(bright music) (uptempo music) - Hi, I'm Beth Barrett, Artistic Director at SIFF.

Welcome to "SIFF Selects" on Cascade PBS.

Every Saturday night, we'll feature a film from one of our previous festivals, presented by me and one of our SIFF programmers.

Tonight, we are showcasing "Lies We Tell," a gripping gothic thriller, directed by Lisa Mulcahy.

Set in Ireland's remote Knowl estate, it re-imagines Sheridan Le Fanu's "Uncle Silas" through a modern feminist lens.

(dramatic music) The story follows Maud, an 18-year-old heiress who must fight to protect her inheritance from the sinister designs for uncle and his family.

It's a tense battle of wills, power and survival.

Joining me to talk about the film is longtime SIFF programmer Dan Doody.

Welcome, Dan.

- My pleasure to be here, thank you.

- So, "Lies We Tell" is a gothic thriller.

Can you tell us a little bit about the genre?

- So, I'm so happy this film is gonna be on Cascade PBS.

When I was introducing it last year during the festival, I kept saying, "This is like an episode of "Masterpiece" gone nasty."

So the Gothic is a kind of a subset of romanticism, which was a movement that was in reaction to the Enlightenment.

So the Enlightenment was all about rational thought, sense experience, and reason.

The Romantics came along in the late 18th and early 19th century and said, "Wait a minute, you have to have emotion, be a part of the equation too."

And out of that comes the gothic, which the emotion it picks up on is fear.

- And so entering into this is Maud, who is 18 and sort of plays this woman in peril.

- Yeah, one of the key tropes of the Gothic is the woman in peril.

It's this woman who is kind of separated from her family, or her family has died off, some sort of separation.

And then she's held in this faraway land or in this isolated castle against her will.

And there's no way for her to get out of this.

And what the filmmakers do here brilliantly is they kind of take that woman-in-peril trope, and they turn it on her head.

- Yeah, and so the director, Lisa Mulcahy, and the screenwriter, Elizabeth Gooch, are able to do that in a modern retelling.

- Yeah, and in fact, I met the screenwriter down in Palm Springs last year and her response to the novel was the same as mine when I read it, which was, "Girl, you need to get some agency.

You know, you need to like, save yourself.

You can't just wait for someone 'cause no one is coming."

So Maud, as "Lies We Tell" opens, her father has died.

She is going to inherit this vast estate, but she needs a guardian till she comes of age.

And that is where Uncle Silas comes in.

Very nefarious character, has a reputation that good people don't want to be around.

- Oh, but he is now in charge of her.

- He's in charge of her and her estate, and she can't really do anything unless he signs off on it.

So she can't really sell anything.

She can't do anything with the property unless her uncle signs off on it.

So that is kind of the core of the conflict here.

We have Maud, who is this very forthcoming young woman who wants to kind of take the world by storm, who's being kind of supervised by her uncle in a way.

Her uncle wants to subordinate her will to his own.

- Oh, well we're gonna cheer for her, obviously.

(both laughing) Awesome.

Thank you so much for joining us tonight, Dan.

- [Dan] My pleasure.

- Now, please enjoy "Lies We Tell."

(projector whirring) (arrows whooshing) (gentle wind blowing) (birds chirping) (ominous music) (birds chirping) (ominous music) (gasps) - [Maud] What makes a monster?

You may well wonder.

My father taught me that only after our death will we know what we are.

What we have chosen to be.

Angel or demon?

Creature of light or monster clothed in human flesh.

He said I could choose.

That I had a choice.

He told me it's an easy journe between this life and the next.

He told me he loved me.

He told me many lies.

(dramatic music) (birds chirping) (dramatic music continues) (door creaks) (door closes) Downstairs after upstairs, Mrs. Rusk.

- The gentlemen are in the drawing room, Miss.

- The silver service I think, not the China.

- The gentlemen-- - Are waiting.

Thank you Rusk.

I'd like the silver service instead, if you please.

- [Mary] Miss Maud.

(dramatic music continues) - [Bryerly] I must for a moment speak not of your father's recent death, but of his judgment.

Your uncle is hardly a fit person to have charge of an impressionable young girl.

- He's my nearest relation sir, therefore eminently fit.

- You've never met him, I think.

- I look for imminently to that happy event.

- Your Uncle Silas was a most expensive, vicious young man.

- Friend was he not of your late father?

- Acquaintance, rather.

- [Bryerly] Married to beneath himself.

Though to do him justice, I believe he only intended to ruin her.

- I fail to see why a youthful mésalliance bears upon my uncle's present fitness as guardian.

- [Bryerly] May I be blunt?

- Certainly.

- Your trustees would be remiss in our duties, should we fail to take into account and consider the implications of the historic-- - You proposed to be blunt, doctor.

