White Room

Directed by Patricia Rozema

Canada, 1990 (fiction, 90 minutes, colour, English)

Also known as "A fehér szoba", "Das weiße Zimmer", "Le secret de la chambre claire", "Valkoinen huone"

Film Description:
"This 'Grim Fairy Tale' follows the journey of an aspiring young writer, Norman Gentle (Maurice Godin), on his quest for 'honour, action, and, of course, love.' Along the way to self-expression, he encounters three very different women. One night, benignly prowling the backyards of an urban neighbourhood, he witnesses the savage murder and rape of a woman who lives in a large glass house. With the help of a shallow but amusing street performer, Zelda (Sheila McCarthy), he discovers that the victim was the popular singer/poet Madelaine X (Margot Kidder). At her funeral he meets a beautiful and strange woman, Jane (Kate Nelligan) with whom he falls deeply in love. Norm becomes obsessed with a mysterious room that Jane slips into every night. He begins to suspect a bizarre link between Jane and the murdered Madelaine X. This strange, sometimes warm, sometimes harrowing, tale has two endings -- one tragic, one euphoric, both essential."
-- patriciarozema.com (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Written by:	Patricia Rozema
Produced by:	Alex Raffé, Patricia Rozema, Barbara Tranter
Principal Cast:	Kate Nelligan, Maurice Godin, Margot Kidder, Sheila McCarthy, Barbara Gordon, Nicky Guadagni, Stuart Aikins, Harold Luft, David Ferry, Tracy Moore, Erika Ritter, Ziggy Lorenc, David Pressault, Dwayne McLean, Sandy Creighton, Les Rubie, Lisa Desmarais
Cinematography:	Paul Sarossy
Film Editing:	Patricia Rozema
Music:	Mark Korven
Production Company:	Vos Productions Inc.

(sources)

Quotes about White Room

"What most critics failed to appreciate [...] are the intricacies of White Room's experiments with narrative structure. Although the plot revolves around Norman's affair with a reclusive artist named Jane (Kate Nelligan) who is the voice behind a murdered pop singer named Madeleine X, White Room's deeper subject matter has to do with the epistemological status of fiction."
-- Lee Parpart (source)

"Energetically drawing on the psychological thriller, romance and fairy tales, White Room seems equally inspired by Emily Dickinson's poetry as by Hitchcock's Psycho and Rear Window. With this film, Rozema opens up questions about the demands of fiction and storytelling in general, and not only our cultural obsession with happy endings, but also the expectations on filmmakers to provide audiences with neat closure."
-- Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo (source)

Quote about White Room [in French]

"White Room réussit ce que bien peu de pseudo-essais hitchcockiens tentent même de faire, c'est-à-dire offrir une critique de l'érotisme masculin en élaborant, au sein d'un film de fiction, une réflexion sur l'art de la représentation. Il était plus que temps qu'une femme cinéaste s'intéresse sérieusement à l'héritage philosophique et esthétique laissé par Alfred Hitchcock."
-- Johanne Larue (source)

Notes about White Room

Filmed in Toronto.

(sources)

Bibliography for White Room

Journal Articles

Knight, D. "Metafiction, Pararealism and the 'Canon' of Canadian Cinema." Cinémas 3, no. 1 (Autumn 1992): 125-146. [French]
Ruiter, J.E. "Krachttoer." Review of White Room. Skrien, no. 179 (August-September 1991): 14. [Dutch]

Newspaper or Magazine Articles

Benjo, Caroline. "Le mystère de la chambre blanche." Interview with Patricia Rozema. Cinéma 72, November 1990. [French]
Brunette, Peter. "'Shut up and just do it!'." Interview with Patricia Rozema. Sight & Sound, Winter 1990-91.
Dussault, Serge. "Patricia Rozema : 'L'honnêteté, c'est presque érotique...'." Interview with Patricia Rozema. La Presse, October 20, 1990. [French]
Feindel, Pat. "A playful journey." Review of White Room. Kinesis, November 1990.
Groen, Rick. "The White Room." Review of White Room. Globe and Mail, March 8, 1991.
Jean, Marcel. "Le regard et la voix." Review of White Room. 24 Images, January-February 1991. [French]
Larue, Johanne. "White Room." Review of White Room. Séquences, November 1990. [French]
Perreault, Luc. "Le secret de la chambre claire : le parfum de la dame en noir." Review of White Room. La Presse, November 17, 1990. [French]
Variety. "White Room." Review of White Room. Variety, October 1, 1990.

Dissertation Chapters

Cagle, Robert Lyle. "Chapter Three." In "An Almost Perfect Fit: The Politics of Identity in Contemporary Canadian Film." PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1995.

Web Sites about White Room

"The Internet Movie Database: White Room ." Internet Movie Database, Inc. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100929/combined.