Set in the 1950s, the movie is a lesson in the suffocating domesticity that women of that time faced. 

A picture is worth a thousand words, but what of a poster? The poster for Bill Forsyth’s 1987 film Housekeeping, based on Marilynne Robinson’s celebrated first novel, features an illustration of a youngish woman with curly brown hair. She’s plonked in an upholstered armchair, the armchair marooned in the middle of a flooded living room. Her calves are submerged in water: an errant teapot, two unlabelled tin cans and an umbrella float about her ankles. “The story of a woman slightly distracted by the possibilities of life”, announces the poster’s tag line. Look closely and she’s smirking. Continue reading →