- Suspicion of murder committed by your uncle.

- My uncle was exculpated by the inquest.

That gambler took his own life.

Perhaps you'd care to view the suicide room, captain?

in your new capacity as trustee.

- Another time.

Possibly, thank you.

- Miss Ruthyn, what I mean to say is that your trustees are amenable if you would care to mount a challenge.

- You may remain trustees of my property.

My person is none of your concern but that of my uncle.

That is what you kindly offer to assume the additional burden and the allowance which accompanies it, and have me elect you as guardian, rather than my own flesh and blood.

I will not challenge the will or my father's choice of guardian.

You will not, I'm sure, wish to travel home in the dark.

(dramatic music) - You need some rest and some feeding up.

- Good day to you, doctor.

My father was what is called an oddity.

- There's no shame in that.

- I'm not ashamed.

The appointment of my uncle was made not despite, but because my father was deeply, bitterly conscious of his brother's disgrace.

- A mild word for suspected murder.

(dramatic music) (birds chirping) - Goodbye, captain.

I trust you'll discharge your duty by casting an eye over the place as you go riding past.

(birds chirping) (horse chuffs) (horse neighs) (dramatic music) (horse neighing) (door creaks and closes) You may go.

I'll serve myself this evening.

(footsteps receding) (gentle music) (door opening) (footsteps scurrying) - [Emily] Oh my goodness!

How exciting!

(group chattering indistinctly) (door closes) (door opens) (gentle piano music) (footsteps scurrying) (door slams closed) (footsteps approaching) (door opens) My dear cousin.

My dear cousin, Maud.

(giggles) I am so out of breath, so delighted, so fatigued after our dreadful journey.

You can't imagine how I've been longing to meet you.

My father's been shown to his room.

My brother, about the place somewhere.

Stables, I expect.

(laughing) What good friends we shall be.

- Would you care to take a turn about the garden?

Or, perhaps you're too fatigued after your dreadful journey.

(upbeat music) (both laughing) (Emily panting) - What a... barracks of a place it is.

I shouldn't wonder you're... longing to get out a bit.

- I shall never leave Knowl.

I put you in the room next but one to mine.

(Emily sighs) (gentle music) - [Emily] We had a lovely walk today.

- [Edward] Splendid.

Only one nag at the stables.

Room for a string of hunters I should say.

- [Silas] Don't rush your fences, boy.

- Uncle... you're most welcome.

- Dear child.

I rejoice to meet you.

(lips smack) Truly rejoice.

My daughter Emily has made your acquaintance.

And I perceive, already the foundations of a lasting friendship.

Pray, allow me to present my son, your cousin Edward.

Where is your gallantry?

Kiss your cousin, sir.

(gentle music) You modern young women are so correct.

And all the more alluring for your modesty.

- Your servant, Cousin.

- Cousin Edward.

- Shall we.

(gentle music) (dishes clatter) Getting on a bit aren't they?

- I suppose so.

- [Mr. Rusk] I'll serve them, go on back down.

- I hadn't thought about it.

(chair slides) - You must, of course, consider everything in this house perfectly at your disposal.

- Beg your pardon, uncle.

- Come.

It is not so very long your minority, is it?

May the Lord bless you and make you all that I could wish.

Forgot your proprieties, Rusk.

- [Mr. Rusk] I beg your pardon, sir.

- Serve Miss Maud at once.

- [Mr. Rusk] Yes, sir.

(fire crackling) - You think them very bad?

- Not very.

You play pianoforte?

- A little.

- [Silas] I must hear you.

By and by.

Who makes your dresses?

- Mrs. Rusk, I think, ordered this one.

Mary Quince and I planned it.

- Mrs. Rusk, the housekeeper.

(Emily sighs) Mary Quince?

- My maidservant.

- There is something a trifle, whimsical about it.

- Whimsical, has not been a frequent word used in this house.

- Your father had a taste for being miserable.

I would rather enjoy this life than contemplate my mortification in the next.

(Silas scoffs) You are an heiress, and ought not to appear like a jack-pudding (laughs).

(bath water splashes) - Pardon, Mademoiselle, I startled you.

I am Madame, the governess de votre cousine.

- Emily requires a governess?

- You, mademoiselle, having, of course, nothing to learn, pas du tout, have no need of one.

- Not these three years passed.

Is there something further my cousin requires this evening?

- Oh, no.

I merely wish to introduce myself to Mademoiselle Maud.

My most gracious hostess.

- You have done so.

Good night.

That is my father's desk.

- As it was my father's before him.

Evidently, neither was much for paperwork.

Ha!

Piquet?

Faro?

Loo?

- I do not care to play, sir.

(desk drawer opens) (desk drawer closes) - Now we will see what we can do.

Hmm.

Ground rent.

Rent roll.

