Ordinary Things

(that happened in the childhood home of the maker of this film)

The reliability of memory is being questioned when, set within the highly constructed world of Old Hollywood, the filmmaker recalls memories of her childhood home.

Somewhere between the 1940s and now, the cameras start turning and Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Marlene Dietrich gather on one film set. The floor gleams, the spotlights are burning, the narration starts.

Born out of a fascination for the construction that is Hollywood, and by extension ‘the perfect Hollywood home’, the maker embodied these three actresses and their so-called private lives. Their smallest personality traits are performed so precise and characteristically that it becomes artificial. The home isn’t homely. It plays “house” and the inhabitants are speaking Hollywoodian.

DCP, B/W & color, 16:9, 5.1, English, BE, 2018, 11m 50s

Writer & Director Rachel Gruijters
Performance Rachel Gruijters & Janne van de Weijer
DoP Lennert De Taeye
Wardrobe Stijn Van den Bulck
Art Direction Stéphanie Desmadryl
Editing Jasper Flikschuh & Rachel Gruijters
Sound Boom Operator Charles Dhondt
Foley Elias Vervecken
Sound Edit & Mix Yoerik Roevens
Assistant Director Janne van de Weijer
Assistant Camera Charles Dhondt
Color Grading Lennert De Taeye
Produced by Blauwhuis
Executive Producer Lotte Van Craeynest