Filming Alias Grace

Abstract

Alias Grace as a story, as a novel, is captivating for many reasons. The Victorian setting and the Southern Ontario Gothic style developed by Margaret Atwood heighten the mystery surrounding the circumstances of murder, while bringing elements of a horror story to the narrative. A variety of threads are interwoven in Atwood’s novel, since the novel is comprised of first-person retrospective narration, interior monologue, dreams, dialogue, Doctor Jordan’s correspondence and flashbacks. Writer Sarah Polley’s riveting adaptation brought to the screen by director Mary Harron offers up a portrait of Grace Marks that intriguingly withholds the full spectrum of the character’s experience and desires. The decision to use the confessional, autobiographical mode in the screenplay demonstrates a particular kind of narrative control, as does the reliance on flashback. Grace Mark’s voice is a controlling one, but as she tells her own story, she is inevitably an unreliable narrator. The photography of cinematographer Brendan Steacy plays its part in the slow reveal of this complex character, the psychology of both presumed perpetrator and victim Grace Marks. On October 23, 2019, Brendan Steacy was interviewed by Fiona McMahon about his work on the Hulu adaptation of Atwood’s Alias Grace (2017), exploring the efforts to depict both the historical setting realistically and the complex nature of the narration. Steacy is a celebrated cinematographer, well-known for his work both in television (Titans, Alias Grace) and in film (Backstabbing for Beginners, Stockholm, Lucky Day).