Borden, Lizzie

▪ American filmmaker

in full  Linda Elizabeth Borden 

born Feb. 3, 1955?, Detroit, Mich., U.S.

      American filmmaker whose feminist perspective informed her eclectic style and subjects, which largely defy mainstream cinema.

      Borden earned her bachelor's degree in fine arts at Wellesley College and received a master's in fine arts from Queens College of the City University of New York. Regroupings (1976), an experimental feature-length film she directed, was shown in New York City, but she made her mark in filmmaking in 1983 when her feminist classic Born in Flames—directed and produced on a budget of about $30,000—received considerable critical attention. Borden wrote, directed, edited, and produced the 1986 film Working Girls, a feminist docudrama that attempts to de-eroticize the subject of prostitution. Its main character is a Yale University graduate who lives with a female lover and aspires to become a professional photographer. Borden's next feature, the thriller Love Crimes (1991), was made in Hollywood with a budget of more than $6 million. Studio reediting of Borden's original conclusion, however, made the ending both abrupt and confusing. In 1994 she cowrote and directed “Let's Talk About Sex,” the American segment (segment 1) of Erotique (1994).

▪ American murder suspect

in full  Lizzie Andrew Borden 

born July 19, 1860, Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.

died June 1, 1927, Fall River

      American woman suspected of murdering her stepmother and father; her trial became a national sensation in the United States.

      Borden was the daughter of a well-to-do businessman who married for a second time in 1865, three years after Lizzie's mother died. Lizzie was popular and engaged in charitable work. Her father, by contrast, was reputedly dour and parsimonious—as well as eminently wealthy—and Lizzie and her elder sister Emma were ever at odds with him and their stepmother, often over financial matters. On a Thursday morning, August 4, 1892, Mr. Borden left home to conduct his business, leaving in the house, besides his wife, an Irish maid (Bridget Sullivan) and Lizzie. (Emma was away visiting.) On his return, he settled on a couch for a nap. About 11:15 AM, Lizzie (according to her testimony) discovered her father dead, repeatedly struck in the head with a sharp instrument. Upstairs his wife's body was found, even more brutally mutilated; examination proved that her death had preceded her husband's by an hour or so. It was found that Lizzie had tried to purchase prussic acid (a poison) on August 3, and a few days later she was alleged to have burned a dress in a stove. Sullivan, who also has been suspected, later that evening reportedly left the house carrying an unexamined parcel. No weapon was found, though an axe found in the basement was suspected.

      Lizzie was arrested and tried for both murders in June 1893 but was acquitted, given the circumstantial evidence. She was nonetheless ostracized thereafter by the people of her native Fall River, Massachusetts, where she continued to live until her death in 1927. The grisly murders inspired a great many books, both serious studies and fiction; Fall River Legend (1948), a ballet by Agnes de Mille; an opera, Lizzie Borden (1965), by Jack Beeson and Kenward Elmslie; and one immortal, if slightly inaccurate, quatrain:

Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks;

And when she saw what she had done

She gave her father forty-one.

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