united at the end of the film” (Konigsberg 366). In Chocolate, “a man and a woman” are replaced with two young women. With respect to the above described genre formula, Maggie‟s mother Lila may be seen as the prime obstacle figure; and it is Maggie who must deal with the misunderstanding, i.e. her inability to confess to being lesbian – at least not to her own mother.
Finally, the central lesbian couple is reunited after an abrupt break-up, which only corresponds to the above mentioned definition.
33 In Chocolate, as in Kissed, a relationship not unlike a love triangle is formed: it is Maggie who is at the top of this triangle as the object of Kim‟s sexual desire with Kim and Lila, a loving but uninformed mother, completing the complicated relationship.
For Maggie, Lila forms an undesired connection with her own heterosexual past, one that she has abandoned when she became aware of her own emerging lesbian sexuality. For a significant period of time, Lila remains unaware of her daughter‟s sexuality for her, Maggie is still the little girl who used to sleep with a plush toy before she left the family „hearth.‟ Moreover, Lila continues to cling to her daughter because she represents the same family hearth and one that has been destroyed by her cheating husband. In the „triangle,‟ it is the maternal character who is the adversary of the lover. Kim, the lover, feels lesbian desire, whereas Lila shows “female desire through a maternal point of view and gaze” (Cummins 69). Ignorant of her daughter‟s sexuality and refusing to admit to herself that there is no longer a secure place in Maggie‟s life for her, Lila fights her maternal desires.
Maggie, despite being the only person empowered to „inform‟ her mother and deconstruct the triangle, refuses to take action and lead her mother out of the „darkness‟ of ignorance. Because of her inability to do so, Maggie becomes torn between two kinds of relationships as well as two types of desire. Firstly, she desires Kim who she has fallen in love with and who embodies sensuality, independence and artistic inclination. Maggie, since deciding to withdraw from a law degree at university, has been working at the Ten Percent Bookshop, using its windows for her conceptual art displays. Kim, a freelance painter who travels around festivals and makes a living painting portraits, becomes an inspiration for her. On the other hand,
Maggie still feels indebted to her mother and desires her approval. She does not realise that unless she tells her mother about her sexuality, Lila will always be forcing her to find a boyfriend, apply for a better job, dress in a more feminine style, i.e. imposing traditional maternal authority.
Lila, not unlike any loving mother, wishes only the best for her child and directs her maternal gaze at Maggie, hoping to create a younger and more successful version of herself. She is so
34 overcome by this maternal desire that she fails to recognize Kim as Maggie‟s object of desire.
Mother and daughter both fight incessantly even though “[they] desperately need to love each other unconditionally, but both are constrained by the fictional identities, imposed by a patriarchal bourgeois family paradigm” (Cummins 83). Acting like a domestic goddess and being a perfect daughter – preferably heterosexual – and a successful lawyer may be understood as the
„fictional identities‟ Kathleen Cummins speaks of.
Due to the focus turned to the mother-daughter relationship throughout the first half of the film, the romantic relationship between the two young women becomes a second-order consideration. When Maggie finally admits to her mother that she is having an affair with Kim, it is Lila who first approaches the topic, not her daughter. Moreover, Maggie fails to express her true feelings for Kim which enrages and disappoints Kim, forcing her to leave. However, after a brief separation Kim returns to the city and the lovers are reunited again; the genre-dictated happy ending is thus included.
Most importantly, the relationship on the other side of the triangle, formed by Maggie and Lila, is resolved in the mother‟s accepting Maggie‟s homosexuality. Lila‟s acceptance is presented during an explosion in the bookshop, when two men throw an explosive into a shop window with Maggie – naked – standing in it. Lila‟s maternal instincts immediately replace her negative emotions and have her running to Maggie‟s aid, forgetting all about her harsh words and her own anger. In summary of the above mentioned scenes, it may be argued that – as the dispute between Lila and Maggie is eventually resolved – the film‟s prominent theme really is the relationship between mother and daughter, something that the marketing strategy of Better Than
Chocolate does not reflect at all: the film was marketed as primarily a lesbian romance..
Moreover, the relationships between the three women – Kim, Maggie and Lila – and the types of gaze depicted within the confines of the „love triangle‟ also facilitate a feminist reading, especially with respect to Laura Mulvey‟s critical approach.
35 3 Character Development
The path to a critically acclaimed and popular feature may be rather a daunting one. Indeed: how does a filmmaker overcome the obstacle of being unknown?
At the time the films discussed in this thesis were released, none of the three directors could be described as famous or even popular. I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987) was in fact
Rozema‟s first feature film; her previous film was the short feature Passion – A Letter in 26mm
(1985), the first of her scripts to succeed in gaining financial support even though it received “a very harsh review ... in Globe and Mail” (Posner 3). Similarly, Kissed (1996) was Lynne Stopkewich‟s debut feature, bringing her a substantial measure of recognition despite its extremely complicated financing and two-year-long production process.
