PUFFBALL

UK, 2006, 120 minutes, Colour.
Kelly Reilly, Miranda Richardson, Rita Tushingham, Donald Sutherland, William Houston, Oscar Pearce, Tina Kellegher, Leona Igoe.
Directed by Nicolas Roeg.

The film was originally to be called ‘Puffball: the Devil’s Eyeball’. This might have been a greater help to audiences who are not sure what a puffball is (a mushroom) and, while watching, might not be too sure what it was really about and wonder about its tone.

Nicolas Roeg was a celebrated director of photography in the 1960s and, during the 1970s, turned to directing and made a number of films that have classic status: Performance, Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, Bad Timing.

Just as Don’t Look Now had an eerie, out of this world atmosphere and was based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier, Puffball is based on a novel by Fay Weldon, has an eerie atmosphere (the film is set in the Irish countryside) and has witchcraft and rituals. The screenplay was written by Fay Weldon’s son, Dan Weldon. The novel made an impact in the 1980s and focuses very much on women’s issues of conception, pregnancy, miscarriage and birth. Some animated sequences highlight this sometimes vividly.

Kelly Reilly portrays Liffey, an up-and-coming architect who is remodelling an old house in Ireland with the help of her boyfriend (Oscar Pearce). The neighbours are both friendly and suspicious, especially Mabs (Miranda Richardson) who has three daughters but is desperate for a boy. When Liffey becomes pregnant, Mabs’ mother, a sinister Rita Tushingham, thinks she has stolen Mab’s baby and, with the help of her granddaughter, she performs incantations in the woods and tries to destroy the baby.

There are further emotional complications because of the spells, especially Liffey’s entanglement with Mabs’ husband. In many ways, the film’s surface looks perfectly realistic – which may make the preternatural goings on seem rather absurd in the light of day. However, Roeg is working with suggestion and mood.

Donald Sutherland, star of Don’t Look Now, has a cameo appearance as the boss of the architectural company who discovers a sense of freedom from the constraints of the corporate world in the Irish woods.

Plenty to think about, but, on the whole, a curiosity item.

1.The films of Nicolas Roeg over the decades? Interesting themes? His age at this film? The background of his work as a photographer?

2.Fay Weldon’s novel, the blend of the real and the other-worldly? Spells in an ordinary world? The focus on women, the lesser focus on men? Pregnancy, birth? The journey of the foetus from conception to birth? The focus on work? A feminist perspective?

3.The Irish countryside, the village, the houses and barns, the cattle, the countryside, the pagan stones? The locations for the spells and incantations? The blend of the real and unreal in the Irish background? The musical score?

4.The title, the explanation of the mushrooms, their small size, the look of pregnancy? The countryside, the puffballs being alive, the special effects for the life within the mushrooms? Treading on them and destroying them? The final cooking of the puffball?

5.Magic realism, the images, in the puffballs, the representation of sexual activity, generative activity? The flashbacks, the fire and Mabs’ brother being killed? Liffey’s nightmares? The dolls, the rituals?

6.The portrait of Liffey: age, architect, her project with the house, not razing it but renewing it from within? The parallel to the development of the house from within and her pregnancy and the growth of the child? Her being private and reserved, her relationship with Richard, sharing with him? The workers, meeting Mabs, meeting Audrey and Tucker? Pulling the truck out of the mud? The gift of the generator? Seeing her at work, architectural skills, the computer work? The hole and her saying that if you look in, you could see Heaven and her putting her head under the stone for Richard to see? The sexual encounter, Audrey watching, Molly watching it, Richard leaving, going back to New York, the communication by computer? The wine at Mabs’ house, Liffey and her being wary? The wine and Tucker, the sexual encounter, the passion, the literal roll in the hay? The experience of the miscarriage? The discussions with the doctor, her shock at her being pregnant? Her further shock at her being pregnant again? Going to the doctor? Carol as a receptionist and knowing what was going on? Thinking that the child was Tucker’s, wanting the abortion, the ultrasound, discovering that it was a twin, Richard’s child, her joy? Not telling Mabs the truth about her pregnancy? Richard’s return? The visit of Lars, the possibilities for her career, his admiration for her project, his being critical of her renewing the house? Her taking him to the countryside, Odin and the spells? His sense of freedom? Her being locked in the cellar, Audrey coming to help, her believing Audrey when Richard didn’t? Molly and the further spells, Mabs believing that she had taken her baby? The mother’s illness, her dying? The voodoo doll and her seeing it? Going to the lunch, Carol blurting out the information? Richard’s anger, the struggle with Tucker? Liffey on the road, her bleeding? Audrey helping? Lars’ visit, his not offering the job, his own freedom? Going to the hospital, the birth, the caesarean, the baby girl? Mabs and her acknowledgment of the baby? Liffey and Richard’s decision to leave? The farewell to Audrey? A professional woman, faced with the supranatural?

7.Mabs, friendly, her own children, the daughters, going to see the doctor, asking for help to conceive again, wanting a son? The doctor’s refusal? The wine, Liffey and the gift? Her reaction to Liffey’s pregnancy? Her liaison with Tucker? Audrey feeling alienated and leaving? Her concern for her mother? Her mother’s collapse? With Carol at the hospital? Going to get Audrey? The birth, her own pregnancy? The fact that she did not have the supernatural gifts?

8.Molly as a witch, her appearance, the wig, the head for the wigs in her house? As a witch, her manner, her going to watch Liffey, taking the condom? The potion and her mixing it? Watching Liffey, the spells, in the night, with Audrey and her powers? The plan for Mabs to become pregnant? Her being thwarted, her collapse, her death?

9.Audrey, her age, the music, her reactions to her mother, participating in the spells, running out on her mother, rejecting the spells, helping Liffey?

10.Richard and his love for Liffey, the hole, the sexual encounter, the condom, his going to America, the return, joy, going to see the doctor, the difficulty of the placenta? The hope for the birth? His anger after Carol’s outburst? Taking Liffey to the hospital? Leaving with her?

11.Tucker, on the farm, with the generator, the truck, the wine and the sexual encounter, the aftermath and their agreement not to mention it? His love for his wife and children?

12.Lars, his coming to visit, the hole, Odin, his return, his admiration of the completed house, his own sense of freedom? Uncertainty for the future?

13.Carol, at the hospital, her mother, her sister, the meal? Her angry outburst?

14.The doctor, his help, the abortion issue, the birth of the child?

15.The element of magic, in the Irish countryside?

16.The atmosphere of realism, the ordinary life that Liffey was living, her work, her pregnancy, the blend of magic and ordinariness?