Lianna

Lianna is the wife of a university lecturer in New Jersey and has two children. Her days pass in housework and faculty parties. To give herself something she enrols in evening classes; the child psychology course is taught by a woman called Ruth. Something starts between them. Then Lianna finds out about her husband's affair with a student and leaves the house. John Sayles wrote, directed and edited the film, and appears in a small part himself. It was one of the few American films of the early eighties to tell a woman's coming out without turning it into a tragedy. Its real strength lies there: Lianna finds love but her life does not get better; friends move away, she struggles to find work, and seeing her children becomes hard. A hundred and thirteen minutes. The story neither exalts nor asks for pity.