By 1999, the year that Better Than Chocolate was released, Anne Wheeler had already directed twenty-two works – including TV show episodes, television features and short features.
In the decade prior to making Chocolate¸ Wheeler was dealing predominantly with films for television, drama and documentaries. Melnyk claims that Chocolate thus meant something of a detour from Wheeler‟s traditional filmmaking because of the lesbian themes. On the other hand,
“it brought her back into the feature film industry with a renewed profile” (Melnyk 173). Unlike her younger colleagues, newcomers to the filmmaking trade, Wheeler faced complications of a different kind: with Chocolate she was entering the realm of comedy, thus taking a risk directing a feature which did not fit among her previous works. Neither Wheeler nor Rozema and
Stopkewich were established directors within the world of Canadian filmmaking, especially as the latter two were both at the beginning of their respective careers. While Patricia Rozema appears to take on an ambiguous approach to her own work and its portrayal of feminist topics, Lynne
Stopkewich places herself outside of any genre framework thanks to the very topic of her film.
Wheeler likewise describes herself as situated “on the edge of being a genre filmmaker” (qtd. in
Cummins 22). Judging from their positions, the three directors could be perceived as outsiders,
36 partially marginalised in the sphere of filmmaking. Their journey to success may thus be considered all the more complicated.
According to Michael Posner, one of the elements which should be considered when producing a film and aspiring to any measure of success is the deployment of famous actors –
“stars” (xv). A fairly important question arises – how can a not-yet-established filmmaker with limited funding find and convince a well known actor or actress to accept a role in their film? The quest may indeed seem nearly futile. Thus, the filmmaker is generally limited to acquiring a „star‟ who falls within the range of his or her financial resources, or – like Rozema – albeit unsuccessfully, go on looking for the perfect person in the streets, cafés and shops of Vancouver.
Alternatively, the director can strive to create a new star, as Stopkewich managed with Molly
Parker as Sandra, casting her again as the lead in Suspicious River. Parker went on to pursue an acting career in “independent productions in the U.S. and Europe” (Spaner 114). In a commentary track to Chocolate, Wheeler explained that Wendy Crewson (Lila) was cast for her role because her she expressed a desire to appear in the film – Crewson happened to read the script and became enchanted by Lila‟s character, finding is extremely funny.
Due to financial restrictions and the inability to cast internationally popular actors and actresses in any of the three features, the films cannot boast „famous director cult‟ or „film star fascination‟ aspects that so often work in Hollywood and which could serve as potential attractions. How then do the directors „compensate‟ for a lack of popular or established faces?
The answer might lie in the plot of each film. The previous chapter deal with the topic of relationships and desire in Mermaids while Kissed and Chocolate were discussed in terms of the films‟ appeal; this section is devoted to the lead female characters and their personal development and the way audience can identify with the characters on screen. The following pages focus on changing and shifting characters (and character identity). The film heroines – Polly, Maggie, her mother Lila and Sandra – all experience certain changes in their lives, changes which are all manifested on screen.
37
3.1 Polly Vandersma, the ‘Lone Heroine’
In I've Heard the Mermaids Singing Patricia Rozema created a heroine who is indisputably unconventional. Sheila McCarthy‟s Polly is a distracted, shy and more or less sexless woman with no apparent ambitions – neither artistic nor professional. Brenda Austin-Smith observes that
“being alone, outside or apart from familial and intimate relationships runs like a quiet thread through the lives of Rozema‟s women artists in particular” (Woman 254). The reality of Polly‟s life is that of a lonely person‟s – she is not surrounded by family, friends or colleagues and her only living companion is her cat. One of the strongest representations of Polly‟s separation from the outside world is formed by the images from her home, most notably in a scene depicting her dining on a heated up can of peas, home alone in a nightgown, listening to classical music and trying to „experience‟ the music, with the cat her sole companion. Polly‟s love of photography, which borders on an obsession, appears to be the only stable aspect of her life.
Rozema does not reveal anything regarding her heroine‟s past, presenting it – rather than as a secret – as a fact irrelevant to the narration. Polly only says that her parents died when she was 21 years old, it seems that “[she] appears to have sprung up out of nothing and nowhere”
(Austin-Smith, Gender, 216).
From what has been said so far, it is not difficult to perceive Rozema‟s heroine as a lonely and pitiful woman who is lost and useless in professional and social world. More specifically, as
André Lavoie explains: “[Polly] is constantly putting her foot in it” (142). Polly does so when
Gabrielle invites her to a Japanese restaurant for the first time in her life. Unaware of what a hot wet towel is, she smells and tastes with the tip of her tongue, reminding us of a child. She struggles to eat with chopsticks and eventually uses them to poke the raw octopus on her plate, having accidentally ordered it. She arrives at Gabrielle‟s birthday party after everyone else has left,
38 because she would feel awkward in the company of Gabrielle‟s friends. Rozema seems to portray
Polly as an outsider on purpose; apparently she “had tired of the presentation, in film, of competent, intelligent, world-conquering women. She was more drawn to characters who were less articulate, less self-confident” (Posner 3).
