tebruary 16. 2001 • jM f t S ister M y S ister f you thought Basic Instinct was a lesbian psycho flick, you haven’t seen this offering out of the United Kingdom, now on video. Sister M y Sister is a film that gets better after a second viewing, once you’ve gotten past the shock value. Wendy Kesselman adapted for the screen her own play My Sis­ ter in This H ouse, which is based on a notori­ ous 1932 double murder in Le Mans, France. T h e Papin sisters, working as maids for wealthy Madame Danzard and her daughter, Isabelle, began carrying on a love affair with each other and eventually violently killed their employers. Although actual events remain unclear, Sister M y Sister explores what might have led to this crime. Joely Richardson (daughter o f Vanessa Redgrave) takes a marvelous turn as C hris­ tine, a quiet, dedicated maid. Sh e is the sole servant in a large house, but when her younger sister, Lea, is ready to leave school, she obtains a position for her there as well. Christine has an obsessive preoccupation with Lea and a hatred for their mother, who separated the sisters when they were ch il­ dren. Director Nancy M eckler allows occa­ sional boarding school flashbacks, which subtly suggest lesbian sexuality. Meanwhile, the Danzards appear to live in a complete vacuum, hardly going out and basical­ ly playing house as a way of living. The meals and their attire are proper, day in and day out. Their boredom is satiated by talking about the sister servants, often right in front of them in the third person, as if they are pets. Chris­ tine and Lea’s resentment at their station in life and with their rich, idle employers grows with every passing day, matched by their growing attraction for each other. Apprehen­ sion builds when Christine suspects Isabelle is going to leave the house and take Lea with her and when Isabelle suspects the relation­ ship between the sisters is more than sisterly. Sister My Sister moves slowly and carefully, building up an incredible tension rarely found in modem film. It’s set almost entirely in the dark and shadowy Danzard home, creating a stifling mood, and Meckler is expert at examin­ ing the cruelty and effects of extreme classism. You spend an hour waiting for the bomb to drop, and the director doesn’t disappoint. The final moments of the film are mesmerizing. — LB I B utterfly K iss f you have trouble with any of the difficult themes of Sister My Sister, best skip Butterfly Kiss. Michael W interbottom, who insists on I making the most depressing films of our time (did anyone catch Ju d e!), leaves subtlety by the wayside in this road film about two dykes on a killing spree in search of...themselves? Each other? Love? It’s hard to tell, but an interesting journey. Amanda Plummer, who you’ll remember as the cafe­ robbing Honey Bunny in Pulp Fiction, is Eunice, a wayward, somewhat schizophrenic masochist who wanders in and out of gas stations, desperately searching for someone named Amanda Plummer (left) pays a lot of attention to Saskia Reeves Judith. Saskia Reeves plays Miriam, a gas station attendant who— as “killed for the sake of others.” She is also uncon­ Eunice so aptly points out— is not Judith but a cerned with being found out, desiring to be pun­ likable substitute. ished because “punishment is all I understand.” Never-been-kissed Miriam takes Eunice in Miriam’s love is blind, and she continues to and is overwhelmed and thrilled by her atten­ cover up Eunice’s gruesome work, exclaiming, “You must have had your reasons.” Miriam tions— if a little concerned about her erratic behavior, not to mention her chest full of insists she can make Eunice good, but Eunice piercings and bruises from wearing heavy warns her, “I’ll make you evil before you make chains. Eunice runs away, and pathetic Miriam me good.” chases after her, convinced “there’s no such This movie has gotten a lot of criticism: thing as a bad person.” Dykes and S/Mers seem crazy and/or violent, Plummer embarrassingly overacts, neither char­ As Eunice begins to kill people whose paths acter is sympathetic, Eunice’s religious rantings she crosses along the English countryside (usual­ are contrived. Call me crazy, but a lot of this ly after some kind of sexual liaison), Miriam continues to justify her actions. Eunice’s expla­ stuff is what makes the movie likable. Eunice is a