Leases, liquid assets.

Your trustees intend to keep a tight rein on the purse strings.

They are ridiculous, aren't they?

- You needn't mind them.

- Uh huh, putty in your hands, are they?

I salute you.

Guardianship, also just a formality, Yes?

I suggest an alliance.

What do you say?

Perhaps you'd rather stick to the conventions.

- I believe, Uncle, that legality rather than convention constrains us.

- Dear niece, I will treasure that us.

Come.

(birds chirping) (somber music) My dear brother.

He told you of me?

- Yes.

- What?

- That you are a man of great talents, great faults, and great wrongs.

Your talents have not availed you.

Your faults, you repented for long ago, but the wrongs done to you are still very sore.

(door opens and closes) (door opens) - [Emily] Cousin Maud.

- Are you quite well?

You look tired.

It is not good, all this time in the woods.

- A walk in my own forest with my uncle for company is hardly likely to tire me.

Perhaps Madame perceives a difficulty of which I'm unaware.

No.

No.

You and your guardian are completely free to fatigue yourselves together.

(Maud gasps) - [Emily] You'll have some tea, Edward?

(Emily chuckles) You sinner, Edward.

Now, Maud, isn't he a sinner?

(somber music) - Case of turtle, I should think, and get in some hock.

Do you care for hock, Niece?

- Above all things, Uncle.

(Emily snorts) - My daughter makes a noise like a pig.

Do you think your cousin's table a farmyard, pig?

- No, sir.

- Then apologize to your cousin.

- I beg your pardon, Maud.

- And also some claret, Rusk.

- Two cases?

Three?

- As you wish.

- Three cases of claret, Rusk.

(Silas chuckles) (birds chirping) - (Madame speaking French) The sentiment quite overcomes the defect in perspective.

(Madame speaking French) Emily, come.

Perhaps you might give votre cousine the benefit of your advice.

- Oh, no, no, no.

I won't trouble you.

- See, if you just adjust the sight line here and here... Goodness.

I'm sorry if I offended you, Cousin.

- It doesn't matter in the least.

- [Madame] What do you see?

- [Emily] The weather is rather changeable here.

(Madame and Emily chatter) (door opens) - Touch of neuralgia.

- My father was similarly afflicted.

- May I be of some service to my beloved niece?

- Emily's governess.

- Yes?

- You don't wish for me to obey her?

- Only to be polite.

- She's not my governess.

- She's not responsible for your conduct, certainly.

- I am to understand that you are.

- Yes, my dear brother has appointed me to act in loco parentis, but I shan't wield my authority without cause.

- Nor I when the authority becomes mine.

- How I will enjoy introducing you to society, and reintroducing myself.

- You think I regret my seclusion?

I assure you, I do not.

- To revisit the continent with you by my side.

A climbing holiday, perhaps.

I was just your age when your father and I first went.

- When he first took you mountaineering.

His youthful passion, I understand.

I'm afraid I don't share it.

- Well, not having tried it.

- Naturally, one couldn't consider such a thing while in mourning... or even half-mourning.

- Hmm.

- On that subject, might I inquire as to whether Madame, being a French woman and therefore clever with her needle, might sew me a new dress in the style which meets your approval?

- Well, should you present your request with sufficient charm, I may drop a hint, a measure of docility.

I'm sure Madame might teach you to wield your own needle, a much better scheme.

(chuckles) Don't be vexed.

- May I be of any service, Uncle?

- Oh, how gracious.

No, but I shan't trouble you with small matters of business.

Anything else?

- No.

- Do shut the door.

(somber music) - [Maud] Does family history interest you?

- Oh, yes.

Indeed it does.

- I had no idea.

(ominous music) (door locks) When they broke open the door, they found him half out of bed, his head hanging down, and his throat cut by his own hand.

- How horrid.

- They scrubbed and scrubbed.

Did your father not tell you all this?

- No.

- Mine did.

- Perhaps he didn't mind discussing it.

There's no suspicion attached to him.

It seems most unfair, my father shunned but not yours.

- My father's reputation was ever unsullied.

However unfair and unmerited, I'm afraid the same cannot be said for yours.

- You concede his ill reputation unmerited.

Then why should my father bear all the notoriety?

- I'll mention to my uncle you've been asking, shall I?

- No.

Don't.

- (Edward shouts) - (Maud and Emily scream) - [Maud] Am I supposed to find you amusing?

(Emily laughs) - Confess.

I frightened you.

Confess.

Confess!

(Edward scoffs) - It makes no sense at all.

If the door was locked from the inside, then no suspicion could attach to anyone.

(somber music) (crows cawing) (bell chiming) - There's no need to skulk, my dear.

One of your trustees has come to see how you're getting on.

May I present my niece's humble cousins, Mr. Edward Ruthyn, youngest scion of our name, and my daughter, Miss Emily Ruthyn.