In order to deconstruct Polly‟s negative image, it is necessary to forward the positive images – Polly wandering through the city, taking photographs or daydreaming. Likewise, the elation Polly feels after the conversation about art and creativity with Gabrielle inspire her to submit her own photographic works to the gallery. In her photographs, Polly creates a new
„space‟ where she is able to „live‟ outside the stereotype of her daily life and escape any constraints of her personality. In one of her essays, Brenda Austin-Smith refuses to see Polly as a loser, and observes that “[w]hile affording the spectator a view of Polly‟s circumscribed life and circumstances, such scenes do not evoke pity for the character, perhaps because Polly does not pity herself ” (Gender 215).
Taking the portrayal of Polly as a likeable person a step further, George Melnyk claims that “[t]his everywoman figure ultimately triumphs over the wiles of the world and the know-it- alls who are full of intellectual and cultural snobbery” (174). By snobs and know-it-alls Melnyk might be referring to the people Gabrielle surrounds herself with, the male art critics and customers who come to her gallery as well as her friends at the birthday party. An obvious example, supporting Melnyk‟s opinion of Polly as „triumphant‟ may be traced in a scene where
Polly stands up for the curator in front of Warren, a visitor to the gallery who mocks Gabrielle‟s sudden success regarding „her‟ paintings, calling Gabrielle “hot property” and her work a “divine gift” while brandishing other pompous phrases. Gabrielle is surprised by Polly‟s behaviour and perhaps also slightly embarrassed. Moreover, Polly can be seen as triumphant in her fantastic dreams – flying as a superman above the city of Vancouver, conducting an orchestra – and in the final part of the narrative, when Gabrielle and Mary Joseph arrive at Polly‟s flat and she allows them to enter an imaginary fantasy world through the door in her flat.
39 In the beginning, Polly is distanced from the ordinary; however, as the story unravels, she gradually becomes stronger, turning into a determined woman who is literally (and figuratively) taking her life – and her camera – in her hands. Mediated by her camera, Polly attains charge of her own life, for the first time outside of her reveries. As the narration moves between the diegetic past and present, Polly‟s transformation becomes more and more apparent. She changes from an erratic, dependent and shy woman into a calm, determined and confident artist who is in control of her life.
3.2 Warming Up to the Living
As a little girl, a teenager and in her early adolescence, Sandra is presented as a girl without friends. Her favourite objects of interest are dead bodies of small animals, she “has always been fascinated with death, the feel of it, the smell of it, and the stillness.” Kalli Paakspuu claims that
“[f]lashbacks of Sandra as a young girl of twelve and her early fascination with death create sympathy for her” (“Abject Sexualities” 387). On the contrary, the sequences depicting Sandra as a young girl, do not appear to evoke sympathy, primarily, they help to establish Sandra‟s relationship with the dead, her desire to help.
Apart from the short and bittersweet friendship with Carol, her “first real friend,” Sandra seems alienated from her peers. In the scenes at a friend‟s birthday party, at school during a biology class and later at college, during a lecture, even in the café where she meets Matt, Sandra is alone, distant from the others. The distance between her and her surrounding comes from within and is almost palpable, even though it does not seem uncomfortable.
Interestingly, Sandra does not act as if she were in need of company, during her first meeting with Matt she is clearly withdrawn and disinterested. Matt does not seem to have any
40 friends either; it is possible due to this decision to “take a break from school,” or because of his fascination with death that only Sandra can appreciate.
Unlike Matt, uncertain of his future, Sandra is comfortable being herself, she sees herself as some kind of an aid to the dead men, helping them to cross over, to „rest in peace.‟ Matt, on the other hand “fills the void in his life by making Sandra‟s reality his own” (Paaskpuu “Abject
Sexualities” 390). As their relationship develops, he becomes obsessed with her „crossing over,‟ and begins to keep detailed record of her secret visits to the funeral home.
Eventually, Matt becomes jealous of the bodies of young men and, waving the obituary section of the local newspaper, he attacks Sandra. He reads out loud description of recently deceased men, wanting to known if she has slept with them. “I don‟t fuck everything that is dead” Sandra argues back, her comment representing one of numerous streaks of humour that
Stopkewich planted in the story. By placing humorous aspects into the darkly sexual narrative the director seems to be reducing the gravity of the scenes and Sandra‟s rather unnatural obsession.
Further representation of Stopkewich‟s „black humour‟ is depicted in Mr Wallis‟s answer to
Sandra‟s question as to what she should wear to work at the funeral home. With a serious expression on his face he replies “don‟t wear black, it‟s too depressing,” thus deconstructing the expected association of black colour with death in the western world.
