“Daughter of Mine” by Laura Bispuri (2018)

Facets of motherhood (5/5)

Good music (8)
Excellent script, personages, dialogues, images (9)
Top score: direction, minorities, message (10)

A 10-year old girl realizes that the woman who raised her is not her mother and discovers who her biological mother is. After a first reaction of reject, the new situation helps her accepting her own “otherness’.
The three female personages symbolize the three facets of the “patriarchal” woman: the virgin, the mother, and the whore. And to make sure the symbolism will escape to no one, all three women revolve around one man who is, at the same time, father, husband, and (ex-)lover.
Recommended!

Cast: Valeria Golino, Alba Rohrwacher, Sara Casu
Director: Laura Bispuri
Writers: Francesca Manieri, Laura Bispuri
Music by Nando Di Cosimo
Cinematography by Vladan Radovic
Film Editing by Carlotta
Cristiani

“River Of Grass” by Kelly Reichardt (1994)

Facets of motherhood (4/5)

first feature

Good dialogues, humor, images (8)
Excellent music (9)
Top direction (10)

An unglamorous Bonnie & Clyde born out of boredom: “the more time they spend together, the more painfully clear it becomes that they’re not in love, no crime has been committed, and new horizons hardly beckon.” [James Latimer]
Fantastic filming

Cast: Lisa Bowman, Larry Fessenden, Michael Buscemi, Greg Schroeder, Santo Fazio, Dick Russell, Sheila Korsi
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writer: Kelly Reichardt, Jesse Hartman
Cinematographer: Jim Denault
Editor: Larry Fessenden
Composer: John Hill

“Lost and Delirious” by Lea Pool (2001)

Facets of motherhood (3/5)

Good direction, images, music (8)
Top score: personages, dialogues, gender (9)

“a hymn to teenage idealism and hormones” (Roger Ebert)
The usual Lea Pool’s family situations – difficult but crucial mother-daughter relationships and absent fathers – play a role in the background

Cast: Piper Perabo, Jessica Pare, Jackie Burroughs
Directed by Lea Pool
Written by Judith Thompson
Music by Robyn Schulkowsky
Cinematography by Jeanne Lapoirie
Film Editing by Michel Arcand

“Egg” by Marianna Palka (2018)

Facets of motherhood (2/5)

Good personages, dialogues, direction (8)
Top score: script, gender (9)

Five characters: three female characters are fructifying an egg, two of these are fecundated by the two male characters, one by an artistic vision (in other words, the loneliness of the artist)
Strong performances and interesting script

Cast: Christina Hendricks, Alysia Reiner, David Alan Basche
Director: Marianna Palka
Writer: Risa Mickenberg
Music by Jamie Jackson
Cinematography by Zelmira Gainza
Film Editing by Sophie Corra

“Nancy” by Christina Choe (2018)

Facets of motherhood (1/5)

Mondays first feature

Good personages, dialogues, direction, images (8)
Top score: script, minorities, message (9)

A 35-year-old woman wants to help people who have lost someone by transforming herself into the one these people want her to be.
Although one personage calls it a sickness, the movie shows us a sensitive and almost beautiful form of altruism. One most interesting aspect: motherhood plays a central role in the three personages that Nancy ‘impersonates’ in the movie.
““Nancy” exhibits a seriousness of purpose that’s rare in American movies today.” Glenn Kenny
Excellent first feature, although the music is at times over the top…

Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Steve Buscemi, Ann Dowd, John Leguizamo
Director: Christina Choe
Writer: Christina Choe
Cinematography: Zoë White
Editor: David Gutnik
Music: Peter Raeburn

“Queen of Hearts” by May el-Toukhy (2019)

May el-Toukhy (2/2)

Top score: script, dialogues, direction, images, music, gender (8)

A middle-aged mother starts a relationship with her stepson, but pushes him to suicide to prevent him from destroying her family.
One critic saw Anne (Trine Dyrholm) as “one of the most complicated female villains of recent memory.” I saw a woman who seeks to fulfill unsatisfied sexual needs, but realizes when it’s too late that she will lose her daughters. The price to pay for her sexual escapade is too high, and she fights to the most dramatic end. A man who would have sex with the (adult) daughter of his ex-wife would not be punished as harshly…

Cast: Trine Dyrholm, Gustav Lindh, Magnus Krepper
Director: May el-Toukhy
Writers: Maren Louise Käehne, May el-Toukhy
Music by Jon Ekstrand
Cinematography by Jasper Spanning
Film Editing by Rasmus Stensgaard Madsen

“Long Story Short” by May el-Toukhy (2015)

May el-Toukhy (1/2)

First Feature

Top score: script, direction (8)

Seduction games bring a group of friends in and out of love, which ends up with only one strong love commitment

Cast: Mille Lehfeldt, Peter Gantzler, Trine Dyrholm
Director: May el-Toukhy
Writers: Maren Louise Käehne, Maren Louise Käehne
Cinematography by Rasmus Videbæk
Film Editing by Rasmus Stensgaard Madsen