Film Analysis Of The Dressmaker By Rosalie Ham

The Dressmaker is an Australian production drama film based on the novel by Rosalie Ham. It is directed by an Australian writer and a film director Jocelyn Moorhouse. The story revolves around the life of Tilly Dunnage, who returns to her small hometown from which she was disgracefully banished as a ten year old. She returns to solve the half remembered mystery of her banishment due to the murder allegations. The director Jocelyn Moorhouse presents many themes such as inferiority and the role that community plays in considering it. Another theme that is explored is the gain in power and liberation through finding or disclosing the truth. These themes are accompanied by an insightful use of cinematography, which enhances the audiences’ engagement

Tilly, Dunnage the protagonist, also known as Myrtle is being physically and mentally bullied by her peers and community members of her country town, Dungatar. Jocelyn Moorhouse has intelligently depicted this using various cinematographic techniques such as colour and lighting, various camera techniques and sound. The black and white is a recurring theme throughout the film, which symbolises the feeling of horror and doom, juxtaposed to Tilly’s current situation which is depicted in colour. Each time when Tilly tries to remember her bullying experience from her childhood, the colour and the lighting of the screen suddenly changes from colour to black and white, which represents the dark and horrific phase of her life, her past. Stewart Pettyman furiously exclaims to Tilly “Stand really really still Danny bum (Tilly); or I’ll come to your house tonight and kill your mother; the Slut! Remember if shes’ dead I’ll get you!” This is followed with a mid-shot and close up of Stewart Pettyman forcefully dragging

There are many characters in the film, who are powerless. Jocelyn Moorhouse uses various camera angles to portray the salvation of the characters from the confinement of the infirmity of power. At the beginning of the film Marigold Pettyman is weak, powerless and in the captivity of her husband Evan Pettyman. Jocelyn Moorhouse highlights her situation by a perfect mid shot frame of her having dinner with her husband Evan Pettyman, as he orders “Situation is developed, until it settles, I don’t want you leaving the house”. Similarly later in the film, when she finds out the truth about her husband she exclaims “You followed Molly hear, used her, like you used me! So you also think Tilly your daughter killed your son? If weren’t for him I would never had to marry you! You stole all my money!” Moorhouse intelligently highlights the characters’ gain in power by shifting the camera angles, such as before the gain in power and confidence Marigold was shown on a lower angle than her husband Evan. However after the increase in power and confidence she shown on a higher angle than Evan Pettyman. On the other side of the society Molly is also in a similar situation. She is powerless against the narrow minded society to the extent that she lives away from them on the hill. However, when she reveals the truth to Tilly she confidently goes out of the house and middle of the society and confronts them