It is Matt who appears to be connected with the depressive and dark. His basement flat is dark, noisy and stuffy. The darkness of his place is juxtaposed with the light, clean and airy embalming room where Sandra performs her rituals. It is Sandra who is connected to light, and contentment. It can be argued that Stopkewich intentionally portrays Sandra as a likeable person, smart and detached from everyday struggles. Despite her necrophiliac obsession, she does not project any kind of „deviation‟ or strangeness. Kalli Paakspuu claims that “Stopkewich uses voice- over to poeticize the narrative as much as possible and to express Sandra‟s spirituality and world view” (“Abject Sexualities” 387). Molly Parker‟s soft and agreeable voice accompanies the scenes of her crossings over with a calming effect that makes the concept less shocking.
41 Sandra‟s final words in the film‟s narrative belong to Matt: “I still work in a funeral home, and I'm still compelled to cross over, but now I see Matt when I look in the center.” Her acceptance of Matt‟s death can symbolise a certain transition in her personality. She is no longer alone, nor lonely, she can finally be as close to him as she has never been before. In an online interview with Richard Adamson the director supports this notion of transition: “[i]n the moment
[Matt] kills himself, she acknowledges her love for him as a living being and that was her growth as a character. In the concluding scene, Sandra and Matt are finally united in a way that Sandra can relate to.
3.3 The Daughter’s Coming Out and the Mother’s Journey to Enlightenment
When asked about why she accepted the offer to direct Better Than Chocolate, Wheeler clearly stated that it was “[t]he humour! ... Chocolate offered me an opportunity to go back to comedy and to reach a new audience” (Thompson 110). As previously mentioned, Chocolate indeed belongs to the comedy film category: its humour revolves around sexuality, the absurdity of censorship and relationships. Some of the comical scenes and images in Better Than Chocolate may well be the result of Lila‟s – i.e. the main character‟s mother‟s –ignorance of her daughter‟s sexuality. Maggie is unable to tell her mother that she does not want to find a boyfriend because she already is in a relationship with another woman. The majority of Lila‟s distress is caused by her daughter‟s inability to come out12 and admit that she is a lesbian.
12 The term „coming out‟ is “commonly defined as a revelation or acknowledgment that one is a member of a sexual minority. ... Perhaps most significantly, coming out is a process that is both personal and social, as individuals move from discovery to acceptance and revelation.” The source of the definition is glbtq – an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & queer culture. http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/coming_out_ssh.html
42 Within the predominantly lesbian community which Maggie inhabits, in the almost private space of Ten Percent Books and the people connected with the bookshop, her friends and the visitors of the lesbian nightclub, she is comfortable with her sexuality. She has already experienced a coming out on the social level; however, on a personal level in the family space she still does not appear to be at ease with who she is and what her feelings for Kim represent. By failing to communicate with her mother, refusing to involve her in her own life, Maggie marginalizes Lila, pushing her out of the „comfort‟ zone of positive lesbian space.
In contrast, Waugh sees Lila as a member of “another marginalized group, the postmenopausal” (268). Lila‟s age and her „relationship‟ with chocolate – “the only pleasure left”
– place her among women controlled by expectations and constraints imposed by society. Lila quotes a study claiming that “after the age of forty a woman‟s chance of having sex is diminished by eighty percent” and accepts it as a fact, while eating yet another piece of chocolate, and unknowingly subjecting herself to the study‟s binding claim.
Surprisingly, it is Lila who undergoes the biggest transformation. Through her friendship with the transgender Judy, Lila discovers other sexualities and genders – including her daughter‟s.
At the beginning, Lila is blissfully ignorant of the fact that Judy is a man and that her husband had been cheating on her: she seems to be a perfect representation of a naive and innocent homemaker.
The major development of her character takes place after she finds a box of sex toys under her bed and eventually uses one of them, thus liberating herself from the constraints imposed by her „postmenopausal‟ status – in effect experiencing her own sort of „coming out.‟
The following morning, Lila finally approaches her daughter regarding the true nature of her relationship with Kim and discovers the truth. Kathleen Cummins perceives Maggie‟s relationship with Kim and her job at the bookstore as a “catalyst for [Lila‟s] own repressed and suppressed desires” (83). Indeed, in the final scene, Lila – reconciled with her daughter being
43 lesbian – is finally comfortable with her new identity of a sexual woman. Furthermore, she fulfils her dream of singing while performing a song in the Cat‟s Ass Club.
The second transformation in the film is represented by Maggie‟s personal coming out, partially forced by Lila. The real significance of Maggie‟s coming out lies, rather than in the actual confession, in the artistic representation of her conceptual art – placing herself naked in the shop window, awaiting the arrival of the film classification board to impound the supposedly obscene videos. By stripping herself naked and covering her private parts with pieces of paper reading
„pervert‟ and „obscene lesbian‟, Maggie exposes herself to everyone in the street, including her mother, thus finally coming to terms with her sexuality.
