This is from an orignal press release about the film:
Novelist Patty Dann says she chose the title MERMAIDS "because of the dual child/woman natures of Mrs Flax and Charlotte. Even down-to-earth Kate, with her love of swimming, has a streak of mermaid."
"In a sense", continues Dann, "Mrs Flax is like a mermaid. She feels unsafe falling in love with the men she dates, preferring instead to skim the surface of life. To risk total immersion could mean losing her identity and freedom and inviting heartache. As for Charlotte", the author adds, "she resembles a mermaid poised on the shore, waiting to jump in, unsure whether she'll sink or swim."
Offers Richard Benjamin, "The people in this film don't fit in any category exactly. Charlotte is half girl, half woman. Kate is kind of half girl, half 'fish'. They're in the water out of the water -- mermaids, looking for a place to be. What it means", the director concludes, "is you can't put everybody into a category."
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sexybitch12345
19 years ago
Mermaids has to do with Mrs. Flax's fluctuating nature. Her name is also no accident. Flax seeds are used for the purpose of stimulating one's metabolism, making things "flow," to put it crudely. Rachel is also flowing, which is evident from the fact that she can't stay in one place for a long time.
The term also has to do with her sensual nature, I believe. Mermaids are often equated with Sirens, who lure men into the depths of the sea. Mrs. Flax seems to have that magnetic effect on men. For instance, in the beginning of the movie, she is dating her married boss. The sea can also be represented as "womanhood" itself. Woman is usually equated with water and the moon, which probably has something to do with her cyclical nature.
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StrawberryMoose
19 years ago
Very interesting to read the thoughts of the writer and the director! Thank you for posting it.
I've always felt that it was also significant that all Charlotte really remembered about her father were his shoes. There is that flashback sequence of hers where she can't see her father's face because of an eclipse, but she glances down and there's a shot of his shoes. What Charlotte misses is solid ground beneath her feet instead of the constant flowing her mermaid-like mother subjects her to, as above mentioned. Charlotte walks around in the ugly old boots that her father gave her mother, because she feels that they can provide some kind of grounding for her. She also tries to escape the element (the water, the flowing, the flighty) that her mother belongs to by obsessing about the aetheric - the heavenly, through her idolizing of saints.
By the end of the movie, all three women/girls have managed to get more in balance and it's very much do to Lou - who's a shoe sailsman! He provides grounding for Rachel, and Charlotte has come to terms with the fact that she does have some of her mother's mermaid-like, seductive disposition in her. While Kate may be too young to have learned anything, I guess it's possible that she has realized to some degree that she's not actually a fish (she did have that unhealthy hobby - holding her breath under water) after her near-drowning experience.
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layton59
11 years ago
QUOTE:
This is from an orignal press release about the film:
Novelist Patty Dann says she chose the title MERMAIDS "because of the dual child/woman natures of Mrs Flax and Charlotte. Even down-to-earth Kate, with her love of swimming, has a streak of mermaid."
"In a sense", continues Dann, "Mrs Flax is like a mermaid. She feels unsafe falling in love with the men she dates, preferring instead to skim the surface of life. To risk total immersion could mean losing her identity and freedom and inviting heartache. As for Charlotte", the author adds, "she resembles a mermaid poised on the shore, waiting to jump in, unsure whether she'll sink or swim."
Offers Richard Benjamin, "The people in this film don't fit in any category exactly. Charlotte is half girl, half woman. Kate is kind of half girl, half 'fish'. They're in the water out of the water -- mermaids, looking for a place to be. What it means", the director concludes, "is you can't put everybody into a category."
Okay that makes sense.
Now on a less serious note, a good double feature might be Mermaids and Hope Floats.
Both are water themed in the titles.
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Sig Line:
Many cynics and skeptics mistake their hubris negativity for actual intelligence.
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