{{distinguish|text=''The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life'' by [[Paul Seabright]]}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = The Company of Strangers | image = Strangers_in_Good_Company_dvd_cover.jpg | caption = DVD cover (United States) | director = [[Cynthia Scott]] | producer = David Wilson | writer = Gloria Demers<br/>Cynthia Scott<br/>David Wilson<br/>Sally Bochner | narrator = | starring = Alice Diabo<br/>Constance Garneau | music = Marie Bernard | cinematography = David De Volpi | editing = David Wilson | studio = [[National Film Board of Canada]]<ref name="maher 1991"/> | distributor = [[First Run Features]]<br/>[[Castle Hill Productions]]<br/>National Film Board of Canada | released = {{Film date|1990|df=y}} | runtime = 101 min. | country = Canada | language = English | budget = | gross = $1,450,000<ref name="ohayon 2013"/> }}
'''''The Company of Strangers''''' (US release title: '''''Strangers in Good Company'''''; French title: '''''Le Fabuleux gang des sept'''''<ref name="stukator 2019"/>) is a 1990 Canadian film directed by [[Cynthia Scott]] and written by Scott, Sally Bochner, David Wilson and Gloria Demers. The film depicts eight women on a bus tour, who are stranded at an isolated cottage when the bus breaks down.
==Synopsis== Created in a genre defined as [[docufiction]], semi-documentary/semi-fiction, the film is not tightly scripted.<ref name="george 1995"/> The writers wrote a basic story outline but allowed the eight women to improvise their dialogue. Each of the women, all but one of whom were [[senior citizen]]s, told stories from her own life. A major theme of the film is how the elderly women each face aging and mortality in their own way, and find the courage together to persevere.
The director uses documentary-style camera work and the acting is improvisational. Scott found her cast in nursing homes and senior citizen clubs, which includes: a nun, a Black woman, a lesbian, a Mohawk, an English woman and two genteel women. At various points throughout the film, a montage of photos from each woman's life is shown.
==Cast== * Alice Diabo as Alice, 74, a [[Mohawk Nation|Mohawk]] elder from [[Kahnawake, Quebec]], * Constance Garneau as Constance, 88, born in the United States and brought to Quebec by her family as a child, * Winifred Holden as Winnie, 76, an Englishwoman who moved to Montreal after World War II, * Cissy Meddings as Cissy, 76, who was born in England and moved to Canada in 1981, * [[Mary Meigs]] as Mary, 71, a noted [[feminist]] writer and painter and out [[lesbian]], * Catherine Roche as Catherine, 65, a Roman Catholic nun, * [[Michelle Sweeney]] as Michelle, 27, a [[jazz]] singer and the bus trip's tour guide, * Beth Webber as Beth, 80, who was born in England and moved to Montreal in 1930.
==Background and production== The seven women were chosen in 1988 by Scott after a series of tryouts at [[National Film Board of Canada]] headquarters in Montreal.<ref name="levesque 1992"/> Mary Meigs recalls that some of the women did not think they were "important enough" to be featured in a movie, while there were others who "didn't want to interrupt their lives; I was one of those; it seemed to me to be an interruption of a summer of painting and work."<ref name="levesque 1992"/>
==Release== The film was distributed by Alliance Distributing in Canada and [[First Run Features]] in the United States. It earned $450,000 during its theatrical release in Canada and $1 million in the United States. ''The Company of Strangers'' was renamed ''Strangers in Good Company'' in the United States to avoid confusion with ''[[The Comfort of Strangers (film)|The Comfort of Strangers]]''.<ref name="ohayon 2013"/>
==Home media== The [[DVD]] was released on 7 December 1999, by [[First Run Features]] as ''Strangers in Good Company''.<ref name="olson 1999"/><ref name="tcm dvd"/> The back of the DVD cover states: "The original Canadian title, "The Company of Strangers" is on the DVD. In every other way it is the exact same film."
==Reception== The [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]] assigned the film a score of 100%, based on ten reviews.<ref name="rotten"/>
Diana George of the ''[[Journal of Film and Video]]'' observed that the film "provides its viewers with the knowledge that each one of these women, like every woman growing old today, has a past, still might tell an off color joke, has survival skills, and is an important and interesting human being, not simply an old woman whose clothes are slightly out-of-date or whose songs recall the past."<ref name="george 1995"/>
Kathleen Maher wrote in ''[[The Austin Chronicle]]'' that "Scott plays upon the reality that we don't often see faces like these in movies, nor do we hear stories like these." She also observed "these women have stories to tell by virtue of their experience, their wit and their wisdom; it is an example of independent filmmaking at its best."<ref name="maher 1991"/> Lois Hayes wrote in ''[[Gay Community News (Boston)|Gay Community News]]'' that the movie "is a funny, touching, life-affirming film; it's shot in some beautiful countryside and it contains a quiet drama wholly befitting its purpose: a glimpse into spirited old age, something that's awful hard to find in Hollywood."<ref name="hayes 1991"/>
''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' film critic Michael Wilmington said "these women, as beguiling an ensemble as any recent film has given us, go about their simple chores, fishing, chatting, gathering frogs, and around them, the world has the sometimes terrible, transparent fragility the sky takes on in the hour before a storm; yet the movie doesn't try to emphasize impermanence; the sense of the storm is, instead, a means of seizing life.".<ref name="wilmington 1991"/>
Jay Scott of ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'' wrote "kudos for the unqualified success of the film should go to David Wilson, the editor who whipped some 50 hours of stubborn celluloid footage into whipped cream and director Scott, who persuaded diffident women fearful of appearing on screen to become stars." Overall he concluded that "we leave The ''Company of Strangers'' reluctantly, not wanting to end a party to which we have been so luckily invited."<ref name="scott 1990"/>
