Lianna (1983) at H&D HQ 6/14/07

Last night, I had no desire to go out. Roger Waters killed me the previous night, and anything I would have done last night would pale in comparison to Wednesday's fun. While H-man decided to hit up that dance floor at Lindy Groove, I decided to catch up on my DVR. It was in desperate need of space clearing and running around 98% full for about a week. This is partially due to our recent movie binge. The other night after Spaceland, I caught an intense scene in a bedroom between a husband and wife arguing over the fact the wife was having an affair with another woman. That's right, another WOMAN!! A quick glance at the program info clued me to the fact that this was a John Sayles flick from 1983. I guessed it was one of his first movies, and according to IMDB.com, it's his second. For those not familiar with John Sayles, dude is a badass. He won't sacrifice final cut over funding for his movies, and he uses his script doctoring money to fund his own projects. No matter what you think of his films, you have to admit he knows what he's doing with the medium.

Set in a college town in the present day early '80s, Lianna is about the wife of a film professor who discovers her homosexuality. It's slow moving, character based, and has minimal cuts. The movie opens with (our main character, obviously) Lianna (Linda Griffiths), a thirty-three year old mother of two, discussing kids, husbands, and life with friend Sandy (Jo Henderson) as their children play on the playground next to them. From there, we are introduced to Lianna's husband Dick (Jon DeVries), a film professor at the local college who is bitter about being passed over for tenure, Lianna's coming of age teen son and mother worshiping daughter, Lianna's child pysch prof turned lover Ruth (Jane Hallaren), Sandy's football coach husband, and even John Sayles turns up as lecherous fellow film prof Jerry. The major players are Lianna, Dick, and Ruth. One night after getting out of Ruth's class early, Lianna catches Dick fooling around with one of his students in a sandbox at a faculty party. She confronts him at home. There's arguing. Their son gets a late night snack and hears them. They make no resolution about their relationship as Dick has to go to Toronto for a film fest, and, apparently, this isn't the first time he's been caught. While Dick's away watching shitty movies in Canada, Lianna sets herself up for self discovery by allowing Ruth, up until this point only her mild manner teacher, to seduce her into some hot lesbo action. And by hot, I mean, artistic and mildly creepy. Lianna and Ruth share more intimate times including some erotic verbal foreplay while swimming together at the school's facilities. They want to be intimate in public, but fear the social repercussions.

Upon Dick's return, Lianna decides to tell him about her affair with Ruth. Dick gets pissed and argues in a very academic way. This is the scene I stumbled upon the other night. It's fantastic. My favorite line is said by Lianna and seems to so perfectly epitomize their marriage, "Just because you can argue better doesn't mean that you're right." Consequences are suffered from Lianna's confession as Dick kicks her ass out of the house. The rest of the movie follows Lianna's quest to figure out her place in the world. She gets an apartment by herself. "No men," the old landlady warns. Yeah, no problem. Then, her relationship with Ruth gets thrown off track with Ruth's confession of having another woman. Lianna also deals with the fallout of everyone close to her finding out her no longer dirty little secret including her kids, Sandy, and even Sayles' Jerry who pays Lianna a visit to treat her to a late night romp only to be rebuffed by Lianna's now proud gay standing. Jerry's from California, so he's cool with it. Sandy is not. A lot is made about the gay lifestyle, but not in a preachy way. Apparently, there was some trepidation of having a man direct this movie. But to Sayles' credit, the social commentary comes through the characters themselves rather than through the filmmaking. It's a pretty understated film about the broad sweeping issue of homosexuality. In fact, I wouldn't even consider it a gay movie. I mean, it is, I guess. But it's more about these characters. One of which happens to find out she's gay.

If you liked Little Children last year, you'll dig this flick. Also, I recorded this movie from Flix on my Time Warner Cable here in L.A. While I'm not an avid viewer, Flix airs some pretty killer movies. Earlier this year, I watched Short Cuts (1993), Streamers (1983), and The Player (1992) during a Robert Altman retrospective, which was SICK!

The Night by The Numbers:

Lianna Running Time: 110 mins
% of space cleared on my DVR: 15