- I trust I find you well, Miss Ruthyn.

- Very well.

Thank you.

(tea pouring) - Tea, Cousin?

- She is very striking, isn't she?

No one can hardly wonder about my brother already being so fascinated by her.

- Their acquaintance is but recent, I understood.

- [Silas] Mm-hmm, my brother did not trouble to extend his hospitality even to his nearest and dearest, I'm afraid, but we have overcome the deficit, as you see.

- A hunting man, I understand.

- I can give you a good run, if you're so inclined.

- My niece's foxes will be trembling in their rank little dens.

(Silas and Emily chuckle) - A word with Miss Ruthyn, if I may.

Miss Maud Ruthyn.

If I may give you some advice... - No, thank you.

- You are, and I mean no disrespect by this, unschooled in the ways of society.

- I certainly hope so.

- Your fortune is considerably more extensive than your experience.

Pray, excuse me if I take a great liberty.

You are a prize, you know.

- I do know.

- If there is any service I can render, anything at all that I can do.

- For my property, I am to presume?

- Indeed.

Of course, for your property.

Please consider myself entirely at your disposal.

(Captain Ilbury sighs) (door opens) (door closes) - The good captain will find an heiress tres convenient.

- The good captain thinks more of his wine, his horse, and the folds in his cravat than he does of me.

And so you may tell my uncle, should he inquire.

(somber music) (birds cawing) (somber music continues) - [Edward] Dearest Maud, well, I imagine you have a shrewd suspicion of the object of this tete-a-tete.

- I haven't the slightest conception.

Kindly move aside.

- You know that it is totally impossible for a fellow such as myself and a charming girl such as yourself to meet continually as we do without a liking growing on one side or another.

I suppose I needn't pretend to be violently in love.

- Please don't.

- Sensible girl.

Governor will see to it.

We needn't go into the particulars.

- Please don't continue.

- Beg pardon?

- Am I to suppose you've formed an attachment for me?

- Mm-hmm.

- A sincere attachment?

(Edward sighs) - Most sincere.

- You do me too much honor, sir.

- Dash it!

- (Maud gasps) - If you require some love-making, then I'm your-- - Have the goodness to let me pass.

(ominous music) (somber music) (knocking on door) - [Silas] You will excuse the intrusion.

I have hitherto spoken to you as a friend, but I have not forgotten, if you have, that my authority as guardian gives me the right to question your conduct.

Have I been rightly informed that you contemptuously rejected the hand of my son?

- I rejected it certainly with no more contempt than the question was put to me.

- He is unpolished, I concede, but under your tutelage, he will improve.

Really, my dear, think of the advantages.

Marry Edward.

Remain at Knowl.

What could be better than taking your own blood to wed?

- Better, surely, not to marry a man for whom I have no regard.

- Your fancy lies elsewhere, does it?

Not, I trust, in the direction of a certain captain who makes nothing by his profession and everything by his trusteeship.

- No, sir.

- Wise girl.

(Silas sighs) (somber music) You have something of the look of your poor mother.

- I'm afraid I don't remember her.

- No?

Delicate girl.

Sad.

My son's impetuousness has taken you by surprise.

You were quite right to take time to reflect.

- I require no further-- - I yield, my dear.

I shall not press you.

You shall have time, your own time, to think.

I will accept no answer now.

(door opens and closes) (discordant piano music) (Mary moaning) (Edward panting) (Mary moans) (door clicks) - [Silas] Hurry up.

You're letting the cold in.

(door closes) (somber music) [Silas] A tribute to your beaux yeux, my dear.

Your phlegmatic cousin prefers business to romance.

Will find the arrival of bailiffs more compelling than your posy.

- It is quite impossible.

I shall speak to my trustees.

- This matter, to my regret, does not concern you or your property but rather my own.

- There will be no bailiffs at Knowl.

Your creditors have caught wind of the fee compensating you for my guardianship.

- Mm.

Ready money is not something I have frequently been troubled with.

- Perhaps I might communicate with my trustees about releasing some funds.

- What unwanted generosity.

- If you'd care to, Uncle.

(door creaks) (footsteps approaching) - I'm on tenterhooks.

Tell me, how do you propose to inveigle your trustees into settling my paltry affairs?

- I propose to tell them it's a small price to pay for securing your departure from Knowl and that of my cousins.

(Silas sighs) - And if I decline your so generous offer?

- Then I regret very much the bailiffs will indeed arrive at Knowl.

And I will make sure they understand what is mine and therefore untouchable and what is yours and therefore fair game.

(somber music) (birds chirping) - I don't mind waiting a bit.

I'm in no rush to have a wife on my back.

- Oh, very obliging of you.

- I'm no hand at play-acting.

