She looks like a contemplative Madonna on screen, with long, fair hair. Sarah Polley at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills. "I'm interested in the way we tell stories about our lives," she says in the film, "about the fact that the truth about the past is often ephemeral and difficult to pin down.". Diane Polley was a Canadian actor and casting director. The thing that will get you better is moving towards the things youre avoiding, she said. What binds the "children" is their mother, Diane Polley an actress and casting director who died when Sarah was 11. There was an intense claustrophobia involved, and I often felt like, OK, Ive processed this stuff personally, so what the hell am I doing continuing to make this film about this topic and having to go into it every day?. "I remember Johnny saying [that] your father might be someone that Mum had acted with in a play," one brother observes. Stories We Tell, written and directed by Sarah Polley, is a film of the life and subsequent loss of her mother, the Canadian actress and casting director Diane Polley. Ten short years later she discovered the secret that her mother had kept hidden all Sarahs life, Michael Polley was not her father. Her father, Michael, is a transplanted British actor; her mother, Diane, was an actress and casting director. During her childhood, the case had understandably been "underplayed". She finds it "nerve-racking" to think anyone might find her wanting. In advance of the film's airing in Canada during the 82nd Academy Awards, and following news reports that characterized the film as a marketing exercise for the margarine company Becel,[51][52][53] Polley withdrew her association with the film. It was really interesting to have a big drama in your own life, and have this need to make it into narrative.. Despite the fact that the family had watched Diane battle the cancer that eventually killed her, when she died everyone was shocked. [35] In March 2015, Polley was hired to write the script for a new adaptation of Little Women, as well as potentially direct;[36] however, Polley's involvement in the project never went beyond initial discussions, despite reports. And though that might keep another director occupied, it's just the start here, because no two children, no two friends no two lovers, even paint the same portrait of Diane Polley. [49] In the film, that is what Sarahdoes. [11], Polley was raised by Diane and Michael. You know her pale face and her red hair turning brown and blonde . But this film is a shock because its such a sophisticated piece of filmmaking, he added, both in terms of the ambition and the success with which its able to deploy this very original idea. Last years Telluride and Toronto film festivals elicited rave reviews for the documentary and Indiewire called it the finest of Polleys filmmaking skills and New York Magazine referred to Polley as a gifted actress and possibly more gifted writer-director. Like a father surveying his family from the head of a dining table, he reads aloud, savouring the narrative. In the film, Polley breaks up her father's narration with interviews conducted with other members of her family. Privacy PolicyTerms and ConditionsAccessibility, To read this article in full you will need to make a payment. It was "easy" to interview her family, she says, because, "There are no taboos at our dinner table. A DNA test confirmed her suspicions that the man she had called dad all her life, Toronto actor Michael Polley, was not her biological father. She encourages her family to speak. Retrieved on March 17, 2020 from, "When asked what directors she admires, Polley talks about Ingmar Bergman and Terrence Malick (she says his, Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction, 2012 New Democratic Party leadership race, Governor General's Performing Arts Awards, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, "Moviegoers pulled in by Gravity: Tiff Tweets", "Nobody's Starlet: Toronto's Sarah Polley is Only 20 but already a veteran actor so secure in her craft she can thumb her nose at Hollywood", "TIFF 2011: U2, Brad Pitt, George Clooney Films Featured At 2011 Toronto International Film Festival", "Sarah Polley to adapt Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace", "Stories We Tell: Sarah Polley's compassionate portrait of a complex, flawed woman: her mother", "An Actress with Doubts, but Not About Directing", "Stories We Tell: A post by Sarah Polley", "Venice Review: Sarah Polley Examines Her Own Family In Lovely, Fascinating 'Stories We Tell', "Sarah Polley reveals personal secret in new documentary", "Truth and Lies: A Q&A With Montreal Film Producer Harry Gulkin", "Sarah Polley doc wins Toronto critics' $100K prize", "Sarah Polley on Documenting Family Secrets", "OCAP took me in when I was 15, living on my own, with no community", "Sarah Polley at the Canadian Women Film Directors Database", "Sarah Polley's new film reveals her secret parentage", "Production / Event Register: Production Display", "Caught Through the Looking Glass: Sarah Polley on Grief, Girlhood, and Scoliosis", "Sarah Polley to receive Jutra trophy at Genies", "Exclusive: TIFF to host Polley's "Stories," Kastner's "Disco", "A Better Man documentary explores aftermath of abusive relationships", "Margaret Atwood: 'I am not a prophet. She sees the harnessing of his writing talent as "something my mother always wanted, a last thing I could do for her". She used to think her "vibrant but distracted not engaged enough with me". I dont think the self-doubt ever went away until the film was out in the world and people didnt laugh at it and make fun of me. This page was last modified on 12 February 2016, at 17:27. He looked up to his kids. [10] [4], While working as a casting director Polley helped discover the comedy group The kids in the hall, and later guest starred on their show. Type; Trigger: 2010: Hillary . It was subsequently announced that June that, due to scheduling conflicts, Polley would no longer be directing Looking for Alaska.