The part when there's a thunder storm and Vanessa is with PS on the stairs...is she molesting him? Because it seemed like she was but it isn't in the plot keywords... I'm still in the middle of watching though...so maybe I'll figure it out on my own.
"Look, but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, but don't swallow."
Yeah~ I was wondering the same thing, too. It was such a weird scene. This woman was definitely unstable! Have just ordered the book and when I'm finished, will order the DVD.
I don't know if she was molesting him but I think that perhaps she was a very lonely woman who allowed herself to become sexually aroused by his young male presence. Notice her back and forth motion and her heavy perspiration. She was aroused.
Since she can't have/is fearful of Logan, PS is the surrogate. Haven't looked at the scene in question, but from the book I strongly doubt that there is anything overtly sexual. By the way, the novel is superlative - only Australians of a certain age can understand all the allusions. Pity that Sumner Locke was driven from OZ by homophobia.
I always interpreted that scene as Vanessa being extremely phobic about the storm and clinging to PS to comfort her. I think the perspiring was supposed to be due to her extreme fear, and the rocking is her way of trying to calm herself down. I guess it's possible there's something sexual there though considering her obvious inability to relate to Logan in that way.
I understood it to be her terror of the storm. Asking PS to promise not to tell anyone is her way of protecting herself. She is in battle with her sister and doesn't want anyone to know of her weakness. She doesn't want PS to go to Lyla and tell her that "Auntie Ness is afraid of thunder"
I agree with clansi-1, I don't think there was anything sexual about it. She's lonely and thunderstorms freak her out and she holds P.S. bc she's worried he'll be hurt by the storm and also to comfort her bc she has nobody else.
Yes, I agree, it's called subtlety ... not everything has to be spelled out and shoved in your face ... the interpretation is, mercifully, left to you ...as in that other unsettling classic, "The Innocents" starring Deborah Kerr.
I got the impression that there was a sexual element, but a subconscious one, brought about by her over-wrought state in the storm ... and yes ... I think Wendy Hughes conveyed all that in her wonderful performance.
This scene was strictly for the movie and, from some Aussie friends, Vanessa was supposed to be masturbating while holding P.S. (which is still abuse, imo.)
I don't like that scene and I don't think it adds anything except unneccesary titillation to the story.
When you say "supposed" .... whose supposition are you talking about? ... do your Aussie friends have a shooting script? ... the disagreement on this thread about the scene makes me think that it is sufficiently subtly handled for the answer to be in the eye of the beholder.