- I assure you I never had the least expectation of a preux chevalier charging up to carry me off.

- Surely you want someone, someone of your own, someone to come after you.

I mean, I needn't trouble you much.

(footsteps approaching) - I was just in the midst of declining your son's proposal, which he has been so obliging as to repeat.

Well, shall I carry on or may we take it as read?

- My dear young lady, I have watched you, indeed we have all watched you, without one word of discouragement, permit my son's most marked attentions to you.

- There have been no attentions to speak of.

I have sought no attentions.

- You know as well as I withheld words are powerful allurements.

- Allurements are not something I've ever been accused of wielding.

However, to be on the safe side, Uncle, I will henceforth extend nothing but coldness and discouragement towards my cousin, your son.

- You are excused.

- Pray, excuse me.

(ominous music) - [Silas] There is something you should know.

(somber music) We once made a bargain, my brother and I.

- He paid to clean up your mess when that gamester took the coward's way out and put an end to himself.

- Ah.

- You play too deep, all of you.

- That is true, at least.

- And he lost more than he could pay.

- Less true.

False, actually.

The loss was mine.

- But then you won again what you'd lost and more besides.

- No.

I lost everything I had and more besides.

Your father staked me.

The money I had to lose was his.

The whole of his fortune.

The whole of this house, certainly.

- That can't possibly be true.

- Well, luckily, that other eventuality transpired.

(ominous music) - I don't understand.

- I think you do.

- That is a foul implication.

- I imply nothing.

I tell you plainly, your father took the steps required to preserve his fortune.

- What steps?

The door was locked from the inside.

- Which your father promised me we could rely upon at the inquest, and, happily, he proved correct.

- You lie.

You're a liar.

- I speak truth, unaccustomed as you are to hearing it.

- Uncle, if murder was committed at Knowl it was not by my father's hand.

- He was always the better climber.

The taint of suspicion was to be mine, mine alone, as one day so would be Knowl.

- That was the bargain.

- Mm.

I'm afraid I didn't bank on him, at his age, acquiring a wife and heir.

- He did what he could for you.

He made me your ward to prove to the world his great confidence in your innocence and honor.

- Oh, yes.

How grateful I am to my honorable brother, guardianship of you.

The trust with which he placed you wholly within my power restores my reputation, though sadly not my expected inheritance.

(somber music continues) (fire crackles) (knocking on door) (door opens) - [Mary] Excuse me, miss.

(ominous music) - If mademoiselle has any petite commissions, Madame will be charmed to undertake them.

- No, thank you.

- Ah, Monsieur Ruthyn prefers that Madame attend to mademoiselle's petite d'affaires.

- That won't at all be necessary.

- Monsieur thinks otherwise.

- You mustn't trouble yourself to go out.

- Jet buttons.

I require a set of jet buttons.

- Keep your pennies.

Your uncle graciously provides.

- Thank you, Uncle.

- [Madame] Tea?

- [Silas] Brandy.

(ominous music) (door closes) (peaceful piano music) (Silas sighs) (ominous music) - Unhand me, Uncle!

You're hurting me!

- You wouldn't, says one man of experience to another, - buy a pig in a poke.

- Unhand me, I say!

- I realize she isn't exactly what you like.

Waist none too small.

Bosom, negligible.

- [Maud] You forget yourself, sir.

- Still, child-bearing hips.

- Pater!

- Fine eyes, and a pretty little foot and ankle.

(Maud shrieks) (door closes) (knocking on door) - Come in.

- Oh, don't.

It's so lovely.

We could be sisters.

- It is enough that we are cousins.

(door opens) What is it?

(door locks) Edward?

I'll accept your apology in the morning.

Now get out.

- No.

- [Maud] No!

Get out of my room!

Get out!

- Get out!

- [Edward] Quiet!

- [Maud] No!

- Shh!

(Maud screaming) (Edward panting) (Maud whimpers) (Maud shrieks) (Edward shouts) It will be best not to resist or pretend to resist.

- (Maud shrieks) - (Edward groans) - No, no, no, no!

No!

(whimpering) Edward.

Edward.

Edward, look at me!

Don't do this!

Don't do... (Maud whimpering) (Maud shrieks) (Edward grunting) (Edward gasps) (Maud sobbing) (Edward panting) (door opens) (door closes) (Maud whimpering) (birds chirping) (somber music) (door opens) (dishes clattering) Coffee please, Rusk.

I trust you slept well, Uncle.

- Moderately well Niece, and yourself?

- Immoderately poorly, as I'm sure you're aware, but then I'm hardly alone in that.

But I must thank you all for your kind concern.

(door opens and closes) - I do think you've been a little cruel, my dear.

If there has been an excess of gallantry, you only have yourself to blame.

- My charms, I make no doubt, are near as numberless as the quantity of pounds lodged in my bank account.

