Mouthpiece
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Canada, 2018 (fiction, 91 minutes, colour, English)
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| Image: © levelFILM |
Film Description:
"Patricia Rozema [...] adapts the award-winning two-woman play by Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava, about an aspiring writer attempting to reconcile her feminism with the conformist choices of her mother following her mother's sudden death. [...] Rozema knots together the thematic threads of her past work—feminist consciousness, the struggle for self-expression—into one of her most vibrant films to date. [...] In the aftermath of her mother's sudden death, aspiring writer Cassandra struggles to compose a eulogy. She self-identifies as the black sheep of the family, standing in brazen opposition to her mother's embodiment of feminine grace. In Cassandra's eyes, to be a 'nurturing mother' and a 'classy woman' is to be a vessel for self-sacrifice and she roils over her mother's failed career and incessant need for approval from others. Cassandra is only able to connect with her mother when she realizes that her own rebelliousness is as much a response to the male gaze as her mother's conformity. [...]"
-- Danis Goulet
(source)
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| Film Credits (partial): |
| Written by: |
Patricia Rozema, Norah Sadava, Amy Nostbakken |
| Produced by: |
Patricia Rozema, Jennifer Shin, Christina Piovesan, Alex Brisbourne, Angela Brisbourne, Martha McCain, Martha Ramsay, Kathleen Ramsay, Maria Martin Stanley |
| Principal Cast: |
Norah Sadava, Amy Nostbakken, Maev Beaty |
| Cinematography: |
Catherine Lutes |
| Film Editing: |
Lara Johnston |
| Music: |
Amy Nostbakken |
| Production Company: |
Mouthpiece (FGM) Films, First Generation Films, Crucial Things |
(sources)
Awards won by Mouthpiece
Notes about Mouthpiece
- Filmed in Toronto.
- Shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018.
(sources)
Quotes about Mouthpiece
"Why have one actor play your lead character when you could have two? That's the central conceit of this distinctive Canadian indie, written by the actors in question, Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava, and adapted from their stage play. They are both Cassandra, a disorganised woman in Toronto thrown into crisis by the death of her mother. Unlike movies with similar conceits—Luis Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire, for example, where two actors alternated in a role—Mouthpiece keeps both women on screen at all times. As a reflection of a fractured mental state, it's an effective device, although the relationship is not sharply defined."
-- Steve Rose
(source)
"'Grief manifests itself in unexpected ways,' muses an extraordinarily understanding mortician in Patricia Rozema's Mouthpiece, as a grieving client climbs into a cedar casket. But the most unexpected way grief manifests itself in the film is that the bereaved heroine is played by two actresses, Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava, who aren't entirely in sync about the best way forward. Based on Nostbakken and Sadava's stage play, this metaphysical two-hander about a young woman's struggle to write a eulogy for her mother roils in guilt, resentment, sadness, and thorny notions of feminine identity. The conceit isn't a natural for the screen, despite [Patricia] Rozema's attempts to give a strong visual dimension, but it's a thoughtful interrogation of modern womanhood, leavened by gallows humor."
-- Scott Tobias
(source)
Bibliography for Mouthpiece
Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites
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Houpt, Simon. "TIFF 2018: Patricia Rozema's Mouthpiece is her most directly political film yet." Globe and Mail, September 5, 2018.
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Rose, Steve. "Mouthpiece review—double the drama in doppelganger story." Review of Mouthpiece. Guardian, March 10, 2021.
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Scheck, Frank. "A young woman prepares for her mother's funeral in 'Mouthpiece,' Patricia Rozema's dark comedy in which the lead character is played by two actresses." Review of Mouthpiece. Hollywood Reporter, May 30, 2019.
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Tobias, Scott. "A young woman's inner struggle to write a eulogy for her mother is rendered metaphysically in Patricia Rozema's stagy two-hander." Review of Mouthpiece. Variety, September 6, 2018.
