THE SILENCES
Australia, 2015, 86 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Margot Nash.
Some years ago, Australian director Sophia Turkewicz made a memoir-film about her mother, Once My Mother, 2014. Now, director Margot Nash has given us a portrait of her mother. The film are well worth seeing. They serve as memoirs of particular times, as portraits of their mothers, with autobiographical insights about the directors themselves.
Ettie Nash was born in 1911 and died in 2004, a long life. She came from New Zealand, lived for some time in England in comfortable upper-class situations, went to India where she became engaged to an officer, but on her return home, found that he was reluctant to get married. In something of rebound, she married local agriculture expert, Albert Nash.They had three children, the oldest of whom we learned about later in the film, a sad story.
Margot had an older sister, Diana, and she comments that, while Diana was very introverted and had to take a responsible role in the family, Margot was mischievous and outgoing. In the 1940s they migrated to Melbourne where the father had a brewery job cultivating hops, and was very successful in this work. However, it is revealed that there was mental instability in the Nash family and this took its toll on their father and put pressure on their mother who also experienced depression.
Ettie was one of those disappointed persons who had hoped for something more prominent in her life, being an entertainer, but who was frustrated, experienced some bitterness and her daughter mentions that her mother had an acidic tongue.
We see that the daughters made good, Diana becoming a doctor, Margot breaking free in the 1970s and relishing that openness in Australian culture and mores, and then moving into making films, both features and documentaries, this biography incorporating quite a number of scenes from her films, especially the 1995 film, Vacant Possession, with Pamela Rabe and the character played by John Stanton representing her father, remembering his war experience as a navigator, and experiencing his mental collapse.
Towards the end of the film, the two sisters re-visit New Zealand, follow through on what happened to their older sister, get the remains of their mother and get some stones where they make cairns for their mother, father, sister.
Margot Nash relies on a great number of photos, on audio interviews with her mother and her sister to bring to life what was so often an unfortunate life.
1. A personal documentary? Impact?
2. Portrait, biography, human interest?
3. Implied autobiography of Margot Nash? Her voice-over? Tone of her voice, commentary, the interactions on tape with her mother, with her sister?
4. Photos, documents, footage, audio interviews? The research and editing and pace?
5. Getting audience attention, the New Zealand island, the discussion about the epitaph for her mother, differences with her sister? The two sisters working together at the end, burials, the stones of the cairns, their being uncovered? The dedication of the film?
6. Audience sharing the emotions of the filmmaker, of the characters? How did audiences identify with Margot, with Diana, with their mother, father, Felicity?
7. Introduction to the mother, born 1911, died 2004, her life, stern upbringing, severe mother, wanting to be an actress and performer? Going to England and her upper class experience, to India, falling in love, the information about Peter, his exaggerated story about himself, alleged illness, calling off the wedding, his letter about the wedding? The effect on her, the beautiful wedding dress, marrying her husband on the rebound? No Nashes at the wedding, the photos and story about them? Illness in the family, in the generations, institutions, suicide? Her husband and his mental condition, the war experiences as a pilot, navigator, its effect on him? Her pregnancy, the birth of Felicity, Felicity ill, in the institution, depression, her husband’s episodes? Building up to a divorce?
8. The two sisters, as little in New Zealand, the photos, the introduction, Diana introverted, Margot extroverted, causing trouble, school, Margot searching the house for secrets? Diana as an adult? Going to Australia? Living in Ringwood, the home, the creek and the snakes? School, late houses, the inner city apartment?
9. The surface life of the two girls, the deeper effects, especially for their adulthood?
10. The photo of their mother that they revered? Her life, disappointment with ambitions, acidic tongue? Cleaning, being busy, cooking? Her long life?
11. Their father, science degree, skills, to Melbourne to test hops, brewery support, his success?
12. Diana, doctor?
13. Margot, rebel, personal freedoms of the 1970s, the feature films, documentaries? The sequences from Vacant Possession and the dramatising of incidents in her life? John Stanton as her father?
14. The audio interviews with her mother, her mother’s tone of voice, communication? With her sister?
15. The search for Felicity, the matron, going to the grounds of the building, a better idea of Felicity’s experience, her name on the notice board? Not lost forever?
16. Margot Nash and her age, her sister, looking back? And the ritual at the ending of the film, bringing some kind of closure?
