A Stitch in Time
An elderly dressmaker reinvents herself when she meets a young fashion designer.
When it comes to autumn releases, 2023 is proving to be a great moment for elderly actresses. Less than a month ago Line Renaud, now 95, was seen starring triumphantly in Driving Madeleine and now it's the turn of Maggie Blinco who at the age of 89 is the lead actress in the Australian movie A Stitch in Time. The man behind this film is Sasha Hadden who, in addition to making his debut as the director of a feature-length drama, is also the writer, producer and editor. It reaches us after winning an Australian Academy Award as best indie film and there is no doubt that while certainly not flawless A Stitch in Time will give pleasure to the right audience.
As with Driving Madeleine the presence of a central figure who is aged is a sign that Hadden’s film is most likely to appeal to older viewers and, since that figure is in both cases a woman, it may also be the case that female audiences will be in the ascendancy. Maggie Blinco’s role is that of Liebe, a former dressmaker who as a girl had fled the Holocaust and has spent her adult life in Australia. For some fifty years she has lived with a singer/songwriter named Duncan (a role played by Glenn Shorrock himself a noted singer/songwriter). However, Duncan is now losing his popularity and his career is on the wane. But he has in any case always been self-centred and unappreciative. Nevertheless, Liebe has stuck with him being of a generation of women who feel that they should be dutiful and who accept the idea of society being patriarchal.
In Driving Madeleine flashbacks reveal that Madeleine had in the past endured marriage to a horrifyingly abusive husband but A Stitch in Time to its advantage does not push to such extremes. Duncan would never hit Liebe but he has always put himself first and likes to control her. One example is the fact that he had discouraged her from seeing Christine (Belinda Giblin) who had been her best friend. Duncan’s nature also reveals itself in his dealings with Christine’s husband (John Gregg) who had once been in a band with him before it broke up acrimoniously. No surprise, then, that Duncan is hostile when Liebe despite her age decides to take up dressmaking again to sell garments in Sydney’s Balmain markets where she is encouraged to do so by a sympathetic young Chinese fashion designer, Hamish (the pleasing Hoa Xuande).
By not making Duncan’s actions more extreme Hadden probably increases the extent to which older female viewers in particular will readily identify with Liebe and the film, popular in tone and character, is in effect an engaging study of a woman gradually and belatedly establishing her own independence. The supporting players are able enough, but it is Maggie Blinco whose facial features have an open quality that is instantly engaging who is the key factor in the film’s appeal. A Stitch in Time is very much Liebe’s story and its weak spot lies in the fact that, while it traces her tentative rebellion convincingly, the story somewhat runs out of road. The last quarter of the film after she has asserted herself brings back Duncan and in the final scene he even takes screen centre. Furthermore, if the film’s simple character is such that it tends to play on the audience’s emotions (as by making Liebe’s family refugees from the Nazis), the finale further indulges sentimentality and in a way that I found unconvincing. Yet such doubts cannot take away from Maggie Blinco’s immense appeal and, regardless of any reservations one may have about the strength of the storyline, her performance carries the film to success.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Maggie Blinco, Glenn Shorrock, Belinda Giblin, Hoa Xuande, John Gregg, Celeste Reardon, Tyson Saljevic, Benjamin Cavanagh, Alex Chorley, Ellen Greenfield, Debra Freeman, William Wei.
Dir Sasha Hadden, Pro Sasha Hadden, Screenplay Sasha Hadden, Ph Donald McAlpine, Pro Des Carlo Crescini, Ed Sasha Hadden, Music Angela Little, Costumes Elena Aikasheva and Alana Smith.
Hadden Motion Pictures-Miracle Comms.
98 mins. Australia. 2022. UK Rel: 24 November 2023. Cert. 15.