44 Conclusion
This thesis aims to answer a question posited by Norman Jewison in the introduction to Michael
Posner‟s Canadian Dreams: “how will the films created by our [Canadian] filmmakers find their way to the cinema and television screens of the world” (vii)?
In order to do so, a close analysis of the following films has been carried out: I’ve Have
Heard the Mermaids Singing, Kissed and Better Than Chocolate. A great deal of attention was devoted especially to the final stage of their trip – the film‟s journey to the viewers and critics both in and outside of Canada. As stated in the introduction, the three films succeeded in gaining a certain measure of critical acclaim as well as receiving awards and attracting audiences outside Canada.
Michael Posner observes that with respect to Canadian film distribution, the “typical pattern is a two-week run in three or four major cities, after which they are consigned to cinematic oblivion” but accentuates the truly different fate of Rozema‟s Mermaids which “did well,
… as few English-Canadian films do” (1–2). Despite the low expectations on the part of the film‟s major investors, i.e. the Ontario Film Development Company for whom the film was “a nice little art film which would … maybe go to a couple of festivals”, Mermaids was invited to the
Cannes Film Festival in France where it received the Prix de la Jeunesse, the annually distributed award for the best first film by a young director (Posner 7).
Following success at Cannes, Mermaids was screened at the Toronto‟s Festival of Festivals13 the same year. Furthermore, in 1988, Sheila McCarthy, the star of the film, won the Genie award given out by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for Best Performance by an
Actress in a Leading Role, while her colleague Paule Baillargeon was awarded a Genie for Best
Performance as an Actress in a Supporting Role. The film‟s nominations include Best
Achievement in Direction as well as Best Screenplay for Patricia Rozema and Best Motion
Picture.
13 Renamed to the current “Toronto International Film Festival” in 1994.
45 Lynne Stopkewich‟s Kissed received several awards both in Canada and internationally, most notably a nomination for Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival and Best New Western Canadian Director at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 1996.
Outside Canada, Stopkewich received awards for Best Film in Sitges – Catalonian International
Film Festival and at the Malaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema, in 1997 and 1998 respectively. For the main role of Sandra Larson in Kissed, Molly Parker received the Genie award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in 1997, followed by Best Actress in
Malaga in 1998.
Wheeler‟s Chocolate won the Audience Award in the Best Feature category at the Toronto
Inside Out LGBT Film and Video Festival and a year later was nominated as Outstanding Film at the GLAAD Media Awards. In 1999, Chocolate opened at The Berlin Film Festival where it charmed the audience. Wheeler admits that she was nervous and surprised to see that they “got this huge response – a wild screening with a standing ovation” and that the non-English-speaking
Berlin audience “got the film more than many North American” (Thompson 112-3).
In terms of critical acclaim, it is necessary to take in account reviews concerning each film as well as the comments and observations in essays and studies regarding the individual films.
Kissed received mixed reactions, possibly because it deals with necrophilia, a theme which is not often addressed by numerous directors. In Take One’s Essential Guide to Canadian Film, Wyndham
Wise describes Kissed as “briskly paced, dryly funny, and at times ridiculous, … graced by Molly
Parker‟s career-making performance” (217) while George Melnyk claims “[w]hile the premise of the film is bizarre, Stopkewich‟s treatment of the subject is impressive” (218).
Despite the first sceptical reactions to the script (Posner 5) Patricia Rozema‟s Mermaids, many critics appraised Sheila Mc Carthy‟s performance as Polly, the main character. George
Melnyk sees Mermaids as “a classic of Canadian cinema” (174), Thomas Waugh as “the international box office hit that catapulted [Rozema] into the Canadian canon” (501).
46 Furthermore, Waugh praises Anne Wheeler‟s Chocolate as “a breakthrough” and
“[s]upported by an accomplished cast, including Peter Outerbridge‟s fine torchy performance as transsexual, Chocolate simply comes together as a politically correct feel-good love story with a strong sense of time and space”(534–5). It can be argued that because of the mainstream „feel‟ of
Chocolate, the film does not draw a great deal of critical attention. Moreover, there is “[c]uriously and disappointingly ... almost no critical literature on [Wheeler] whose eighteen film-direction credits alone certainly outrank many other Canadian filmmakers14” (Lord 313). In fact, Wheeler openly confesses to having intended to make a film that would attract audiences different to the ones watching her previous features. Also, Wheeler is not afraid to admit that Chocolate was made with the intention of making money as well as moving away from her traditional filming approaches. In a panel discussion she confirms: “[p]erhaps I‟m bending my style to grab an audience, but I feel like it‟s what we have to do” (Levitin 206).
Anne Wheeler is the only director among the three discussed who openly professes to aspects of making profit while working on a film. Producing each of the three films was not easy as each director had to comply with funding limitations.
