Word: martha
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...Martha Duffy...
...there was an amazing effort to not only tell the story of Martha Ballard but also to talk about how scholars create a work of history. It's a different product because it's a different product because it's a different medium, different assumptions, different needs. I think there are pretty important differences; the film is much richer and more complete in terms of conveying a visual world. On the other hand there are things that books can do that films absolutely can't. I think that there is a historical complexity in the book that...
...almost complete absence of dialogue is one dilemma that the filmmakers had to wrestle with. Because Ulrich has no record of any spoken interaction amongst Martha and her family, it was challenging to decide how to depict their relationships with each other...
...visual element worked particularly well in the sequence in which Martha's son takes over her house without her knowledge or consent. Even without dialogue, the sense of pain and frustration is evident in Lee's depiction of Martha's defeated spirit. Ulrich's voice-overs also serve to acknowledge those gaps in information that may prevent the audience from sharing an emotional immediacy with the characters...
...real blurring of fact and fiction comes in the minute details. Ulrich recalls that the tense part about making the film was realizing how much she didn't know. Watching others create the world around Martha was a humbling experience, because despite all the time she spent with Martha's diary, Ulrich could not know what she ate or what the villagers wore. And yet her keen sense of historical accuracy bristled at the thought of glossing over even trivial points. She describes the preparation of the tavern dinner scene...