frightening character, dyke/bi nations and her observations about herself in or not, and her sadomasochism has more to general are largely biblically referenced; she do with her need to be a self-flagellating mar- invokes Judith from the Bible, who, she says, S hy G irl by Elizabeth Stark. Seal Press, 2000; $12.95 softcover. ''' here was a girl in Alta’s bed , when the phone rang, a girl all red-haired and fair-skinned and fleshy, which is to say, nothing like Shy.” W ith this smooth opening scene, Elizabeth Stark’s pleasant debut novel glides into existence. We soon come to know it as a concise, yet accurate, introduction to Alta Corral, a stereotypical biker butch with shaved head and matching tough attitude. This bulldyke’s quirky San Francisco night life proves to be strictly gendered, honoring a rigid butch-femme division. Fellow hutches pat Alta cmi the back while envying the luscious femmes incessantly flocking around her. Alta’s surreal personality temporarily is mitigated with ironic, familiar statements such as, “The so-called lesbian com­ munity is a damned small place to move around in, especially if you’ve slept with half of it.” The absent Shy girl from the opening lines leaves Alta seething with restlessness stem­ ming from myriad unanswered questions. Along with this goes a painful sense of loss. Why did this secret lover— Alta’s first— elope with A lta’s $200 and no explanation? W hy was there no goodbye nor warning? W hen will she return? Will she ever return? Ultimately, Shy’s comatose mother forces the bolting runaway to reappear in San Francisco and face her demons. T his, o f course, includes A lta, still entangled in Shy’s unresolved past. T h e new A lta-Shy encoun­ ters allow for a slow, sensual reacquaintance, tyr than a member of the leather commu­ nity. She knows what people enjoy about sexual punishment, but she isn’t exactly “safe, sane and consensual” and never is presented as any kind of role model for any kind of life. This is no Hollywood treatment of mentally disturbed lesbians; it’s more of a character study of one woman’s illness and another’s loneliness. It’s also darkly com ic, which W interbottom uses to invoke a sense of nonliterality. Plummer does chew the scenery, but it doesn’t ruin her effect. Sh e’s certainly unforgettable, and she has the skilled abili­ ty to make lines like “Evil is in the heart; if you don’t go out, you’ll never get away from it” and “Sacrificial victims always go to heaven” more ominous than silly. It’s completely true that neither character gamers sympathy, but Winterbottom hits you with that at the end of the film, reinforcing the contrast between basic horror and disdain for the most part and sudden sadness in the final scene. Butterfly Kiss isn’t for the faint of heart, but it leaves a mark on you that’s worth hav­ ing. P.J. Harvey and the Cranberries offer a hip soundtrack. — LB in L isa B radshaw is a Portland free-lance writer. E ls D ebbaut is a free-lance writer and staff member at In Other Words W om en’s Books and Resources. L ynn T homas is a Portland free-lance writer and musician. rendered with exquisite amounts o f erotic tension. Stark’s narrative deals in a touching way with a lot of powerful and delicate issues: the deep friendship and initial love between two girls involving undying patience and uncondi­ tional acceptance; the affecting story of the hardships of survival in the face of an intoler­ ant, homophobic world; the pursuit of honest identity, embodied by Alta, and presented throughout as the preferable alternative to a life o f lies; the staunchly mapped sense o f the universal ambiguity o f various relationships and o f life in general. In light o f the above, then, it is a bit disappointing that Stark opted for Shy’s enigmatic mother to boost the story with an additional sense o f mystery and suspense. Unfortunately, the plot ends up feeling a bit forced and even awkwardly premature. Shy G irl needs to convince if it wants to impress. — Els D ebbaut Purrrses! : l i l i • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• •••••••••••• • • • • •••••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Z • • • • ............ • • • • • • • • •••••• •••••• •••••• •••••• •••••• •••••• •••••• •••••••••••• •••••••••••• •••••••••••• •••••••••••• •••••••••••• •••••••••••• •••••••••••• •••••••••••• -?’