[38][39]. When actress turned writer/director/producer Sarah Polley learned at the age of 28 that her father Michael Polley was not her biologicalfather and that she was, instead, the product of an illicit love affair by her late mother Diane Polley, her world turned upside down. [13], On September 10, 2003, Polley married Canadian film editor David Wharnsby, her boyfriend of seven years. ", Whatever the friendly difference of opinion about wedlock, the remarkable thing is that when pressed about her family's reaction to Stories We Tell, Sarah reveals that everyone is happy with the film and has been "supportive". Roadside Attractions Regretfully, I am forced to remove my name from the film and disassociate myself from it. The author Margaret Atwood, a longtime friend who also read drafts of Run Towards the Danger, said that she has seen Polley strive for greater honesty in her work and in her life. Michael Polley and Sarahs biological father also speak at length on camera, each discussing the woman they loved, their relationship with her and even their feelings about the other man. The interviews are remarkably candid, with the main players expressing a wide range of emotions: regret, empathy and self-criticism. He treated kids as equals for better or for worse. I feel really committed to it. He'd speak to you with respect. Copyright 2023 Elsevier Inc. except certain content provided by third parties. The directors next film, which shes writing while her seven-month-old daughter naps, is an adaptation of Margaret Atwoods Booker Prize-winning novel Alias Grace. They divorced five years later, in 2008. In 1995, she lost two back teeth after being struck by a riot police officer during a protest against the provincial Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris in Queen's Park. "I oscillate between being watchful and out of control." In her late 20s, Sarah Polley learned that her mother had had an affair with a film producer in Montreal, and that, although she was raised by Michael Polley, her mother's . In the film she determines to find out whether the joke has substance, a quest that will eventually lead to a "sick feeling of responsibility and an enormous crushing guilt that laid me out for a few weeks. Memory is not a convenient barn in which truth can be stored through successive winters. A tiny figure, with a tentative tread, appears on the pavement opposite. When people say, Are you better?, Im like, Im better than I was before the concussion, she said last month, almost in disbelief at her own words. He is hilarious in the process, claiming: "A night with a dead wombat might be more exciting than a night with me after 12 years.". As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. She was part of a group in 2001 which opposed the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. And I think the ship bearing my chance at a normal childhood/transition to adulthood had sailed long before I met Atom.). It makes you nuts, said Polley, who said she would be content never to see the movie again. The lady is not a tramp the tramp is a lady. She also talked to Michael Polley and her biological father, along with other family and friends affected by the news. In another chapter, The Woman Who Stayed Silent, Polley revisits what she used to call a funny party story about my worst date ever with Jian Ghomeshi, the musician and former CBC radio host who in 2016 was acquitted of five charges related to sexual assault. Polley and her siblings found the story becoming the focus of many a dinner party, with each of them highlighting a different aspect of the tale as it related to their own history. Manipulating even as it exposes, Stories We Tell is a provocative, genre-bending documentary that examines how we construct personal narratives and shows Polley struggling with her own. Film producer Harry Gulkin describes her magnetism and takes Sarah to task because he wants the story told his way. The filmmaker realized this was something worthy of more detailed exploration and a documentary was born. No wonder Sarah feels her family's narrative has the stuff of drama. Her siblings are Susy and John Buchan from Diane's first marriage to George Deans-Buchan, and Mark and Joanna Polley from her second marriage to Michael Polley (19332018), a British-born actor who became an insurance agent after Diane and he started a family. Polley wrote and directed her second feature, Take This Waltz starring Michelle Williams, Luke Kirby, Seth Rogen, and Sarah Silverman, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. I didnt want to do it. Her first career was an actor. To update your cookie settings, please visit the, Academic & Personal: 24 hour online access, Corporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online access, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(13)70470-4, The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia, The Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific, Statement on offensive historical content, For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal', For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'. Sarah now smarts on her mother's behalf to think of the "shame" she must have felt. "[54][55][56] In response, Becel said it was a "founding sponsor" of the Heart Truth campaign and had commissioned the film "to put heart health on the radar of Canadian women". At nine, her role in the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea made her name and enough money with which, much later, to think about making a film. My body went into shock and sickness, and every time Ive gone to Montreal since then, I get really sick, she said. The movie, starring Julie Christie (with whom she had played in No Such Thing, 2001, and The Secret Life of Words, 2005), debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2006, as part of the TIFF's Gala showcase. The youngest of five children born to actress Diane Polley, Sarah learned that she was the product of an affair her mother had with a Montreal movie producera secret Diane took to her grave when she died of cancer just after Sarahs 11th birthday. For me, I love the feeling of using different parts of my brain separately. Subsequently this led to her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea (19901996). In December 2020, it was announced Polley would direct Women Talking based upon the novel of the same name by Miriam Toews for Orion Pictures. To update your cookie settings, please visit the Cookie Preference Center for this site. But Stories We Tell, which was produced by the National Film Board, unwraps the riddle of Polleys birth with such compelling intrigue that documentary seems to undersell it. Polley searches for her own answers while asking some universal and often uncomfortable questions about betrayal, identity, the loss of trust and the definition of family. She thinks it too easy to "blame the person with whom we are sharing our life". This at least afforded her the time to finish the essays in Run Towards the Danger while her three children slept or her husband looked after them. But at a certain point, a certain amount of money has been spent and you cant go back anymore., VIDEO: Upcoming summer films ENVELOPE: The latest awards buzz PHOTOS: Greatest box office flops. [8][9], Polley's son John Buchan is also a casting director. Its been more than six years since Sarah Polley was struck on the head by a fire extinguisher, one that was unwisely hung over a lost-and-found box at her local community center, leaving her with a debilitating concussion. There were all these weird discrepancies in the stories, and we were also all so invested in telling it. Polley decided to reconstruct her family history with well-intentioned if not always reliable narrators in "Stories We Tell." I had known this story my whole life about this part she wanted and she didnt get and she thought of it as a pivotal moment in her life, and it really broke her heart, said Polley. Polley discovered as an adult that her biological father was actually Harry Gulkin, with whom her mother had an affair (as chronicled in Polley's film Stories We Tell). As I get older, Im realizing its OK for stories to be messy or go down circuitous paths that dont lead anywhere., She added, We create these clean narratives to make sense of our basically bewildering lives. Polley cornered each of her four siblings for multiple daylong interviews, asking each to recount the story of their mothers life. [13] Meeting with Gulkin as just someone who could provide information about Diane in Montreal, he informed Polley of his affair with Diane. The death came as a shock, even though her father and older siblings had watched Diane Polley battle the disease for months. It was "a very, very dark period. Herself a well-established actor, writer, and director in her native Canada, Sarah was nominated for an Oscar for her writing for the 2006 film Away From Her, which she also directed. The essays often link moments from her childhood, adolescence and adulthood, spanning her experiences as an artist and entertainer, a mother, a daughter and a woman. It drew rave reviews from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and the three Toronto dailies, both for the performances of Christie and her co-star, Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent, and for Polley's direction. For one battle scene, she was repeatedly made to run a terrifying gantlet of explosives and debris. Canadian actor Jonathan Crombie has died, aged 48. Polley played Elise in Jaco Van Dormael's Mr. Nobody, which was released in 2010. And it includes a stunning secret (it would spoil the film's delicate detective work to spill it). Youre not just borrowing from yourself youre putting yourself on the line.. Before she had the idea of the film, Polley said, I wasnt interested in exposing myself. [59], In 2007, Polley discovered that her father, Michael Polley, who had raised her, was not her biological father. Get our L.A. Stories We Tell has brought her family together, says Polley, but the five-year struggle to make it was painfulsitting in an editing room thinking about your childhood, and your mother whos gone. Like a child who feels responsible for her parents divorce, Polley felt guilty for uncovering the affair. "Diane Polley, 54 was actress, talent agent", http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/471412111.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jan+11%2C+1990&author=Sid+Adilman+Toronto+Star&pub=Toronto+Star&desc=Diane+Polley%2C+54+was+actress%2C+talent+agent&pqatl=google, "Sarah Polley recalls her own sorrow with new role in `My LIfe'", http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/bostonherald/access/421326461.html?dids=421326461:421326461&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+09%2C+2003&author=Stephen+Schaefer&pub=Boston+Herald&desc=MOVIES%3B+Sarah+Polley+recalls+her+own+sorrow+with+new+role+in+%60My+LIfe%27&pqatl=google, "Sarah Polley popolnoma zaljubljena v igro [Sarah Polley completely in love with the game]", http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.siol.net%2Ftv%2Fzanimivosti%2F2011%2F04%2Fsarah_polley.aspx&date=2012-10-12, "Loretta says it's genetics that make her look younger", http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/470726331.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+17%2C+1989&author=Rita+Zekas+Toronto+Star&pub=Toronto+Star&desc=Loretta+says+it%27s+genetics+that+make+her+look+younger&pqatl=google, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0689568/filmotype, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=15IuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UqEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2842,1622127&dq=diane-polley&hl=en, "'Anne of Green Gables' star Jonathan Crombie dies at age 48", http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/anne-of-green-gables-star-jonathan-crombie-dies-at-age-48-1.2333898, "'Anne of Green Gables' Star Jonathan Crombie dies at 48", http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jonathan-crombie-dead-anne-green-789940, "Sarah Polleys new film reveals her secret parentage", http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/sarah-polleys-new-film-reveals-her-secret-parentage/article4508957/, http://en.wikialpha.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Diane_Polley&oldid=160918. The long slog gave Polley the chance to fill in many blanks about her mysterious matriarch. But storyteller Sarah decided to face her family issues through a new documentary entitled Stories We Tell. Though Polley never officially announced her retirement from acting she has not taken another acting role since 2010, transitioning into a writing and directing career. Please enter a term before submitting your search. Diane Polley was born on 31 August 1936 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. All Polley's films, in different ways, explore marriage and its complexities with compassionate grace. Diane sings a spoof of Ain't Misbehavin' called I'm Misbehaving. But it is. George Bernard Shaw wrote: "If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance." But let's start from the film's beginning. Geoff Bowes, a fellow actor, remembers the infectious gaiety of acting with her in Montreal. Every other ramshackle shop seems to be attempting to evolve into an art gallery. [37] In her 2022 essay collection Run Towards the Danger, Polley revealed she had been working on a second draft of the Little Women screenplay when she had a traumatic head injury that left her with post-concussion syndrome that left her with symptoms for four years and left her temporarily unable to work. I have never seen a city with glossier, better tended roses. At least that was her story. Update this section! In 2022 she released her first book of essays, the autobiographical, Run Towards the Danger which detailed her experiences in film, TV and on stage. [45] Shirley Li of The Atlantic called it "vibrant cinema," while Anna Bogutskaya of Time Out (magazine) said that it "imagines female emancipation as an honest, raging, caring experience. She has starred in many feature films, including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Exotica (1994), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Guinevere (1999), Go (1999), The Weight of Water (2000), No Such Thing (2001), My Life Without Me (2003), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Splice (2009), and Mr. Nobody (2009). A talented actress ("The Sweet Hereafter") turned gifted director ("Away From Her," "Take This Waltz"), she initially structures "Stories We Tell" as an attempt to discover more about her mother,. I think its a lot to absorb and kinda difficult.. Two days after her 11th birthday, Sarah Polley lost her mother to cancer. [7] In 2022 she wrote and directed the film Women Talking earning her second Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination. You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this section. [30] The critically acclaimed documentary examined family secrets in Polley's own childhood. But its kind of exhilarating, realizing that whatever story youve been telling about yourself and everyone tells those stories isnt you. It includes many friends all of whom have versions of her. It is permeable, unreliable and personal. Sarah was "staggered" to find an article that coldly spelt out that, for Diane, this was "the cost of adultery". [13] By the age of 15 she was living on her own and credits the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty for housing her and developing her work with activism.[19]. But now she has unveiled the puzzle of her parentage in an enthralling documentary, Stories We Tell, which premiered at festivals in Venice and Toronto to the acclaim of critics. So does she see marriage as a doomed enterprise? Sarah Polley received the shattering news in the fall of 2006, just after launching Away From Her, her Oscar-nominated feature-directing debut. Even when it is at its most uncomfortable, he seems in his element. She died of cancer the week of Polley's 11th birthday. We all, in various ways, fell apart. And she minds terribly is fearful "conservative" people will judge her mother censoriously. Sarah even found and filmed a newspaper cutting reporting on the case. [4] Polley's second film, Take This Waltz (2011), premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival,[5] followed by her first documentary film, Stories We Tell (2012). [17][18], Polley attended Subway Academy II, then Earl Haig Secondary School, but dropped out at age 15. He wound up saying that when he married, in 1967, his one hope was that his children would never feel they had to participate in something so absurd. Diane Polley Diane was Sarah's mother and unfortunately passed away from cancer in 1990. She also wrote the miniseries Alias Grace,[6] based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. They held off for 20 years until she was ready to make the show. Rated PG-13 for thematic elements involving sexuality, brief strong language and smoking. Diane Polley was a Canadian actor and casting director. Sarah has related how the discovery of her biological father made her physically ill. She was bedridden for two week and had a fever. When I agreed to make this film ["The Heart"], I was thrilled, as I was proud to be associated with the work of this incredible organization. Roadside Attractions As generous as shes been, Im also part of that weird conspiracy against her ability to grow up normally., (Polley responded in an email, I had transformative, beautiful experiences working on Atoms films.
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