==Accolades== The film won the Best Canadian Film award at the [[Vancouver International Film Festival]] and the Grand Prize and Interfilm awards at the [[International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg|Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival]] in 1990.<ref name="wide 2022"/>
At the [[12th Genie Awards]] in 1991, Diabo and Meddings were nominated for Best Actress, Holden and Roche were nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and the film was nominated for Best Picture. The film won the Genie Award for Best Film Editing.<ref name="wide 2022"/>
==Novel== Mary Meigs wrote a book about her experience in making the film, ''In the Company of Strangers'' (1991).<ref name="meigs 2014"/><ref name="levesque 1992"/>
==See also== {{Portal|Canada|LGBTQ}} * [[List of LGBT-related films directed by women]] * [[Docufiction]] * [[List of docufiction films]]
==References== <references>
<ref name="george 1995">{{cite journal |last1=George |first1=Diana |title=Semi-Documentary/Semi-Fiction: An Examination of Genre in Strangers in Good Company |journal=[[Journal of Film and Video]] |date=1995 |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=24–30 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20688055 |issn=0742-4671}}</ref>
<ref name="hayes 1991">{{cite magazine |last1=Hayes |first1=Lois |title=Strangers on a bus; Eight women on the road in Cynthia Scott's Strangers in Good Company |magazine=[[Gay Community News (Boston)|Gay Community News]] |date=9 November 1991 |volume=19 |issue=16 |page=16}}</ref>
<ref name="levesque 1992">{{cite news |last1=Levesque |first1=John |title=Women's conference features film actor |work=[[The Hamilton Spectator]] |date=4 March 1992 |page=D4}}</ref>
<ref name="maher 1991">{{cite web |first=Kathleen |last=Maher |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/events/film/1991-10-11/139226/ |title=Strangers in Good Company |date=11 October 1991 |access-date=22 July 2022 |website=[[Austin Chronicle]]}}</ref>
<ref name="meigs 2014">{{cite book|last1=Meigs|first1=Mary|title=In the Company of Strangers|date=1991|edition=1st|publisher=[[Talonbooks]]|location=Vancouver, B.C., Canada|isbn=0889222940 |url=https://talonbooks.com/books/in-the-company-of-strangers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140830073036/https://talonbooks.com/books/in-the-company-of-strangers|archive-date=30 August 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="ohayon 2013">{{Cite news |date=2 October 2013 |last=Ohayon |first=Albert |title=The NFB's 5 Biggest Box Office Successes |work=[[National Film Board of Canada]] |url=https://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2013/10/02/nfb-biggest-box-office-successes/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129011518/https://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2013/10/02/nfb-biggest-box-office-successes/ |archive-date=29 January 2024}}</ref>
<ref name="olson 1999">{{cite news |last1=Olson |first1=Karen Torme |date=25 November 1999 |title=Nov. 30 Releases: (Dates Subject to Change) |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-11-25-9911250061-story.html |url-status=dead |access-date=26 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226111302/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-11-25-9911250061-story.html |archive-date=26 February 2020}}</ref>
<ref name="rotten">{{cite web |title=The Company of Strangers |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/strangers-in-good-company |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date=24 August 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
<ref name="scott 1990">{{cite news |last1=Scott |first1=Jay |title=Film Revew: The Company of Strangers |work=[[The Globe and Mail]] |date=21 September 1990 |page=C1}}</ref>
<ref name="stukator 2019">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-company-of-strangers|title=The Company of Strangers|author=Stukator, Angela |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]|access-date=7 October 2019}}</ref>
<ref name="tcm dvd">{{cite web |author=TCM |title=Strangers in Good Company – DVD |url=https://shop.tcm.com/strangers-in-good-company/720229909167 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226111305/https://shop.tcm.com/strangers-in-good-company/720229909167 |archive-date=26 February 2020 |access-date=26 February 2020 |website=[[Turner Classic Movies]]}}</ref>
<ref name="wide 2022">{{Cite web |editor1=Wise, Wyndham |editor2=McIntosh, Andrew |title=The Company of Strangers |url=https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/company-of-strangers |access-date=22 July 2022 |website=Canadian Film Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Toronto International Film Festival]]}}</ref>
<ref name="wilmington 1991">{{cite news |last1=Wilmington |first1=Michael |title=Movie Review: Strangers in Good Company - Strange, Moving, Often Lovely |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=27 September 1991 |page=8}}</ref>
</references>
== External links == * {{IMDb title|id=0102993|title=The Company of Strangers}} * [http://www.nfb.ca/film/company_of_strangers ''The Company of Strangers''] at [[National Film Board of Canada]] * [http://femfilm.ca/film_search.php?film=scott-company&lang=e ''The Company of Strangers''] at Canadian Women Film Directors Database * [http://firstrunfeatures.com/strangersingoodcompanydvd.html ''Strangers in Good Company''] at [[First Run Features]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Company of Strangers, The}} [[Category:1990 films]] [[Category:1990 documentary films]] [[Category:1990 LGBTQ-related films]] [[Category:Quebec films]] [[Category:Canadian docufiction films]] [[Category:Canadian drama road movies]] [[Category:Documentary films about women in Canada]] [[Category:Documentary films about old age]] [[Category:Films about buses]] [[Category:Lesbian-related films]] [[Category:National Film Board of Canada films]] [[Category:1990s female buddy films]] [[Category:Canadian independent films]] [[Category:1990 independent films]] [[Category:1990 English-language films]] [[Category:1990 Canadian films]] [[Category:Canadian LGBTQ-related documentary films]] [[Category:English-language independent films]] [[Category:English-language buddy films]] [[Category:Films directed by Cynthia Scott]] [[Category:Haudenosaunee in popular culture]]