The Dressmaker is a 2015 comedy drama film co-written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, based on the 2000 novel of the same title by Rosalie Ham. It stars Kate Winslet as femme fatale dressmaker, Myrtle "Tilly" Dunnage, who returns to a small Australian town to take care of her ailing, mentally unstable mother. The film explores the themes of revenge and creativity and was described by Moorhouse as "Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven with a sewing machine". The film was internationally co-financed between Australia and the United States.
The project was first conceived in 2000, and Ham wrote a treatment herself which was not developed. Sue Maslin bought the rights to the novel and hired Moorhouse to direct and write the screenplay. Production took place in Melbourne and across Victoria, Australia in late 2014. The film had its world premiere at 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on 14 September 2015 and had a theatrical release on 29 October 2015 in Australia and New Zealand. It opened at the number 1 spot at the Australian and New Zealand box offices and became the second highest-grossing Australian film of 2015 and sixteenth highest-grossing film of all time at Australian box office.
Despite receiving mixed critical reviews, with praise going towards Winslet's performance and criticism focusing on its uneven tone, The Dressmaker led the 5th AACTA Awards with thirteen nominations. These included Best Film, Best Direction, Best Production Design, Best Original Music Score, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and won Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Costume Design and People's Choice Award for Favourite Australian Film.
Plot
In 1926, in the fictitious outback town of Dungatar, State of Victoria, 10-year-old schoolgirl Myrtle Dunnage is blamed for the death of classmate Stewart Pettyman. A sympathetic policeman, Sergeant Horatio Farrat, sends her away. Twenty-five years later, Myrtle, now a couturier-trained dressmaker using the name "Tilly", returns to Dungatar. She remembers nothing of Stewart's death, and her mentally ill mother Molly, living in squalor, does not even remember her.
At the local football final game, the Dungatar players are distracted by Tilly's red couture dress. Teddy McSwiney points this out, and she changes into an equally alluring black outfit before the last quarter. When the teams swap ends of the field, the men from Winyerp are the distracted ones, and Dungatar wins.
Tilly agrees to make a dress for Gertrude Pratt for the upcoming footballers dance, in exchange for the truth. Gertrude reveals that she told Stewart where Tilly was hiding that day.
At the dance, a transformed Gertrude captures the attention of William Beaumont, and they later become engaged. Impressed, the town's women commission extravagant dresses from Tilly, and Teddy pursues a romantic relationship with her.
Sergeant Farrat confesses to Tilly that Stewart's father Evan, a town councillor, blackmailed him for secretly being a cross-dresser. Tilly and Farrat bond over their shared passion for designer clothing. Evan recruits incompetent Una Pleasance to start a rival dressmaking service, but when Gertrude hires Tilly to create her wedding dress, the townspeople return to Tilly.
Bribed with a boa, Farrat lets Tilly read the witness statement given by her former schoolteacher, Beulah Harridiene. She confronts Beulah, who admits that she was not even there.
Tilly tells Farrat this at Gertrude's wedding reception, but he remains reluctantly convinced that she killed Stewart. Everyone else had an alibi. He also reveals that Evan is Tilly's father. Tilly runs away, and Teddy follows after soothing his developmentally disabled brother, Barney, who screams hysterically that Tilly "moved" when Stewart died.
At the schoolhouse, Teddy helps Tilly remember how Stewart died. He had threatened to murder her mother if she did not stand against a wall. Stewart charged head-down at her, but she moved aside, so he broke his neck. Barney witnessed this from the town silo, but was afraid people would think he was lying.
Tilly and Teddy make love in his caravan and plan to marry. They sit atop the silo, and Teddy shows that he does not believe in her curse by jumping inside. He sinks into sorghum grain and asphyxiates.
Molly tells the townswomen that Teddy died trying to prove that his love was stronger than their hate. Molly tends to the grieving Tilly, and tells her that Evan had Tilly sent away to hurt Molly. She encourages Tilly to use her art against the townspeople. Molly suffers a stroke and dies.
While Tilly and Farrat hold a wake, Beulah snoops around the house. Tilly drunkenly objects to the music, and inadvertently injures Beulah when she throws the record player off the verandah in the dark. Sergeant Farrat sends Beulah to a sanatorium in Melbourne.
Percival Almanac, the sadistic town chemist, drowns in a pond behind his house. His wife Irma is under the influence of extra-strong hash brownies Molly baked to ease her arthritis pain. Sergeant Farrat takes the blame for the hashish and transvestism and is arrested.
Tilly reveals the truth about Evan to his wife Marigold, who confronts him. When he threatens to commit her, she cuts his Achilles tendons and leaves him to bleed to death. Meanwhile, at a competitive Eisteddfod in Winyerp, the townspeople discover that Tilly created Winyerp's charming Mikado costumes. Their own disordered production of Macbeth is doomed due to the loss of Evan and Marigold.
Declaring that she is no longer cursed, Tilly sets fire to her house and sends a paraffin-soaked bolt of red fabric rolling down the hill into town. The townspeople return to find Dungatar a ruin. Tilly is on the train headed to Paris, via Melbourne.
Cast
Kate Winslet as Myrtle 'Tilly' Dunnage Darcey Wilson as young Myrtle Judy Davis as Molly Dunnage Lucy Moir as young Molly Liam Hemsworth as Teddy McSwiney Hugo Weaving as Sergeant Horatio Farrat Sarah Snook as Gertrude 'Trudy' Pratt Olivia Sprague as young Gertrude Sacha Horler as Una Pleasance Caroline Goodall as Elsbeth Beaumont James Mackay as William Beaumont Rebecca Gibney as Muriel Pratt Shane Bourne as Evan Pettyman Alison Whyte as Marigold Pettyman Barry Otto as Percival Almanac Julia Blake as Irma Almanac Kerry Fox as Beulah Harridiene Gyton Grantley as Barney McSwiney Alex de Vos as Young Barney Genevieve Lemon as Mae McSwiney Shane Jacobson as Alvin Pratt Tracy Harvey as Lois Pickett Terry Norris as Septimus Crescent Amanda Woodhams as Nancy Pickett Grace Rosebirch as Young Nancy Stan Leman as Edward McSwiney Rory Potter as Stewart Pettyman Hayley Magnus as Prudence Harridiene Mark Leonard Winter as Reginald Blood Simon Maiden as Photographer Fletcher Humphrys as Ticket Collector
Production Development Rosalie Ham sold the rights of the novel for film in mid 2000s. She said in an interview, "I had ten offers on the table within weeks of the book coming out. I selected a producer who seemed passionate about the book and determined to make it happen" and even wrote a screenplay for the film but somehow the project never took off. While missing out on the rights to begin with, producer Sue Maslin reconnected with the author, whom she had not seen for 30 years since they were at boarding school together. After the initial project was shelved, Maslin optioned the rights of the novel in 2009 and brought Moorhouse on board to direct and write the screenplay for the film. Maslin said, "She (Moorhouse) was living in Los Angeles and I flew there twice to talk to her (about coming back to Australia to make the film). It goes back to what she did with Proof, where every scene was on a knife edge between comedy and tragedy. You don't know whether to laugh or cry." Screen Australia, Film Victoria, Ingenious Media, White Hot Productions, Fulcrum Media Finance, Motion Picture Lightning, and Soundfirm provided the additional investment for the film.
Moorhouse came on board for the project, saying, "I've waited years to make this movie. It's about my favourite subjects: revenge, love and creativity. I'm deeply grateful to have such extraordinary actors working on this with me." Moorhouse's husband, film director P. J. Hogan, served as the script editor for the project.
Casting
Kate Winslet and Judy Davis joined the cast of the film as Myrtle "Tilly" and Molly Dunnage respectively in August 2013. Maslin had Winslet and Davis in mind from the start of the project for the roles but knew that securing both of them would not be easy, saying, "Kate gets sent hundreds of scripts a year, and chooses two or three. She fell in love with Tilly, so it was all down to Jocelyn and her beautiful script" and "I've been trying to get Judy to work with me for about 20 years, I always offer her things and so does my husband. So when I read this character I thought, if only I could get Judy to do this. I was actually scared to send her the script, I kept doing more and more drafts so what she got was the best possible version. I was nervous, but I needn't have been because she seemed to respond to the character pretty quickly."
Liam Hemsworth as Teddy McSwiney, Isla Fisher as Gertrude Pratt and Elizabeth Debicki as Una joined the cast in early May 2014. Speaking about the casting, Moorhouse said, "Kate is perfect for Tilly, she’s beautiful, intelligent, and deeply mysterious on screen. Judy Davis is amongst the great contemporary actresses and she will bring powerful wit and charm to the role of Molly. Liam Hemsworth is a laid back, genuine charmer who’s also tall, dark and movie-star handsome." In early October 2014, Hugo Weaving joined the cast as Sergeant Farrat, a secret cross-dressing police officer of Dungatar.
On 10 October 2014, it was announced that Debicki had dropped out of the film to play the lead in The Kettering Incident and had been replaced by Sacha Horler. Fisher also left the project due to pregnancy, and was replaced by Sarah Snook. Additional cast members were announced including Caroline Goodall, Shane Bourne, Kerry Fox, Rebecca Gibney, Shane Jacobson, Alison Whyte and Genevieve Lemon.
Ham encouraged the casting of extras from her hometown of Jerilderie, New South Wales, Australia, saying, "It was important to me that Jerilderie locals had a chance to be in the movie." The last portion of filming took place in the Wimmera and more than 100 locals participated as extras. For the players in football match scene in the film, casting director Charlotte Seymour hired most of the extras from Wimmera's Laharum Football Netball Club. Singer Lanie Lane, who recorded songs for the soundtrack album of the film, also appears as an extra in the film. Ham herself makes an appearance as an extra in the film.
Pre-production
Production was initially planned to start in early 2014, but due to Winslet's pregnancy it was delayed to late 2014. Pre-production finally began in September 2014, with the construction of fictional town Dungatar started on 16 September 2014 at Mount Rothwell, one hour out of Melbourne. According to Maslin, after looking at many small towns around regional Victoria with Ham and Moorhouse, they decided to set the location of Dungatar "in the wheat-growing area of Victoria's Wimmera-Mallee". Maslin added, "Rosalie is definite about it being in a wheatbelt but on a hill. We drove around Victoria, NSW and into South Australia for three years looking but never found all the elements. Then one day the location department at Film Victoria rang up and suggested the back of the You Yangs near Geelong, where Heath Ledger had filmed Ned Kelly. It had a granite outcrop and a landscape of dead trees. Our DOP Don McAlpine took one look and said ‘We have to shoot here’."