A Girl's Own Story
| A Girl's Own Story | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jane Campion |
| Written by | Jane Campion |
| Starring | Gabrielle Shornegg Geraldine Haywood Marina Knight |
| Cinematography | Sally Bongers |
| Edited by | Christopher Lancaster |
Release date |
|
Running time | 27 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
A Girl's Own Story is a 1984 short Australian drama film directed by Jane Campion. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.[1][2] The short centers on the female adolescent experience—particularly female desire—using a fragmentary approach.
Plot
[edit]The film is set during the 1960s at the height of Beatlemania. It opens with schoolgirls singing a Beatles song in the courtyard of their Catholic school to the delight of their classmates, but a nun arrives to break it up. Two girls, Pam and Stella, are in a bedroom where they kiss cutouts of Beatles members that are pinned to the wall. One of the girls is wearing the cutout of her favorite Beatle as a mask to practice kissing on her friend.
This is intercut with scenes of one of the other schoolgirls, Gloria, who is at home playing a game of make-believe with her brother Graeme. Pam's home life is a scene of dysfunction due to her unfaithful father and a depressed mother. Despite the parents' marital strife, the couple ends up reconciling much to Pam's surprise.
A leitmotif of music-box notes plays intermittently throughout the film.
Cast
[edit]- Gabrielle Shornegg as Pam
- Geraldine Haywood as Stella
- Marina Knight as Gloria
- John Godden as Graeme
- Joanne Gabbe as Sister
- Colleen Fitzpatrick as Mother
- Paul Chubb as Father
- Jane Edwards as Deidre
- Cynthia Turner as Nun 1
- Valda Diamond as Nun 2
- Katharine Cullen as Little Pam
Filming
[edit]Nicole Kidman admitted during an interview that at 14 she was originally cast as the lead in the film but turned it down because of her reluctance to kiss a girl and wear a shower cap.[3]
Reception
[edit]A Girl's Own Story received acclaim and won the 1984 Rouben Mamoulian Award at the Sydney Fim Festival[2] and the Best Direction Award at the Australian Film Institute.[4] It screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.[2] Filmmaker Todd Haynes said "'A Girl's Own Story' is a film of acute tenderness and beauty".[4]
In a retrospective review, Cristina Álvarez López of Mubi wrote the film "signals concisely the fragile, liminal territory to be explored: a space between childhood and womanhood, between desire and repression, and between curiosity and trauma".[5]
References
[edit]- ^ "Festival de Cannes: A Girl's Own Story". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
- ^ a b c Matthews, Kate. "Curator's notes A Girl's Own Story (1983)". National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
- ^ "THR Actress Roundtable (Full Hour)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
- ^ a b "A Girl's Own Story". Women Make Movies. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- ^ Álvarez López, Cristina (2 October 2017). "Foreplays #5: Jane Campion's "A Girl's Own Story"". MUBI. Retrieved 19 March 2022.