Both Kissed and Mermaids were produced “almost entirely outside conventional funding formulas (Kissed) or at the low budget of (Mermaids) end of state support” (Armatage et al. 9). The initial amount of money available for shooting Patricia Rozema‟s I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing was a total of $48,000 in two grants Rozema received; the budget of the entire film was
$362,10915. The second feature in question, Kissed, was shot for $40,000 and “financed through the help of family and friends” (Paakspuu 74), while Better Than Chocolate was “made for a modest
$1.6 million” (Melnyk 173). As previously mentioned, the films‟ income from theatrical
14 Susan Lord‟s essay “States of Emergency in the Films of Anne Wheeler” was published in 2002. Currently, the number of Wheeler‟s direction credits adds up to 48 credits including television credits. 15 The figures, in Canadian dollars, and other information were drawn from Michael Posner‟s collection of detailed accounts of the creative processes, making and marketing of 10 Canadian films in Canadian Dreams. Vancouver: Douglas&McIntyre, 1993. 1-21.
47 screenings covered the expenses associated with their production as well as partially making them profitable for their makers16: The gross domestic income from the screening of Mermaids was
$1,437,364 while Kissed earned $335,959. The most successful film in terms of the highest turnover is Chocolate, whose total domestic gross amounts to $2,056,72117. Even though Wheeler‟s
Chocolate “was specifically aimed at the lesbian market,” thus being in a way limited to only one kind of audience, the film “made more money that any of [her] previous films” (Melnyk 173).
Earning back the amount invested into a film in cinema screenings, TV screenings and
DVD sales is rarely simple, as Posner explains: “[t]o survive beyond the first few weeks in the theatres, films must rely either on saturation marketing campaigns, of the kind only Hollywood films can typically afford or on word-of-mouth advertising ” (xiii). Drawing on the above discussed aspects of the three films‟ distribution and their box office incomes, we may consider
Mermaids, Kissed and Chocolate to be films that certainly managed to „survive‟ without immense marketing campaigns and, furthermore, redeemed the funding investmented in their making.
Most importantly, Rozema, Stopkewich and Wheeler managed to create films which found their way to audiences beyond the scope of local art cinemas.
Having supplied an overview of the process whereby the three films actually „made it‟ to the screens of international cinemas, focus can now shift to clarifying the issue of strategies employed by the individual directors in the process of making the features.
Personal involvement in the filmmaking and scriptwriting may be observed with all three directors. While both Rozema and Stopkewich are their own scriptwriters, Wheeler has adopted a script by Peggy Thompson after she and the film‟ co-producer Sharon McGowan approached her. Thompson and McGowan contacted Wheeler after they “had seen all [her] films, and
16 The gross incomes are taken from the Box Office Mojo website which specialises in box office revenues and supplies the information in US dollars. In order to keep the amounts in single currency, the domestic grosses are given in Canadian dollars at the current exchange rate. 17 The amounts in U.S dollars according to Box Office Mojo website are $1,408,491, for Mermaids, for Kissed - $329,211 and for Chocolate the figure was $2,015,406. In the case of domestic gross of Kissed, the sources seem to vary, i.e. the The Numbers website indicates the amount of $465,417.
48 admired [Wheeler] as a leader in Canadian film” (Thompson 108–9). Chocolate draws its topics and issues from Thompson‟s personal experience. Wheeler describes joining the team as “being invited to join a family” (Thompson 110).
The three directors deal with current issues of female identity, relationships and their position in the society with film material that is female centred and of female authorship. The main female characters of the three films in question – Polly in Mermaids, Sandra in Kissed and
Maggie in Chocolate – share a common trait of independence, financial as well as personal. They are more or less young women who have taken the charge of their lives and do not seem to be subjected to any kind of restrictions, unless they do so intentionally.
In the second chapter of this thesis, the aspects of feminist film criticism as defined by
Laura Mulvey‟s essay Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema (1974) were discussed, while focusing on the position of male figures within the films‟ narratives. As it has been said earlier,
Patricia Rozema does not express a definite opinion regarding her feature films as feminist works, her approach is rather ambiguous and such a notion seems to prevail in Mermaids, too. An image of female oriented male gaze can be identified in the film narrative, albeit the overall notion is that Polly is never an object of either “fetishist or voyeuristic,” (Mulvey 348) cinematic gaze. It could be argued that male characters are relayed to a secondary position within the plots of
Mermaids, Kissed and Chocolate. The necrophiliac Sandra in Kissed perceives the bodies of dead young men primarily as objects of fascination. Through the process of „crossing over,‟ she helps the dead to finalise their „journey to the other side‟ while the sexual intercourse is only a component, not the cause.
As opposed to the male character in Stopkewich‟s and Rozema‟s films, it is a male figure, albeit a transgender character that occupies a primary place in the female oriented space of
Chocolate. By overshadowing Maggie‟s elegant mother in style and femininity, Judy/Jeremy can be considered to be yet another representation of a strong „female‟ figure in the films of Anne
49 Wheeler. Overall, it can be argued that none of the directors openly claim their films to be made as feminist works of cinema; still, each of the three films offers such traits or images.
