Kissed

Directed by Lynne Stopkewich

Canada, 1996 (fiction, 78 minutes, colour, English)

Film Description:
"Sandra is a girl-next-door who is attracted to death. She lands a job at the local funeral parlour, headed by the troubled Mr. Wells. While studying embalming, she meets Matt, a medical student. Matt competes for Sandra's affection, only to find her passion for death is greater than her love for him."
-- WorldCat (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Written by:	Angus Fraser, Lynne Stopkewich
Based on:	"We So Seldom Look on Love," a short story by Barbara Gowdy
Produced by:	Dean English, Lynne Stopkewich, John Pozer
Principal Cast:	Molly Parker, Peter Outbridge, Jay Brazeau, Natasha Morley, Jessie Winter Mudie
Cinematography:	Greg Middleton
Film Editing:	John Pozer, Peter Roeck, Lynne Stopkewich
Production Company:	Boneyard Film

(sources)

Award won by Kissed

Genie Award: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role -- awarded to Molly Parker

Notes about Kissed

Nominated for a Genie Award in the Achievement in Direction category.
The director had the male and female co-stars sign a 'nudity parity agreement'.

(sources)

Quotes by the Director

"The first few days of the film were storyboarded and shot-listed, but after that, I threw it out the window. Our locations kept falling through, and I had to come up with something else on the spot. It's interesting for me when I look at the film now. Aesthetically, the structure of the movie is initially very montage-based, the camera is very static. As the film progresses, the camera work becomes looser."
-- Lynne Stopkewich (source)

"One reason I got so excited about the material was that this characer seemed like a life-filled, intelligent girl-next-door, but she is also obsessed with death and the dark side. I liked that contrast."
-- Lynne Stopkewich (source)

Quotes about Kissed

"[Lynne] Stopkewich felt that Gowdy's 'We So Seldom Look on Love' was an ideal story to be realized on a low budget because of two main characters and a minimum of locations. Told in flashback, a 1970s look was required and achievable in a small town or suburb with frequent interiors. Sourcing thrift shops and garage sales, the 1970s look was cheaper to realize than a contemporary look."
-- Kalli Paakspuu (source)

"Sandra's vision is emphasized in ways that place viewers in radically new territory with respect to the capacity for a female gaze at the male body."
-- Lee Parpart (source)

Quote about Kissed [in French]

"Les scènes 'd'amour' nécrophile échappent [...] à l'obscénité grâce à de multiples stratégies de distanciation : des éclairages bleutés, le recours à des objectifs donnant une image 'soft', des surimpressions, des fondus et de la musique, tantôt new age, tantôt chansons pop, ou encore des jeux d'interaction entre la protagoniste et le public, tout comme entre les membres du public eux-mêmes."
-- Marta Dvorak (source)

Bibliography for Kissed

Book Chapters

Burgess, Diane. "Kissed (1996)." In World Film Locations: Vancouver, edited by Rachel Walls, 58-59. Bristol: Intellect Books, 2013.

Brief Sections of Books

Melnyk, George. One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. (pp. 218-219)
Monk, Katherine. Weird Sex and Snowshoes: And Other Canadian Film Phenomena. Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2001. (p. 307)
Parpart, Lee. "Cowards, Bullies, and Cadavers: Feminist Re-Mappings of the Passive Male Body in English-Canadian and Québécois Cinema." In Gendering the Nation: Canadian Women's Cinema, edited by Kay Armatage, Kass Banning, Brenda Longfellow, and Janine Marchessault. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. (pp. 259-268)

Dissertations

Šašinková, Soňa. "The Films That Made It: Independent Canadian Women Filmmakers and the Recipe for Success." M.A. diss., Masaryk University, 2011.