- I cannot conceive why you are so intractable.

- I should rather consider myself lucky your son deigns to rape me?

My decision is unalterable.

I will not marry your son.

- Well, I'm afraid no respectable man will take a soiled article to his bed and board.

- I find myself not much disposed towards marriage, Uncle.

- What is it you want, in that little heart of yours?

- Do you think it so little, my heart?

You're mistaken.

(somber music) (somber music continues) (inaudible dialogue) (somber music continues) Sauté, please, with peas a la française.

- Yes, miss.

(bolt creaking) Fierce rusty, them bolts.

- See to them then.

- Yes, miss.

- The carriage, please, Rusk.

- No, miss.

- I require the carriage, please, Rusk.

If necessary, I'll drive it myself.

- I'm sorry, miss.

The master said no, miss.

- [Maud] I am your mistress.

(Maud grunts) - Get down.

- No.

- You'll hurt yourself.

- Come on!

Go!

Go!

- Let me lift you down.

- Get your hands off me.

Step back.

(Maud grunts) Mary Quince, I need you to post a letter.

- Miss, I can't lose my place.

- No.

They will lose their places.

I'm sorry I asked.

I won't again.

(birds cawing) (somber music) Ilbury.

Ilbury!

(pounding on window) Ilbury!

Ilbury!

Captain!

Captain, wait!

(somber music continues) ♪ Momma, will you be my host ♪ Momma, say you love me most ♪ Momma, watch me as I creep ♪ Momma, sing me back to sleep ♪ Don't ♪ Cut ♪ Me ♪ Off - Very sorry, miss.

- Doctor.

- Miss Ruthyn, do come in.

How would you say you've been feeling, Miss Ruthyn?

- A tad confined, I would say.

Thank you, Dr. Bryerly.

And yourself?

- Concerned, dear, that you've been unwell.

- I've not been unwell.

You've been misinformed.

- We shall soon have you put right.

Do not agitate yourself.

- I'm not at all agitated.

- You're to remain perfectly quiet.

Your nerves appear to be more shaken than you know.

- I'm fortunate then to have at least one of my trustees to look after me.

- You may relieve yourself of that worry.

I have today spoken to my fellow trustee, as the consent of both of us is required to secure the funds to ward off the bailiffs.

- Be so good as to explain yourself.

- The timber requires thinning.

- No such things!

(Maud yelps) Doctor, a word.

- [Bryerly] Leave it with me.

- Whatever he's paying you, I will match it.

Double it.

- You have three years until your majority.

In that time, you will be brought to understand, indeed agree with, your uncle's point of view.

- And Captain Ilbury, does he share your opinion, or more accurately, your doubtless fat fee?

- Do not agitate yourself so.

You will do-- - We may take it then that he does.

- [Bryerly] You're hysterical and will find yourself committed for treatment!

- [Maud] I am perfectly sane and you know it.

- In certain nervous states, intemperance of language indicates a likely progression to violence of action, to self-destruction even.

The treatment generally involves a degree of restraint, more or less disagreeable depending on the patient.

- Hmm.

Say it's a hardened case?

- Even the most hardened cases respond to cold water treatment.

The simplest thing in the world, a sort of shower bath.

Tiled room, efficient drain, a chair, leather restraints.

Iron has a tendency to rust.

Water tank overhead fitted to a powerful pump.

Thirty minutes for the most obdurate cases.

Something between 10 and 13 tons of water in that time.

- Tons?

- Ten tons of cold water shoot down on the head of the girl?

I beg your pardon.

The patient.

- No, you are correct.

Irregular vibrations of the nerves are the almost exclusive liability of the fairer sex due to the peculiarities of the female constitution.

- One can hardly imagine what it's like for the poor girl.

- There is a viewing platform if you'd care for a visitor's ticket.

- Please.

I cannot stop him.

(door creaks) (ominous music) - Couldn't sleep.

- Nor I.

We are en rapport, it seems.

- Might I suggest some Cowper?

Or perhaps Radcliffe would be more to your taste.

You know, less bucolic.

I'll leave the candle, will I?

(ominous music continues) (Maud retching) (Maud coughing) (ominous music) - Let's get you back to bed, miss.

- [Maud] No.

Just lace me up tightly.

(knocking on door) (door opens and closes) - I can see you're a great deal under the weather today.

A period of seclusion, nourishing food, rest, and no reading or drawing.

Your uncle wonders whether you keep a diary.

- I'm afraid I do not.

Would you recommend I commence?

- Stand.

- Thank you.

I prefer to sit.

- Stand, or I will have Mr. and Mrs. Rusk lift you to your feet.

(ominous music continues) (Bryerly sniffing) You'll be the better for the treatment.

(Maud gasps) You're an intelligent girl.

