The Whales of August. 1987. USA. Directed by Lindsay Anderson. Screenplay by David Berry, based on his play. With Lillian Gish, Bette Davis, Vincent Price. 35mm print. 90 min.
During a summer reunion at a family home in Maine, two elderly sisters, one sweet, the other sour, confront the losses and grievances of their long lives. The late MoMA film curator Charles Silver wrote of Gish, “Lillian’s pouting mouth, her perfect little nose, and the eyes that could see into eternity were modeling clay that could be wrought into a myriad of voiceless women who had lived and loved and endured since the beginning of time.”