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Hello, Everybody!
    I have truly been enjoying the discussion of this film and would like to
add that I agree that the portrayal of the girls' friendship is "frighteningly"
realistic.  I know I formed my strongest and longest lasting friendship when I
was a teenager--when everything seems intensified, and after seeing the film, I
told my husband that I wouldn't be surprised if people had thought my friend &
I had been gay because we were so close to one another and often unwilling to
share our friendship with anyone else!!  If you are lucky, you form a strong
friendship during adolescence when you need reassurance constantly!  Those
girls become so close in the movie that they almost lose their individual iden-
tities and become one being--sharing pain, joy, and dreams.  That new being
acts like any other--it fights to survive, and to keep it alive the two girls
must be together.   One thing that I found disturbing was the condition of the
girls' release from prison/mental hospital or wherever they were sent, and that
was simply to agree not to see each other again.  I wonder what has kept them
from seeking each other out, if anything.  Their bond seems so strong that I
almost don't feel safe!!
    Another thing I liked about the film:  During adolescence, it seems that
99% of brain power is spent fantasizing about famous "hunks"--the definition of
which is determined by (1) personal taste, and (2) perhaps more strongly by
one's friends' tastes.  Whereas the brunette (Sorry, can't remember her name)
adored Orson Welles and continued to secretly fantasize about him, as the two
girls become more and more attached (and their time together becomes more
threatened), she also begins to find him repulsive.  After they see THE THIRD
MAN, the girls imagine Harry Lime (Orson's char. in the movie) chasing them
everywhere as they flee in terror.  They then spend the evening dreaming about
how their dream-lovers would make love to them.  Even this male/female role
playing is basically normal for teenagers, and it is disturbing that we never
find out why these two go that extra step.  Why do two people we find it so
easy to identify with take a dark turn for the worst?  It leaves me asking the
kind of questions I feel about Hannibal Lector--Are they just evil?
 
Allison Johnson
University of South Carolina @ Aiken
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]