Indeed, as I recall from our meeting not long ago, you take inordinate pride in your intelligence.

- Perhaps, I overestimated my abilities.

Perhaps when you offered to overturn my father's will.

- I did no such thing.

- Did you not?

Well, perhaps, Ilbury will recollect.

Shall we send for him?

- Ilbury?

Ilbury will do as he's told.

You may expect no help in that regard.

- Bonjour, doctor.

Do you require some assistance?

Mr. Ruthyn would not wish to add to any trauma mademoiselle might be imagining.

(door opens and closes) (footsteps receding) All this difficulty, so unnecessary.

You make your situation worse than it need be.

Submit.

- You need two doctors to commit me.

- Do you know what the medical profession prescribes as a sure-fire cure for hysteria?

Sexual congress.

In holy wedlock, naturally.

- I decline to marry my rapist.

- Consider the alternative.

- Leather restraints, a tiled room, and 13 tons of water bucketing down on my head.

- At weekly intervals.

- Bryerly alone can't do it.

Even Bryerly and Ilbury and you can't do it.

- But one doesn't need a panel of doctors, far less a magistrate, to secure urgent treatment for a troubled young family member in a benevolent institution.

Solely the signature of one doctor.

Our kind friend Dr. Bryerly, say.

I am sorry to see you suffer so.

(somber music) But you will be better away from here.

The law is not on your side.

- The law being made and enforced by men.

I concede your point.

But if I contest your treatment, bridle my tongue, and appeal most humbly to the kind gentleman of the law, as a girl (Maud whimpers) will they believe you or me?

I'll wager me, and then I will be made a ward of the court and you will be removed.

- Of what do you think to accuse me?

Approval of the match my impetuous son has been rather too determined to make?

I cannot be held responsible for any action of his, however reprehensible.

- And yet, Uncle, I feel the weight of previous suspicion will count against you, outcast as you are.

Shall we roll the dice and see?

(ominous music) I might just add, should anything transpire with regards to me, I really don't think your reputation would handle it.

Your son is to go away.

You as well.

- Hmm.

25,000 pounds would hardly do it.

Say 50.

- Done.

- How is it you conceive yourself able to appeal to magistrates when you are under the care of a physician who won't allow anything to disturb your fragile state?

- 50,000 pounds to be paid at once by my trustees.

At my majority, I will guarantee you and my dear cousins the means to live comfortably elsewhere.

- 50,000 pounds to be paid at once will secure you respite from any further marital proposals.

Edward shall go.

I prefer to remain at Knowl.

- In my father's house, there are many mansions.

You and I needn't set eyes on one another.

(Silas chuckles) - Une détente, then?

- Détente.

(somber music) (knocking on door) - [Mr. Rusk] The carriage will be around directly, sir.

- [Bryerly] I should wait until after dinner.

A sudden journey, unless fortified, can be perilous.

- [Mr. Rusk] The master has called the carriage, sir.

(door closes) - Dinner downstairs this evening, miss.

Your uncle presents his compliments and requests that Miss Maud join the family.

- That's plenty, Mary Quince.

- Mrs. Rusk will do for you tonight.

I'm to go for bits and pieces for your cousins.

- No, you're wanted here.

Mrs. Rusk can go for their bits and pieces.

- Well, the master wouldn't trust her for it.

Mr. Ruthyn, I mean.

Heaps of things they'll need.

They'll be so long away.

- Both my cousins?

- So says Mr. Ruthyn.

- (Maud sighs) How we will miss them (Mary chuckles) - As much as it pains me to see my son and heir depart the ancestral halls, I will have to bear the grief of parting.

Your cousin is made of sterner stuff than you, sir.

It therefore becomes necessary that your importunity should trouble her no longer.

- I don't follow, sir.

- Your stupidity never ceases to reproach me for the callow mistake I made in my youth.

And since I do not choose my son's going to be accompanied by any sordid gossip, my daughter shall accompany him.

A spell at a French convent will do wonders for you.

- Et moi?

- Mm, Madame, it seems, after all these years, we can dispense with your services.

- Indeed, monsieur.

I would be pleased to continue my care of Mademoiselle Emily.

- Self-sacrifice was ever your strong suit, Madame, but I shan't be required to task it further.

- She's my charge.

I shall accompany her.

- No.

- Monsieur.

(Silas chuckling) - (in Irish accent) Silas.

- I beg your pardon?

- You'll not part me from our daughter.

- My dear Madame, I fear you're not quite yourself this evening.

- Emily, don't let him do this.

Don't.

Emily, look at me please.

Emily, please, my darling.

My own girl.

My own...

Please.

- [Emily] Don't touch me.

Don't.

- Please, please, please.

- All right!

Enough!

- Please!

- You are, of course, perfectly free to accompany your mother.

