Spitting Glass

A Film by Ed Bowes with Rosy Hall; brief cameo by Sophie Warsh

Musical score by Brooks Williams

54 minutes
1990
Broadcast as Episode 613 of the 1990 season of “New Television.”

“An adult tale of psychological disintegration presented from the point of view of a single, professional woman living in New York, Spitting Glass is told in a deadpan manner, with some humor and considerable irony. The program powerfully conveys an experience of mental confusion and frustration rooted in social contradictions. Soon her own thoughts are tormenting her as conflict and anger surface in some disturbing and antisocial behavior. Conversations and confrontations spill over into one another; voices become distorted and insights emerge in fragments as the protagonist moves through a series of unsatisfying encounters in her daily routine. She’d like to ‘find a new approach’ in the midst of this personal moral crisis, but can’t decide if she should go out West or kill her father.” — WGBH press release

The main character, Clara, is an academic whose work consists of the cultural analysis of decorative arts. When a publishing committee rejects her dissertation, it sets Clara off. Fueled by troubling memories of possible sexual abuse by her father and her growing dissatisfaction with her relationship with Tony, Clara begins to come undone. She lashes out at her coworker Eunice, leaves work, drinks in her car, takes photographs in a greeting-card shop and finally holes up in her apartment. In her friendship with Ellie, Clara is able to address her concerns and to find rewarding companionship. But when Clara learns that Tony has slept with Eunice, she becomes disgusted and lashes out at him and his friends at a formal dinner party. Eventually, Clara makes plans to go to the desert for a few days with Ellie. It is unclear whether the trip is to serve as a vacation for the two or an elaborate murder of Clara’s father. Narrated entirely by the eloquent and frustrated Clara, Spitting Glass is at times straightforward and linear and at other times dreamlike and subjective. 


Director, Director of Photography: Ed Bowes
Associate Director: Jack Walworth
Assistant Director: Catherine Tambini
Producer:Amy 
Taubin
Co-producers: Larry 
Gross (Producer in Association), Channel Four Television, London (Producer in Association) New Television (Producer in Association)
Editors: 
Ed Bowes, Brooks Williams (Sound Editor), Ross Abramson (Online Editor)
Funders: 
Art Matters, Inc. National Endowment for the Arts New York State Council on the Arts Jerome Foundation
Performers: 
Rosy Hall (Clara), Sheila McLaughlin, Edward Rumann, Bob Mason, Allison Rutledge-Parisi, Mary Griffin, Howard Grossman, Omar Shatly, Mike Elfers, Nicole Miller, Juris Jurjevics, Charles Ruas
Subjects: 
Interpersonal relations, Women
Genre: 
Dramas