LIANNA (w/ guests John Sayles and Maggie Renzi)

The multi-talented John Sayles is renowned for his versatile juggling of several arts; employing diverse styles, he is a successful novelist, screenwriter, actor and director. He has received the greatest recognition for "The Return of the Secaucus Seven" (1980). Sayles again wears four hats for his latest film: writing, directing, editing and acting in LIANNA.



Sayles' second directorial endeavor achieves the same quality of authenticity as his first due to his masterful attention to the small details that measure the validity of his characters in speech, manner and way of life. In both films, one is always aware of the penetrating intelligence and wit underlying Sayles' direction. He chooses to depict his characters' coming to terms with themselves as they approach middle age in a naturalistic style, sensitively creating a lifelike reality antithetical to melodrama.



LIANNA is set in a small university town. A faculty wife with two children, 33-year-old Lianna (Linda Griffiths) returns to school for a degree she abandoned to marry Dick (Jon DeVries), who was her college English teacher. She is attracted again by her professor, only this time the prof is a woman.



The unexpected attraction develops into a love affair between Lianna and Ruth (Jane Hallaren), a relationship that threatens repercussions within the academic community that Ruth is unwilling to risk her career for and for which Lianna hastily begins a new life. Her philandering, vindictive husband throws her out of the house, her children, friends and lover have painful reactions, yet Lianna's sincere determination results in a growing self-realization, evoking compassion from those who matter most to her.



"An unusually intelligent and compassionate view of a woman's coming to terms with her sexuality and herself, done with taste and understanding." - Judith Crist, WOR-TV



"The film is full of the kind of middle-class desperation that seldom finds its way into the movies. . .Everything in it looks and sounds authentic. It's neither slick, like 'Making Love' nor does it pretend to be about something else, like 'Personal Best.' Linda Griffiths is splendid. Her Lianna is. . .heroic." - Vincent Canby, New York Times



John Sayles and Maggie Renzi will be in attendance.