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January 1995, Week 4

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Mon, 23 Jan 1995 13:32:03 CST
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----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Yes, the girl whose mother was NOT killed has, in real life, grown up
to be a mystery writer of some success in England. Terry Grose did an
interview with the woman on Fresh Air (NPR) not too long ago. The woman
has another identity now and was distraught when the whole murder affair
revisited her when the film directors found her out in the process of
researching the film (HC). The woman is fascinating to listen to--about
guilt, expiating it, getting on with life, about insanity (she believes
STRONGLY that she and the other girl were in complete control of their
faculties and should by no means have received an innocent because insane
verdict--and they didn't). Her story was much more interesting to me
than the film, which I must admit I strongly disliked (even "hated" perhaps,
though the effects and the photography were very beautiful at times). I
think this has something to do with the film's lack of reflection on the
horror of the events (I personally felt a lack--I'd love to hear
how others might see the film including some sort of reflective voice, some
sort of point of view outside of things, tying it all together--I know
this might be a lot to ask, might even be impertinent to ask, of a film in
this po-mo world). I was disturbed by the way the film asked us to laugh
at the fantasies of the girls and even vicariously participate in their
hatred of the mother (and of the psychoanalyst--is an extension of our
disgust with his condemnation of the girls as "perverted", at which we are
made to laugh during the film, our corroboration of the girl's fantasized
murder of him?). Perhaps I just wasn't easily positioned by the film and
thus missed the point. I have more questions, but I'll not go on now.
  Susan Crutchfield
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