Notes From a Film Festival Addict
- By Wen Minkoff  The Well is, well, disturbing, a fact one might guess by its placement alongside Heavenly Creatures, Bound, Basic Instinct and Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! in this year's "Killer Lesbian Series." And yes, someone does die in The Well. But I'm not telling whom. Hester (even her name is creepy), a lonely spinster living on an isolated ranch, brings home young, delinquent Katherine (wonder if she's related to Basic Instinct's Katherine?) to help around the house. For most of the film, it's not clear with whom our sympathies should lay. Hester is odd and needy. She's initially a strict taskmaster, and some of her demands on Katherine seem unreasonable. Yet she's also strangely kind. Katherine is whimsical, vivacious, and trapped far from typical young adult amusements. (The estate house lacks most amenities, including a TV.) But Katherine can also be manipulative and mean. The relationship between the women is still touching, if painful, and even though their desire for each other remains largely subtextual (translation: no wild sex scenes), it's certainly not a hetero pic. I found it an eerie, timeless film, one that makes the outback in Jane Campion's recent Holy Smoke seem as benign and cheerful as Disneyland, and Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca appear to be the hostess with the mostess. (Look for a full review here upon The Well's theatrical release).
Wen Minkoff is a freelance writer and filmdyke from Santa Cruz, California. In an attempt to become "Dr. Wen", she is currently working on her dissertation, which looks at the figure of the murderous lesbian in 1990s film. She and her girlfriend are owned by one fat cat, Tiger Lily. Contact: MovieDyke@technodyke.com
* - photo credits, http://www.frameline.org
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