QWho are all the people in Mrs Allardyce's large collection of photos?
AThey are photos of the other people who have lived in the house over the years. Some are old and sepia-toned; others look fairly recent. Arnold and Roz describe them as 'memories of a lifetime' and note that they number in the thousands.
QWhat does the title mean?
AThere is nothing burning, burnt, or on fire in the movie. 'Burnt offering' is a biblical term referring to the sacrifice of an animal or other offering that is burned on an altar. Such were the sacrifices offered by Abel (Gen. 4:3-4, Noah (Gen. 8:20), Abraham (Gen. 22:2, 7-8, 13), and by the Hebrews in Egypt (Ex. 10:25). The movie and novel are so titled because it is the Rolf family who unknowingly and unwittingly become sacrificed so that the house can renew itself. There is a scene in the book where Marian breaks down outside Mrs. Allardyce's room saying she has nothing left to give and the door opens to reveal the ghost of Mrs Allardyce, who looks at Marian with blazing eyes and possesses her, 'burning everything out of her - grief and affection and memory - burning it out finally, until there was nothing'.
QWhere was the movie filmed?
AFilming was done at the historic Dunsmuir House in Oakland, California, built in 1899 by Alexander Dunsmuir and designed by San Francisco architect J. Eugene Freeman. A photo of the Dunsmuir House can be seen here. In the novel, however, the story takes place in New York.
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