Film

A Woman's Tale

Name: A Woman's Tale
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Released: 1991
Cast: Sheila Florance, Małgorzata Dobrowolska, Norman Kaye, Chris Haywood, Ernie Gray

Drama
Slow-burning

Paul Cox's intimate portrait of Martha, a spirited elderly woman facing terminal cancer. It's funny, tender, and utterly unsentimental—Cox refuses both tragedy and uplift, letting Martha be contradictory and alive until she isn't. Written for Sheila Florance, who was dying during filming, it becomes something rare: a film about mortality that doesn't try to console you, just to let you witness.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a quiet, observant portrait built on a lead performance that feels lived-in, and you don't mind sitting with tenderness that stays close to the bone.

Skip it if you need plot momentum, since this drifts through small domestic moments and its gentle humour may feel too slight for the weight of its subject.

What it asks of you: Expect a short, unhurried film, mostly talk and close observation in a few rooms, with its emotions arriving quietly rather than through big set pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Ikiru1952

Kurosawa's masterpiece about an aging bureaucrat discovering meaning as he faces death. Like Martha, it finds grace in small gestures and refuses false comfort. Deeply moving without ever manipulating you.

But It's slow, meditative, and Japanese cinema from the 1950s—not everyone's rhythm. Some find the pacing exhausting rather than contemplative.

The Father2020

Anthony Hopkins as a man losing his grip on reality and identity. Dementia and aging treated with the same unsentimental precision as Cox brings to cancer. Intimate, claustrophobic, achingly human.

But Watching cognitive decline is genuinely hard. It's not depressing exactly, but it's relentless and offers no escape hatch.

Autumn Sonata1978

Bergman's portrait of a mother and adult daughter reckoning with each other as time runs out. Sheila Florance has that same combative tenderness with the people she loves. Brutally honest about family.

But Two women arguing in a room for two hours. If you need plot momentum or resolution, this will feel static and bleak.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from A Woman's Tale

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Still Alice2014

Both are built around a central performance by an actress playing her own mortality. Cox and Stierlе refuse to make the illness noble—they just watch a person vanish or refuse to vanish, moment by moment, with dark humor intact.

Julianne Moore as a woman losing language and identity to early-onset Alzheimer's. It's devastatingly clear-eyed about cognitive decline without ever looking away. A portrait of consciousness itself disappearing.

But Watching someone dissolve is unbearable for many. It offers no comfort and ends where it must. Some will find it too painful to finish.

The Last Station2009

Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy in his final days, wrestling with faith and legacy. Cox's same interest in how people face mortality—not nobly, but messily, contradictorily.

But It leans more toward drama than Cox's wry comedy. Some may find it reverential where Martha is irreverent.

Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs2019

An unconventional take on fairy tales that shares Cox's willingness to find humor and humanity in unexpected places. Similarly surprising in its emotional texture.

But This is animated. If you're expecting live-action realism, the shift in medium might feel jarring.

About Schmidt2002

Jack Nicholson as a retired man confronting emptiness. Less about illness than Martha, but same interest in aging bodies, thwarted desire, and people who don't apologize for being difficult.

But It's more curmudgeonly than touching. Some find Nicholson's character irredeemable rather than sympathetic.

A Fish Called Wanda1988

Paul Cox also finds comedy in mortality and mishap. This heist film is chaos and wit—the opposite tone from Martha, but same anarchic spirit about people being unpredictable.

But It's a genre film, quite broad. If you want seriousness, the comedy will feel deflating.

Iris2001

Judi Dench as Iris Murdoch declining into dementia. Literary, English, and intelligent about how a mind empties. Shares Martha's interest in witness and presence.

But It's more literary and BBC-serious than Martha's edge. Some find it oversimplified about a complex person.

The Turin Horse2011

Both are by auteurs fascinated by how people actually behave when stakes are ultimate. Tarr's apocalypse and Cox's mortality are different scales of the same thing: how do you live when you know it's ending?

Béla Tarr's final film: a man (Carl Theodor Dreyer's) and his servant in a cottage as civilization seems to collapse around them. Black and white, slow, repetitive. It's about routine and companion and the end of things.

But It's austere to the point of asceticism. No plot, minimal dialogue, 146 minutes of decline. Most people will find it unbearably bleak and boring.