‘Strangers in Good Company’ is a Uniquely-Female Docufiction Experience

TCM will feature films from 12 decades—and representing 44 countries—totaling 100 classic and current titles all created by women. Read more about this here! 

Cynthia Scott’s Strangers in Good Company is a fascinating part-documentary- part-narrative film that follows eight women stranded in a country house as they get to know each other through sharing their lives and their experiences aging. (NBA: 3/5) 

Review by FF2 Associate Nicole Ackman 

Strangers in Good Company is a remarkably distinct Canadian film that is entirely female in focus. Directed by Cynthia Scott, this 1990 movie follows eight women on a bus tour who are stranded in the countryside after their bus breaks down. Also called The Company of Strangers, it shows how the women bond over the course of a few days spent in an abandoned farmhouse. It’s a very slow and meandering movie with little dramatic tension, but it does create an almost dreamlike atmosphere that allows us to get to know the seven elderly and one young woman. 

The film is a piece of docufiction: half contrived narrative and half documentary. The bus scenario is fiction, and a basic outline was written by Scott, Sally Bochner, David Wilson, and Gloria Demers. But the dialogue was improvised, and the stories the women share are all from their own lives. The women aren’t playing characters, but are rather acting as themselves. The film has a sense of authenticity that I’ve never witnessed before because the audience is watching real people deal with a fictional situation. 

The film’s cast consists of eight women who are very different from each other with seemingly little in common. They are a mix of American, Canadian, and English women in their sixties, seventies, and eighties. The only young woman is the bus driver, who is also a jazz singer, Michelle Sweeney. Feminist writer and painter Mary Meigs appears as well. The diversity in the film is impressive, especially for the 1990s with a Black woman (Sweeney), a Mohawk elder (Alice Diabo), a lesbian (Meigs), and a Roman Catholic nun (Catherine Roche). It makes the film feel more up to date despite having been made thirty years ago. It is a credit to the director Scott that she captures such genuine and natural performances from these women who are not actors. 

It’s touching to see these women explore the abandoned house they’re stranded in and bond with each other. They watch birds, attempt to fix the bus’s engine, and construct beds out of straw. The amiable way they all get along with little drama and how they swap stories from their current lives—and youth—is heartwarming. One of the most lovely moments is when Meig tells another woman that she is a lesbian, and her response is essentially, “Oh, that’s good.” The film’s intimate nature makes the audience feel as though they’re right there with these women, listening along as they chat. 

It also is a glimpse of women that we don’t often see on film. First, it’s remarkable to have a film with no men present that is entirely focused on women simply existing together. But more importantly, the way that it deals with aging and mortality is unique. The women discuss their fears of dying, their medications, and their “aches and pains.” As they open up to each other more, they talk about their families and careers; one expresses how she gave up her artistic ambitions when she became a mother. 

The film features some lovely shots of the countryside the women find themselves in, and a wonderful piano score composed and arranged by Marie Bernard. It definitely has the feel of a film from the late 1980s and early 1990s, even in its coloring. Towards the end of the movie, there is a very sweet scene of all the group joyfully singing a wordless song and dancing together. This scene epitomizes the film: celebrating the lives of these eight women and the experience of being together without the influences of men—or the outside world. Strangers in Good Company is a beautifully unique work, both in its topic and its docufiction execution. 

© Nicole Ackman (9/12/20) FF2 Media

Photo: The cast of Strangers in Good Company.

Photo Credits: National Film Board of Canada

Q: Does Strangers in Good Company pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test?

Yes!

There aren’t any male characters in the film, and the women discuss many topics unrelated to men.  

 

Amelie Lasker

By Amelie Lasker

Amelie Lasker joined FF2 Media in early 2016 after graduating from Columbia University where she studied English and history. She has written plays and had readings for Columbia’s student-written theatre company Nomads, edited the blog for Columbia’s film journal Double Exposure, and worked on film crews and participated in workshops at Columbia University Film Productions. She spent junior year abroad at Cambridge University, where she had many opportunities for student playwrights to see their work produced. 

811 comments

  1. At the beginning, I was still puzzled. Since I read your article, I have been very impressed. It has provided a lot of innovative ideas for my thesis related to gate.io. Thank u. But I still have some doubts, can you help me? Thanks.

