A WOMAN IN TRANSIT (LA FEMME DE L’HOTEL)

Canada, 1984, 89 minutes, Colour.
Paule Bailleargeon, Serge Dupire, Louise Marleau.
Directed by Lea Poole.

A Woman in Transit is an impressive film, the fist dramatic feature of writer-director Lea Poole.

Lea Poole was born in Switzerland but has worked for many years in Canada. The film seems to be semi-autobiographical. Lea Poole had worked on a documentary about the Canadian singer Eve just prior to the making of this film. However, the theme is art imitating nature and feminine consciousness. The film is a portrait of Andrea, a director who is scouting locations and cast for her film about a burnt-out singer. She encounters Estelle, an enigmatic woman whom she befriends and whose life actually parallels that of the character in her film. The actress portraying the character in the film is also involved in the quest - learning from Estelle and trying to embody Andrea's vision. Another central character is Simon, Andrea's brother who is working on the film and also has his own emotional problems as a homosexual.

The film utilises bleak Montreal locations excellently, gives some insight into the power of film-making and its creativity as well as its shaping its material. There is an interesting interflow from fiction to reality (all in the fiction of this film). Performances are excellent - with great sympathy towards the experiences of women, humorous and tragic, and dramatised by an excellent cast.

1. The quality of this film, interest and enjoyment? The flow of its narrative? The focus on its themes and meaning? A woman's cinema perspective on women?

2. The background of Montreal, locations - real/unreal? The details and techniques of film-making? The world of the singer: theatre, institutions? The attitudes of the artist? The importance of music, the songs and their performance also of silence?

3. The screenplay's device of using the film-maker and her quest to make a film for observation, reflection? Andrea and her perspective, Estelle and her perspective on the film, the struggle of the actress to portray the singer? The interplay between the three women? The three viewpoints, the three women?

4. The film as a story of search, empathy and understanding, observation and interpretation, of expression?

5. Andrea and her narrative, voice-over? Her background, looking at Montreal, her eye for detail and locations, her own life and transient relationships? The actress and her more direct approach, the skill in interpreting the character, the struggle to understand the character psychologically? Simon and its support, his working with his sister, the visit to their mother? The chance encounter of Andrea and Estelle? Andrea observing, learning, the nature of communication, sensitivity and insensitivity, going too far? The completion of the film? Andrea's work with Estelle, the letter, the achievement for each of the women?

6. Estelle and the title of the film, her sadness, the railway station, missing her train, telephoning the institution (and the later significance of this)? The hotel, suicidal feelings, illness, walking the streets, sitting, encountering Andrea, sharing friendships, experiences -talking, helping with the screenplay, present at the filming, the effect on her, her sadness, observing and remembering her life, success, hurt, collapse, sharing with the three women, talking with Simon, the final impact and Its heaviness, leaving - final hope?

7. The actress and he skill in the sequences, watching, studying Estelle, her collaboration with the director, the effect an herself?

8. The devices of the intertwining of the film and the film within the film, the set-ups, the calling of cast and audiences being able to differentiate between the two? The contribution of the music, the crew? The interest in the techniques of film-making?

9. The character in the film emerging from the consciousness of the three collaborators: the singer, the entertainer, her work on stage, backstage, expectations and demands on her, exhaustion, care, collapse, the institution and the people that she met, the quiet, the medical experience, nurses, friends, the woman and the reading of the novel, the phone calls and the prioritise to keep in touch with the inmates of the institution, wandering, watching? Themes of melancholia?

10. The sketch of Simon, his break-up with his homosexual partner, relationship with his sister, skill in his work, sensitivity, diplomacy, the relationship with Estelle? his visit to his mother?

11. A cinema experience, the interplay between reality and fantasy, reality and creativity? Art imitating life and vice versa?