[REL] A Girl's Own Story (1984) short [Australia]

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loverboy
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[REL] A Girl's Own Story (1984) short [Australia]

Post by loverboy »   56 likes

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087335/

A black & white short film from celebrated writer/director Jane Campion (An Angel At My Table, The Piano, Sweetie etc.) with undertones of lesbian schoolgirl antics, incest & child predators. Nothing REALLY happens but just watch it & let your imagination take over..........

The inimitable decentred visual style that so distinguishes Sweetie (1989) can be seen in the earlier Jane Campion film, A GIRL'S OWN STORY. In both films, the cinematography of Sally Bongers seems to capture visually the very texture of uncertainty and insecurity which is a feature of Campion's narratives, most particularly through the techniques of framing and composition. The lighting, decor and cinematic codes (camera angle, distance and movement) are, in A GIRL'S OWN STORY, perfectly attuned to the subject matter of the film which is about a young girl growing up in a dysfunctional family. This is a family which exudes repression... As a result, each family member inhabits her or his own private world. The domestic space which they occupy becomes a strange and alien place. The mother is virtually mute with depression, the father is in deep denial and the sisters are hostile and prickly...
Areas that Campion explores in Sweetie are touched on almost as a dress rehearsal in A GIRL'S OWN STORY. Subjects such as sibling incest, child abuse, clinical depression and obsessiveness are the staples of Campion's films. The family is represented as a site of moral danger and thwarted emotion; in A GIRL'S OWN STORY, the atmosphere is conveyed through the motif of cold (absence of warmth), with heaters that are never switched on. Characters speak in non-sequiturs and desire is clearly a sin. The convent, to which a girl made pregnant by her brother while they were playing 'cats' retreats, is a cold, bleak and secret place; these are the consequences of a Christian morality based on the 'word-of-the-father' and the admonition "thou shalt not."
The girls' friendships are perhaps the only positive thing about the situation they find themselves in and there are some strange moments which are both moving and amusing. For example, in the opening sequence of the film, four girls (with tennis racquets for guitars) sing the Beatles' song 'I Should Have Known Better', so encapsulating, in one brilliant visual stroke, both the mood and period of the film. Later, two of the friends practise kissing, in a heterosexual role play, one playing the boy and wearing a George or Ringo paper mask, the other lying on the bed passively, playing the girl. The implicit critique here of gender roles and gender positioning within the nexus of the family is a central concern of Campion's and one that returns in her subsequent feature films.


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Not my rip........thanks to the original poster

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Enjoy!
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emuler
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Re: [REL] A Girl's Own Story - Short (1984)

Post by emuler »   0 likes

Thanks, loverboy. :thumbsup Not really a Jane Campion fan but I'll give it a go.
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ghost
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Re: [REL] A Girl's Own Story - Short (1984)

Post by ghost »   0 likes

Loverboy, you rock! :icon_1dancingban
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loverboy
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Re: [REL] A Girl's Own Story - Short (1984)

Post by loverboy »   0 likes

emuler wrote:Not really a Jane Campion fan but I'll give it a go.
I tend to agree with you. I'd class myself as a selective Jane Campion fan. I enjoyed the three movies I quoted in the release but a lot of her other stuff leaves me cold. I found this fascinating.........a family going wrong & a seething almost unspoken sexuality........I was on the edge of my chair willing them to take it that stage further......shame they didn't :( Just watch the bit where the brother & sister are playing the cat game :drool
Time for my medication! :)
Debaser

Re: [REL] A Girl's Own Story - Short (1984)

Post by Debaser »   0 likes

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with u

Thanks loverboy
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emuler
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Re: [REL] A Girl's Own Story - Short (1984)

Post by emuler »   0 likes

[Image]
Check out the Greta Scacchi lookalike. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000627/ :icon_1dancingban
keirush
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Re: [REL] A Girl's Own Story (1984) short [Australia]

Post by keirush »   1 likes

lovely film
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