    Reply

  2. The AMA, aware of the growing backlash in Washington against fee for service, has endorsed some of Medicare s bundling initiatives buy cialis 5mg My quality of life is terrible and I can t live like this for five years

    Reply

  4. The Messenger of Allah PBUH said, Whenever a Muslim supplicates Allah, He accepts his supplication or averts any similar kind of trouble from him until he prays for something sinful or something that may break the ties of kinship can a woman take a male viagra Serious Use Alternative 1 metronidazole will increase the level or effect of avapritinib by affecting hepatic intestinal enzyme CYP3A4 metabolism

    Reply

  801. Access to insights from our single and multi-manager hedge fund portfolio managers. ESMA recommended amending relevant requirements to ask all UCITS management companies and AIFMs to: We view client relationships as partnerships that are designed to help our clients meet their long-term financial and planning goals. COPYRIGHT © 2017 FINANCIAL ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, INC. Regulated investment companies are limited in the provider they pick due to potential independence issues. Managers must deal with changing regulations, new tax laws, increased competition and more. We provide clarity on the complex issues you face. SIFMA’s Asset Management Group (SIFMA AMG) brings the asset management community together to provide views on U.S. and global policy and to create industry best practices.
    https://www.credly.com/users/mary-wright.3760641a
    You can also check out the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLRE), which aims to replicate the real estate sector of the S&P 500 Index. It currently has 30 holdings and an expense ratio of 0.10%. Since the fund’s inception in October 2015, it has delivered an average annual return of 6.56% before tax. Unlike buying a house — where transactions can take weeks and even months to close — you can buy or sell shares in a REIT anytime you want throughout the trading day. That makes REITs one of the most liquid real estate investment options available. A multifamily investor in today’s competitive real estate environment will more likely have to identify a target property with untapped potential for revenues – either by adding more revenue-generating services to the property, or through upgrades and amenities that will allow the investor to increase rents over time.

    Reply

  802. We begin by describing the state of STEM in the US and the ascent of afterschool in the educational landscape. We next describe the investments made to improve practice and support afterschool STEM programming and report the methods and results of the first systematic study of this national afterschool and STEM system-building effort. We conclude with a discussion of key findings, limitations, and recommendations based on the significant relationships found between STEM program quality and youth outcomes. STEM Volunteer Training Resources Discovery Channel: This site has all types of resources for science, math, English, and social studies. They are divided into K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Lesson plans include the objective, materials, procedure, evaluation methods, vocabulary and national standards. In addition to lesson plans, the site also has interactive games, puzzles, activities, contests, STEM career information, and virtual labs.
    https://simonnzit888918.bloggin-ads.com/51056945/computer-science-b-tech-courses-list
    Parent Information Line 817-500-0381 High-profile Chinese investment banker and founder of Hong Kong-listed China Renaissance Holdings Bao Fan is currently cooperating with … Discover a weird and wonderful selection of V&A exhibition posters from yesteryear Send your students out of the classroom with a smile! Black Fadeless® Paper with Black Bordette® Decorative Border are the featured products used for this stylish door. To create your own door click the following links to download for FREE the Wiggle Eyes Smile sign and “It’s a Good Day” sign. The greatest decoration made by any Impressionist is Monet’s Nymphéas (Water Lilies) for the Orangerie in Paris (see illustration below). In Le Décor impressionniste, Patry and Simon Kelly provide excellent overviews of a project that preoccupied him for the last thirty years of his life. An enthusiast of the hybrid water lilies cultivated by the horticulturalist Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac, whose yellow, pink, and deep red flowers had been a sensation at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 (until then only white waterlilies were known), Monet had begun to purchase plants from him for his garden at Giverny as early as 1895.

    Reply

  804. It seems to be getting easier for consumers to buy cryptocurrency with their debit or credit cards. Investopedia collected vital data points from several Cryptocurrency Exchanges and apps to identify the most essential factors to crypto investors. We used this data to review each exchange for fees, available cryptocurrencies, and other features to provide an unbiased, comprehensive review to ensure our readers make the right decision on the cryptocurrency exchange of their choice. While buying Bitcoin using a credit card used to be more accessible, the number of trading platforms and card issuers that support crypto purchases using a credit card appears to have dropped in recent years. Also, you can contact us using all your favorite ways of communication: Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world, and Binance.US is the U.S.-regulated arm of this massive exchange. With access to rock-bottom trading fees and even the ability to buy bitcoin without any fees, Binance.US is one of the cheapest ways to buy bitcoin.
    https://www.funddreamer.com/users/reinapcibar1970
    This analysis of BTT’s historical price performance and various influencing factors provided meaningful insights. While crypto market sentiment and bitcoin events hold short-term sway, BTT’s success depends significantly on growing its use within BitTorrent and as a token with distinct utility. After two lacklustre years, 2024 seems ideal for a turnaround if bullish trends emerge. The upcoming year could witness positive developments like more comprehensive mainstream access through integrations and product evolution. When considering cryptocurrency investments, BitTorrent Token (BTT) deserves attention. Diversifying your crypto portfolio and supporting projects with practical blockchain applications is wise. As a pioneer in peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing, BitTorrent offers an array of real-world uses, bolstering the value of its native token.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *