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How to Make an American Quilt
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| How to Make an American Quilt | |
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| Directed by | Jocelyn Moorhouse |
| Produced by | Sarah Pillsbury Midge Sanford |
| Written by | Whitney Otto (novel) Jane Anderson (screenplay) |
| Starring | Winona Ryder Anne Bancroft Ellen Burstyn Kate Nelligan Alfre Woodard |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 6, 1995 (USA) |
| Running time | 117 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
How to Make an American Quilt is a 1995 movie which was directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and stars Winona Ryder. It is based on a novel of the same name by Whitney Otto.
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The story centers on the stories of several women in a quilting bee as they construct a quilt as a wedding gift for a members' granddaughter. Finn Dodd (Winona Ryder) is a graduate student working on her master's thesis while planning her upcoming marriage. While at home she hears the stories the women have to offer which leads her to think about her life and where it is headed.
Main character. She goes to spend time with her great aunt and grand mother along with their quilting group so that she can finish her thesis (which she has changed three times) following a proposal from her boyfriend whom she lives with.
Once a diver, she had dreams of leaving the town she lived in (and her mother) when she met a boy while diving at the local pool, romance ensues. After three children her now husband (a geologist) leaves them, Sophia and her three children, and is never seen again. Sophia is forced into a life she didn’t want.
Being the wife of an artist apparently means that your husband will be promiscuous. Em, like most of the women in the story, marries young. Despite the promiscuity of her husband Dean, Em sticks it out and stays with him (probably because of her pregnancy in part but also because her parents do not seem to be very supportive of her (they put her bags in Deans car the moment he arrives without consulting Em)).
Gladdy and Hyacinth are sisters and Finn’s great aunt and grandmother. Despite the love Hyacinth had for her husband, when he was nearing death and in the hospital, Hyacinth, in a moment of weakness and tragic emotion, slept with Gladdy’s husband. Gladdy never really forgave her husband until he died and does not forgive Hyacinth until the end of the movie which is symbolized by the demolition of the plastered walls in the laundry room.
Fully in love with her husband, and perhaps the only one who resisted the temptation of promiscuity, was widowed young. When he was still alive, Constance’s husband, he gave her a dog to keep her company when he had to leave. The dog died and they buried it under a yellow rose bush.
Mother of Marianna, she was a young (teenaged?) house keeper when she met the boy who was to be the father of Marianna. Like other frightened and foolish young men, the father left Anna, while she was still pregnant, to raise Marianna on her own. During her pregnancy Anna met Gladdy and Hyacinth when their family took Anna in. Anna now orchestrates the quilting group.
Daughter of Anna. Marianna gives the appearance of being in love with her promiscuous freedom until a moment of vulnerability comes in a conversation with Finn. She speaks of a man that she met in France who is her soul mate and she doesn’t even know his name.
- Winona Ryder .... Finn Dodd
- Anne Bancroft .... Glady Joe Cleary
- Ellen Burstyn .... Hy Dodd
- Kate Nelligan .... Constance Saunders
- Alfre Woodard .... Marianna
- Kaelynn Craddick .... Young Finn
- Sara Craddick .... Young Finn
- Kate Capshaw .... Sally, Finn's Mother
- Adam Baldwin .... Finn's Father
- Dermot Mulroney .... Sam
- Maya Angelou .... Anna
- Lois Smith .... Sophia Darling Richards
- Jean Simmons .... Em Reed
- Denis Arndt .... James
- Paige and Ryanne Kettner .... Little Evie/Little Duff
- Rip Torn .... Arthur Cleary
- Samantha Mathis .... Young Sophia Darling Richards
- Claire Danes .... Young Glady Jo Cleary
- Jared Leto .... Beck
- Mykelti Williamson .... Winston