Housekeeping (1987) on Netflix
Ruth and Lucille, sisters in 1950s Idaho, lose their mother and are raised by their grandmother and great-aunts. Their drifter aunt Sylvie, who ignores the town's conventions, takes charge.
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- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.1/103,344 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
After their mother leaves them at their grandmother Sylvia's house in 1950s Idaho and drives into Lake Fingerbone, Ruth and Lucille are raised by Sylvia for seven years. When Sylvia dies, their great-aunts Lily and Nona come from Spokane to look after them, but the two women cannot settle into rural life. They send for Helen's sister Sylvie, a drifter who takes on the care of the teenage girls. Ruth and Lucille observe Sylvie's eccentric habits and her indifference to what the town expects of her. Newspapers and cans pile up in the house, and when the lake floods, Sylvie keeps house as usual with water standing on the ground floor while Lucille grows unhappy with the way her aunt lives.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Housekeeping (1987)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Diane Keaton was originally cast in the lead role of Sylvie in Forsyth's Housekeeping in early 1986, and Cannon Films agreed to finance the project; on August 4, 1986, six weeks before filming began, Keaton dropped out and Cannon Films withdrew as well.
- Mid-shoot on Housekeeping, the Canadian Pacific Railway canceled permission to film on its tracks, upset by scenes of children walking along the tracks and characters trainhopping; after negotiations with Columbia Pictures the railway allowed filming to resume.
- Forsyth wanted to shoot Housekeeping in Marilynne Robinson's birthplace of Sandpoint, Idaho, the model for the fictional town of Fingerbone, but found it too modernized to pass for a 1950s American city; the film was made in Castlegar and Nelson, British Columbia, with skating scenes at Spray Lakes in Canmore, Alberta.
- The trestle bridge featured in Housekeeping was built by the film's production designers: it spanned approximately 125 ft and stood 20 ft tall.
- Despite its limited availability in the home media market, Housekeeping developed a cult following after its 1987 release, and in 2006 The Guardian put it on a list of "50 Lost Movie Classics."
- Housekeeping was writer-director Bill Forsyth's first North American film; his earlier features, That Sinking Feeling, Gregory's Girl, Local Hero and Comfort and Joy, were all produced in Scotland.