The third chapter focused on the topics of relationships, desire and sexuality in the three films. In each film, an underlying thread of a specific love triangle appears. In Mermaids, the three main characters, Polly, Gabrielle and Mary Joseph are placed in two interconnected relationships, a lesbian affair between Gabrielle and Mary Joseph and Polly‟s unrequited adoration for Gabrielle. It is Polly‟s lack of sexual orientation that establishes the type of relationship between her and Gabrielle. At the same time, the three women are connected on another level, through their desire to “create a work of self expression” (Cagle 186). In Kissed, the love triangle is formed between Sandra, her „boyfriend‟ Matt and the dead young men Sandra has intercourses with. It seems that Sandra is not aware of the triangle‟s existence, until Matt becomes jealous of the dead men. Chocolate‟s non-traditional triangle involves Maggie, her new lesbian lover Kim and Maggie‟s mother who is unaware of her daughter‟s sexuality and continues to impose her heterosexual expectations on Maggie. Wheeler skilfully leads the mother and daughter into a position where they have to face each other and must “navigate the difficult terrain of finding their own voice ... and protect their bonds of love” (Cummins 79). It is the mother-daughter relationship that forms the prominent theme of the film.
Furthermore, the relationship between Maggie and her mother created another important aspect of the three films in question – the topic of personal development and transformation.
Both mother and daughter experience their own „coming out.‟ Polly in Mermaids comes to terms with her own lack of self-confidence and with the help of the film medium, she becomes an artist. With the self-sacrificing death of her „boyfriend,‟ the necrophiliac heroine Sandra establishes a relationship that „overshadows‟ the bright light of her „crossing over.‟
Based on the reading of the three films and the findings from the previous chapters, I would like to define the strategies, or the ingredients that the directors used to make their films stand out and find their way to the international cinema screens that Jewison speaks of.
50
Michael Posner claims that the ten films discussed in Canadian Dreams “have managed to scale an Everest of obstacles – financial, bureaucratic [and] creative” (xiii). The thesis focuses on similar complications standing in the way of Rozema‟s, Stopkewich‟s and Wheeler‟s films. The directors „fought‟ with complications including a lack of financing, being outside of a favourable film genre – often sought by wide audiences – and the inability to cast a famous star into their feature films. Furthermore, despite Wheeler‟s previous filmmaking experience, she, along with
Rozema and Stopkewich may have been then considered a new and unknown director, especially as she entered the genre of comedy for the first time.
From what has been said earlier, it may be argued that the most significant ingredients in the recipe for success are the portrayals of interesting themes and current issues such as gender, feminism and different sexualities, while escaping the restrictions of widely accepted genres.
Moreover, dealing with the topic of relationships on numerous levels – family, love, admiration and fascination, may be seen as another ingredient, carefully added to the „recipe.‟ The directors created films of great quality without elaborate and complicated special effect or foreign and expensive films sets. They focused on female-oriented material, taking advantage of the main characters‟ difference, of rather „weirdness‟ while using humour.
A certain marginalisation of genre combined with interesting topics, creation of main characters and focus on their personal development combined with a strong storyline seem to be the strategies used to make films which truly have the potential to succeed.
What is the final and thus perhaps most important ingredient? According to Patricia
Rozema, it just might be a touch of originality: “[o]urs is a work of fairly elevated culture without tremendous marketable appeal. ... „Success‟ in the mass market is often forgotten. Originality, however, has children. It is felt” (Wise x).
