This book focuses on the mother-daughter relationship as it features in a number of films from the 1990s onwards. Bringing the insights of psychoanalysis and feminism to bear on a diverse and compelling range of representations of the mother-daughter dynamic, the author addresses a range of questions relating to the social, historical and cultural conditions which go to inform the female experience. These include, in relation to
Dolores Claiborne
,
Heavenly Creatures
and
The Others
, an exploration of different forms of familial violence and resistance to it and in
One True Thing
Stepmom
Pieces of April
, questions about the construction of the ideal mother and her loss. From
The
Piano
's engagement with French feminism and
Losing Chase
's reworking of the life and work of Virginia Woolf to the depiction of cross-racial relationships during apartheid in
Friends
, the films that go to make up this study all share a central concern with both the literal and symbolic forms that the mother-daughter relationship encompasses.