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| A Woman's Tale | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Paul Cox |
| Written by | Paul Cox Barry Dickins |
| Produced by | William T. Marshall (executive) Paul Cox Santhana K. Naidu |
| Starring | Sheila Florance Gosia Dobrowolska Norman Kaye Chris Haywood Max Gillies Ernie Gray |
| Cinematography | Nino Gaetanno Martinetti |
| Edited by | Russell Hurley |
| Music by | Paul Grabowsky |
| Distributed by | Orion Classics |
Release date |
|
Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Box office | A$49,584 (Australia) $405,137 (US) |
A Woman's Tale is a 1991 Australian film directed by Paul Cox and starring Sheila Florance, Gosia Dobrowolska, Norman Kaye, Chris Haywood, Max Gillies and Ernie Gray.
Cast
- Sheila Florance as Martha
- Gosia Dobrowolska as Anna
- Norman Kaye as Billy
- Chris Haywood as Jonathan
- Ernie Gray as Peter
- Alex Menglet as Con 2
- Monica Maughan as Billy's daughter
- Max Gillies as Billy's son-in-law
- Tony Llewellyn-Jones as Celebrant
- Melita Jurisic as Judy (voice)
Premise
Martha (Florance) is an elderly woman living alone in her flat and dying of cancer. Her love of life leads to an ambivalence about her age; her unique moral code leads to her playing cupid for her friend and nurse Anna (Dobrowolska) and Anna's married lover (Gray); her worrisome son (Haywood) wants her to move into a home; her neighbour Billy (Kaye) has dementia.
Production
Florance had a long relationship with Paul Cox having appeared in his first feature. She wanted to star in a movie and Cox devised the idea, inspired by the story of a woman whose house burned down.
Florance herself was dying of cancer as the film was being shot. She died, aged 75, nine days after being awarded the 1991 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Box office
A Woman's Tale grossed $49,584 at the box office in Australia. The film grossed $405,137 in the United States.
Reception
Roger Ebert added A Woman's Tale to his Great Movies list in 2004.
In 1992, the film won the Grand Prix for Best Film at Film Fest Gent.[citation needed]
Cox called it one of his favourite films:
It's a homage to a very great and wonderful human being, Sheila Florance. It's very much a film about life, but using death. It's a very daring movie, because you're not allowed to make films like this, playing with a million dollars, making a film about an old woman. That's pretty tricky. All the sentiments are really against it. I didn't have insurance so everything I had was at stake, making this film. I always knew it would work - I had great faith in Sheila and in what we were doing. I judge people by this film, you see. When people cannot understand or appreciate it or the process of making it, I judge them by that. From the film you can only become a more thinking and feeling human being. When I see A Woman's Tale basically being ignored here, that's disgusting, absolutely disgusting. The only bad crits I get are in Australia but the whole world raves about A Woman's Tale, the whole world. Why not be proud of it?
References
- ^ "Remembering Sheila Florence". The Age. 24 November 1991. p. 27.
- ^ Juddery, Mark (9 December 2009). "Actors face drama of AFI curse". The Australian. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
- ^ "Film Victoria – Australian Films at the Australian Box Office" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
- ^ IMDb.com. Retrieved 23 January 2011
- ^ Ebert, Roger (1992). "Death as a character study (November 7, 2004 republication)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
- ^ "Interview with Paul Cox", Signet, 13 January 2001 Archived 9 December 2012 at archive.today
External links
- A Woman's Tale at IMDb
- A Woman's Tale at the Australian screen
- A Woman's Tale at Oz Movies