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New York: Routledge, 2003. 199-207. Web 53 Lord, Susan. “States of Emergency in the Films of Anne Wheeler.” North of Everything, English Canadian Cinema Since 1980. Eds. Wiliam Beard and Jerry White. Edmonton: Alberta UP, 2002. 312-326. Print Melnyk, George. One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema. Toronto UP. 2004. Print Monaco, James. How to Read Film. 4th ed.New York: Oxford UP. 2009. Print Monk, Catherine. Weird Sex & Snowshoes and Other Canadian Film Phenomena. Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2001. Print Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Media and cultural studies: Keywork. Eds. Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Douglas Kellner. Malden:Blackwell. 2006. 342-352. Print Paakspuu, Kalli, “Lynne Stopkewich: Abject Sexualities.” Great Canadian Film Directors. Ed. George Melnyk. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2007. 385-403. Print Parpart, Lee, “Feminist Ambiguity in the Film Adaptations of Lynne Stopkewich.” Gendered Screen: Canadian Women Filmmakers. Ed. Brenda Austin-Smith and George Melnyk. Wilfrid- Laurier UP. 2010. 43-51. Print ---, “Feminist Re-mapping of the Passive Male Body.” Gendering the Nation: Canadian Women’s Cinema. Ed. Kay Armatage et al. Toronto UP, 1999. 253-273. Print ---, “Political Alignments and the Lure of More Existential Questions in the Films of Patricia Rozema.” North of Everything, English Canadian Cinema Since 1980. Eds. Wiliam Beard and Jerry White. Edmonton: Alberta UP, 2002. 294-311. Print Posner, Michael. Canadian Dreams: The Making and Marketing of Independent Films. Vancouver: Douglas&McIntyre, 1993. 1-21. Print Rozema, Patricia. Foreword. Take One’s Essential Guide to Canadian Literature. By Wyndham Wise. Toronto: UP. 2001. x. Print Spaner, David. Dreaming in the Rain: How Vancouver Became Hollywood North by Northwest. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press. 2003. Print 54 Stopkewich, Lynne. Interview with Kalli Paakspuu. “I Like Telling Stories that are off the Beaten Track.” Melnyk, George. 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Print 55 Resumé The main objective of this thesis was to discuss in detail three films directed by three Canadian women filmmakers – I’ve heard the Mermaids Singing (1987) by Patricia Rozema, Kissed (1996) by Lynne Stopkewich and Better Than Chocolate (1999) by Anne Wheeler. More specifically, made an attempt to answer Norman Jewison‟s question: “how will the films created by [Canadian] filmmakers find their way to the cinemas and television screens of the world” (Posner vii)? The aim of the thesis was to find and define the strategies employed in the making of the three films in question, especially with respect to their appearance in Canadian and international cinemas as well as their appeal to the wide audience. The three films in question were chosen because all three of them were directed by a Canadian woman filmmaker and shared certain topics and themes. Furthermore, they succeeded in „making it‟ to the international cinemas, and despite their low productions, earned critical acclaim, received numerous awards, gained box office success and sparked the interest of a wide spectrum of viewers. The thesis itself first presents the reader with background information concerning the directors, their life and work as well as gives a plot summary of each film in question. The following section focused on the issues related to feminist film criticism and explored the possible reading of the films as feminist film narratives. In the third chapter, common themes of relationships and desires are explored. The fourth chapter focuses on the character development and the transitions that the main female characters – Polly in I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, Sandra in Kissed and Maggie and her mother Lila in Better Than Chocolate – undergo in the course of the films. In the last and concluding chapter, I summarise and compare the findings from the previous three chapters and finally attempt to define the strategies – or „ingredients‟ as the title of the thesis suggests – used by Rozema, Stopkewich and Wheeler and seek the answer to Norman Jewison‟s question. 56 Anotace Předkládaná diplomová práce si vytkla za cíl detailně rozebrat tři filmy natočené třemi kanadskými ženskými režisérkami – I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987) natočeném Patricií Rozemou, Kissed (1996) od režisérky Lynne Stopkewichové a Better Than Chocolate (1999) od režisérky Anne Wheeler. Hlavním cílem této práce je pokusit se zodpovědět otázku položenou kanadským režisérem, producentem a hercem Normanem Jewisonem, která zní: „Jakým způsobem si filmy vytvořeny kanadskými režiséry/režisérkami naleznou cestu do kinosálů a televizních obrazovek celého světa?“ Tato práce si dává za cíl najít a definovat ‚strategie„ použité v procesu vytváření výše zmíněných tří filmů, zejména s ohledem na jejich výskyt v kanadských a mezinárodních kinosálech stejně jako jejich atraktivitu pro širokou veřejnost. Tyto tři filmy byly vybrány na základě sdílené národnosti a pohlaví jejich režisérek, stejně jako společných témat a motivů objevujících se ve všech třech filmech. Mimo jiné se těmto třem filmům podařilo najít cestu na plátna kin po celém světě, a navzdory omezeným finančním prostředkům dosáhnout pozitivního ohlasu u kritiků i veřejnosti, získat relativně velké množství ocenění a zaujmout široké spektrum diváků. Práce samotná nejdříve čtenáře seznamuje s autobiografickými aspekty týkajícími se každé ze tří režisérek, jejich života a dosavadní filmové tvorby. Tato část také seznamuje čtenáře s obsahem každého ze tří filmů. Následující kapitola se věnuje problematice feministické filmové teorie a objevuje potencionální pochopení filmových textů jako filmů s feministickým podtextem. Třetí kapitola se věnuje rozboru společných témat vztahů mezi hlavními postavami a aspektu touhy. Čtvrtá část se zabývá osobním vývojem a také proměnou osobnosti, kterou hlavní postavy zažijí – Polly v I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, Sandra v Kissed a Maggie a její matka Lila Better Than Chocolate. V páté, závěrečné části shrnuji získané poznatky a definuji strategie (nebo také ingredience, jak název práce napovídá) použité Rozemou, Stopkewichovou a Whelerovou a předkládám odpověď na Jewisonovu otázku. 57