The Hanging Garden

Every time I watch this small masterpiece, new layers of meaning turn up. The plot structure gives away some undiscovered truths, together with dialogue pointers I didn't notice before. That, to me, is a film worth seeing! When we showed this at our local film society, it got a great reception, one of the best we ever had for a film.

The Hanging garden is short, bittersweet and - sadly - true to life. You'll find something in this garden for you, whoever you may be!

Fitzgerald gets so much right, that the loose, seemingly chaotic structure somehow makes some bizarre sense. Having grown up with weight issues and a catho-holic [sic(k)] upbringing, I identified with Sweet William and the other characters. This is a very emotional and poetic film, and will appeal to the romantic and the idealist both, provided he or she is willing to go along with a chubby, gay lead.

In thinking about the story and structure afterwards, I realized that there are so many possible ways to interpret this film. Personally I like that about a movie. I myself think that the "protagonist" (if there is one), isn't Sweet William but the entire family, in the same vein as "To Sleep with Anger" by Charles Burnett. While some of the revelations of the film are doozies, I feel that Sweet William's changes take place before the film begins.