- No, thank you, sir.

- Emily.

- No, no.

- Now, now.

Come on.

You're quite worn out.

I suggest you retire, rest up before you go.

(Madame sobs) (Silas sighs) - Must I really go?

- (chuckles) Must I repeat myself?

- And Maud?

- Remains at Knowl with me, unless you would find a period abroad productive.

- I shall, of course, remain at Knowl.

(knocking on door) - [Mrs. Rusk] Miss?

Spiced claret.

Master says I'm to undress you.

- And I say you are not.

(door locks) - My silence was a condition of my employment, and yet you blame me and not him?

- You chose not to trust me with your secret.

- But I couldn't tell you.

But I thought you knew.

You did know.

- I thank you for your service.

(somber music) Madame.

(somber music continues) (Maud sighs) (wind howls) (knocking on door) (knob rattling) (ominous music) (Maud gasps) (ominous music intensifies) (knocking on door) - [Emily] Maud?

(Maud sighs) Such distress.

Surely you're content you've banished my brother and me.

- I would like to give you a memento.

A family piece, if you'd care to choose something.

- If you wish.

(ominous music continues) - Here.

(ominous music continues) (Maud gasps) Lie back.

(distant clattering) (Maud gasping) (Maud breathing heavily) (door opens) - [Silas] Put her out.

- [Edward] I thought you might do the honors, sir.

- Her feet first.

She jumped.

An irrevocable impulse of the unbalanced mind, as the good doctor will confirm.

There's no need to reproach yourself.

- We gave her every chance.

- [Edward] Pater, I... - [Silas] Don't be such a girl!

(footsteps) - [Edward] Pater, it's Emily.

(ominous music continues) (Maud panting) (Maud gasps) (Maud panting) (door bangs) (Maud shrieks) (Maud panting) (glass shatters) (door opens) (footsteps approaching) (lantern creaking) (Maud panting) - Darling Maud.

Shall we go out together in a blaze of glory?

- I have an idea.

You go out and I'll stay here.

Glory needn't come into it.

(Maud gasps) So, tell me, Uncle.

Is Edward also Madame's?

- Edward was got in wedlock.

Only my daughter is a bastard, and I would think that you in your delicate situation might show touch more sympathy.

- The kind you showed me, for example?

(gentle music) I would have loved you.

- You do love me.

We're the same, you and I.

(Maud gasps) - Then why should my life be forfeit?

(knife squelches) (Silas gasps) And not yours?

(Silas gasping) (Silas gasping) I gave you every chance.

(Silas yelps) - [Edward] Father!

(knife clatters) (bolt creaks) (tense music) [Edward] Maud!

(tense music continues) - [Maud] Captain Ilbury!

Captain!

Captain!

Oh!

Captain!

- What's happened?

What's happened?

- Oh, captain.

- It's all right.

It's all right.

What's happened?

What has happened?

(horse chuffs) - My father is dead.

Murdered.

Murdered by Madame.

(somber music) - Come, come.

Come inside.

It's all right.

It's all right, Maud.

Come inside.

It's all right.

(Maud sobbing) (door closes) - We didn't know where to turn.

My poor cousin is quite distraught.

- You'd only to say the word.

I would've come to you.

- Madame is also dead.

A double tragedy.

They were lovers or had been once, I think.

You will correct me, Cousin, if I misapprehended the situation.

The prospect of Emily being schooled abroad and no longer requiring a governess put an intolerable strain on Madame's faculties.

An insanity, even.

She can hardly be blamed for stabbing my uncle to death.

Did I get that right, Cousin?

Indeed, I'm not altogether sure of my uncle's state of mind.

Devastated, he was, at the prospect that you had also expressed an intent to leave Knowl.

A scheme by which you must no means abandon, going abroad.

- America.

- Australia, I thought?

- Australia.

- You would then be unprotected.

- My sister would be-- - Ever the dearest companion I have known.

I will so miss her when she's away at school.

I, of course, cannot leave Knowl.

- You would then be entirely alone.

(gentle music) You may rely on me.

(gentle music) - [Maud] The direful knowledge of good and evil comes with age.

I wonder how I lived through that terrible ordeal.

It can only have been the hand of providence.

(indistinct chatter) (gentle music continues) [Maud] Behold, the day comet that shall burn like a furnace, and all the proud and everyone that doth wickedness shall be stubble.

- [Ilbury] Hallelujah!

- [Emily] Oh, what joy!

- [Maud] I was a peculiarly innocent girl, my father always said.

He told me many lies and one truth.

Angels and demons, monsters and spirits, do walk among us, clothed in human flesh.

I tell many lies and one truth.

Lies to the liars, and truth to the one who comes after me.

Angels and monsters do walk among us.

The trick is to tell which is which.

(gentle music continues) (somber piano music)