Sister My Sister

Character piece focusing on the tension that builds between two sibling servants (Joely Richardson, Jodhi May) and their very proper mistress (Julie Walters). Isabelle: Sophie Thursfield. Visitor #1: Amelda Brown. Visitor #2: Lucita Pope. Directed by Nancy Meckler., This British tragedy, set in a French provincial town in 1932, examines the tense, often sexual, relationships between four women living in an explosively repressive household. The house is run by Madame Danzard, the strict and domineering mother of Isabelle her uncoordinated daughter. Danzard tries to run every aspect of the repressed Isabelle’s life. As she controls her daughter, so does she control her house. Danzard is obsessive about cleanliness, order and respectability. She is cruel to her two maids, Christine and her little sister Lea. Lea is their mother’s favorite and this creates resentment from Christine. Christine also had a bad experience at a convent which still haunts her. Thanks to Danzard, the two women are extremely isolated and have become overly dependent upon each other as they deal with the Madame’s humiliation. Their dependence becomes sexual. The tensions between Danzard, Isabelle, Lea and Christine build up to the film’s violent climax.