----------------------------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 [log in to unmask]