If These Walls Could Talk is a 1996 Golden Globe and Emmy Award-nominated made for television movie, broadcast on HBO. It follows the plights of three different women and their experiences with abortion. Each of the three stories takes place in the same house in three different years: 1952, 1974, and 1996. All three segments were co-written by Nancy Savoca. Savoca directed the first and second segment while Cher directed the third.
The womens' experiences in each vignette are designed to demonstrate the popular views of society on the issue in each of the given decades. The film became a surprise success, and was HBO's highest rated movie ever. The film's success was followed by an international release, and spawned a sequel, If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000), starring Sharon Stone, Michelle Williams, Chloë Sevigny and Ellen DeGeneres, which deals with homosexuality in three different eras.
The films Common Ground (2000) and The Hours (2002) would also use a similar format to address the issue of homophobia as If These Walls Could Talk. Anne Heche, who starred in the 1996 segment went on to direct the sequel, which received an Emmy Award.
A trilogy of stories set in the same house, but with different occupants and spanning over 40 years, deals with various women and moral crisis over unexpected pregnancies and their choice of abortion. In 1952, when abortion was illegal, a nurse deals with her unexpected pregnancy and takes drastic measures to get one. In 1974 a family housewife with four children discovers that she's pregnant and decides she can't handle another child to raise. In 1996, a pregnant college student decides on an abortion, but doesn't realize the means to go through to get one. Written by Anonymous
