A Woman's Tale
Overview
 
A Woman's Tale is a 1991 Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n film directed by Paul Cox
Paul Cox
Paulus Henriqus Benedictus "Paul" Cox is an award-winning Australian film director.Cox was born in Venlo, Limburg, the Netherlands, the son of Else , a native of Germany, and Wim Cox, a documentary film producer. Cox emigrated to Australia in 1965...

. It stars Sheila Florance
Sheila Florance
Sheila Florance was an Australian film and television actress.After working in theatre in London and appearing on Australian television, Florance played small roles in several Australian films of the 1970s, including Mad Max...

, Gosia Dobrowolska
Gosia Dobrowolska
Gosia Dobrowolska, real name Małgorzata Dobrowolska , an Australian actress, was born in Poland.She came to Australia in the 1980s.Her first Australian film was Silver City, and she played a Polish immigrant...

, Norman Kaye
Norman Kaye
Norman James Kaye was an Australian actor and musician. He was best known for his roles in the films of director Paul Cox.Kaye was born in Melbourne and educated at Geelong Grammar School...

, Chris Haywood
Chris Haywood
Chris Haywood is an English-born, Australian-based film and television actor/producer.-Early life:Haywood was born in Billericay, Essex, England. He spent his early childhood in Chelmsford before moving to High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire where he attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School from...

 and Ernie Gray.

Martha (Florance) is an elderly woman living alone in her flat and dying of cancer. Her love of life leads to an ambivalence about her age; her unique moral code leads to her playing cupid
Matchmaking
Matchmaking is any process of matching two people for the purpose of marriage or a sporting contest.-Practice:In some cultures, the role of the matchmaker was and is quite professionalized...

 for her friend and nurse Anna (Dobrowolska) and Anna’s married lover (Gray); her worrisome son (Haywood) wants her to move into a home; her neighbour Billy (Kaye) has dementia
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...

.

Florance herself was dying of cancer as the film was being shot.
Quotations

The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: Those with brains, but no religion, And those with religion, but no brains.

Al-Ma'arri|Abu'l-

A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philsophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

Francis Bacon|Sir Francis Bacon, Essays, 16, "Of Atheism"

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy, in the minds of men.

Sir Francis Bacon, Essays, 16, "Of Superstition"

ATHEISM: A godless religion that retains all the dogmatic posturing of the faiths it so confidently denies, with few of the consolations.

Rick Bayan|Rick Bayan, The Cynic's Dictionary, unidentified ISBN/edition, unidentified chapter/page

 
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