Sister My Sister (1994)
Director: Nancy MecklerWriter: Wendy Kesselman (also based on her stageplay)
Cast: Julie Walters, Joely Richardson, Jodhi May, Sophie Thursfield
This all-woman production is set in provincial France in the early 1930's. Two young, country sisters enter domestic service in the bourgeois household of a penurious widow and her homely daughter. Neither pair speaks to the other: two sets of women separated and confined by social convention, personality, and the house itself. The relationship of the sisters slowly evolves into obsession, brought about by isolation and by emotions left from childhood. Trapped in a garret room, the sisters' violent downstairs-upstairs collision with Madame Danzard and the lumpy Isabelle seems certain.
'A very bleak tale set in a French town, that's meant to be based on a shocking true story. Christine is joined by her sister Lea to become house servants to Madame Danzard and her daughter Isabelle. Only Christine and Lea partly due to their hard childhood home life then teenage convent upbringing have grown obscenely close and closed off from the world around them, to the point of it being incestuous. At first the situation pleases Madame Danzard who realizes she’s got the perfect maid/servants to do with what she wants. Only it spirals out of control after the younger sister Lea destroys an expensive blouse, bringing on a final bloody clash between the sister’s and both the mother and daughter Danzard. The film leans more towards angst ridden arthouse drama than all out horror, but don't let that put you off tracking it down as it packs a mighty shocking final. The acting is tight from all four lead actresses, and visually made to look like an aged painting. Sister My Sister wouldn’t be a million miles away from what a Dead Ringers era Cronenberg would release if he had tackled a Jane Austen story. Viewers be warned though its very slow, downbeat and due to its lesbian/incest theme's don't expect cheap exploitation.'
(8½ out of 10)
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