Why we picked it – A highly naturalistic film. Josie Lawrence and Tanya Myers are completely convincing as the two sisters. The task of clearing a house after the death of a loved one is only too familiar.
Synopsis – Sisters Phoebe and Dot have returned to their family home after the mother’s death. While clearing decades of clutter, they are also planning a performance art piece as a memorial to her. This pushes them to delve further into the memories of her and their lives in the house. The poetry of Mary Coleridge, to which the sisters’ mother would write music, features several times and her poem A Clever Woman gives the film its name. While never seen, the mother is the character the audience learns most about. She would often cry in the garden and had many affairs. The sisters unwrap all their complicated feelings about her and their father. They discover that they sometimes remember the past in different ways. Meanwhile, sexual transgression continues to haunt the house.
The film – The film succeeds because of the two compelling performances by Josie Lawrence and Tanya Myers. The intricacies of relationships between sisters can be challenging to capture, but this film shows not only the love, but also the tension between them. Jon Sanders wrote the story outline and then allowed the cast to improvise the dialogue with the result that it is easy to forget that they are acting at all. Towards the end, they talk about how there must be thousands of people doing what they are doing—clearing a house after the death of a loved one. The shared experience of that duty makes this film compelling and draws you in. It had a surprising sparse distribution and I have not found any director or cast interviews.
Director and Writer: Jon Sanders; Cinematography: David Scott; UK, 2022, 88 mins, 15