After 18-years, Moorhouse Returns With Ripping Revenge Tale

The young Australian director had one well-received film under her belt, "Proof," and was producing "Muriel's Wedding" for her husband, director P.J. Hogan, when she got a call from Steven Spielberg. Suddenly she was rubbing elbows with Anne Bancroft, Maya Angelou and the scores of other fierce female talents of all ages in that lovely ensemble film. The film industry seemed extremely trivial compared to trying to work out the mysteries of my daughter's brain. All of her energy, creative and otherwise, and money were focused on the kids. A big fan of "Proof," Maslin wanted to see if Moorhouse would be willing to direct an adaptation of Rosalie Ham's "The Dressmaker ," now playing in limited release, about a woman returning to the small town that wronged her years ago. "Jocelyn has the rare gift to be able to successfully walk the tightrope between comedy and tragedy on screen and no matter how fantastical, make it truthful at all times," Maslin said. Moorhouse recruited Kate Winslet for the leading role and Judy Davis to play her estranged mother. Moorhouse has a handful of independent projects in the works, including a script she just finished about the marriage of composers Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann — and how a 20-year-old Johannes Brahms fell in love with the 37-year-old Clara. Moorhouse loves highlighting the quiet subversion of these romances, saying she knows a lot of older women and younger men in relationships.