The Book of Mary (1985)
Directed by Anne-Marie Miéville
Miéville’s short is customarily paired with Godard’s Hail Mary, but beyond the constant collaboration between the two directors (and the fact that they’re an item), they aren’t truly connected beyond the name shared by both protagonists: in this case, a young girl who finds herself growing up amidst her parents’ divorce. The short quietly relates moments we all know, from life or from fiction: the reveal in the middle of lunch, the travel between parents, times and constraints, the child’s growing self-absorption… But all of this is done in a very accessible way, framed precisely and focusing on what’s important: the child’s perspective, her world, her reactions, how she looks out the window in a moving train, how she clings to the little possessions that she’s loved her entire life in what she considered to be a conformed family. The camera, the acting and the naturalistic approach make this one of the best short films: it doesn’t bring attention to itself beyond its simple ambitions, its aim to be a film like the dormant volcano Marie, one we never see erupt in emotions, though the film erupts inside us as it ends. Jaime Grijalba (April 12, 13, 9:15pm; April 16, 6:15pm, followed Godard’s Hail Mary, at BAM’s Miéville retrospective)
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