MA BELLE, MY BEAUTY

Marion Hill | USA | 2021 | 93 min | ENGLISH & FRENCH S.-T.EN.

Is Bertie more whole when she shares her heart solely with her gorgeous husband (Lucien Guignard) in their country house in the south of France? Or is their relationship improved with their former ex, Lane, in the picture? The answers continually surprise in this sun-soaked film tackling the layered realities of attraction, connection, and polyamory.

The film’s title speaks both to its multilingual charm – characters dipping in and out of their native and borrowed tongues – as well as the dualities in the love life and personal conception of Bertie (a golden-voiced Idella Johnson). Is she meant to be a singer? Will Lane (Hannah Pepper) entering into an audibly lustful tryst with an Israeli woman (Sivan Noam Shimon) actually help solve things? Like her lead protagonists, filmmaker Marion Hill hails from New Orleans, and she brings a jazz-infused soundtrack and riffing directorial style to the beautifully backdropped sparring. As water spills from Ionic columns in the picturesque village and people gather underneath vine leaves at sunset, Bertie struggles with her musical and relational gifts, in search of her authentic voice.

in-cinema screening at Centre PHI | NOVEMBER 27 – 6PM