Dir. Jane Birkin, 2007, France, 95min, 35mm, Color
With Jane Birkin, Geraldine Chaplin, Michel Piccoli, Lou Doillon, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Natacha Régnier
In English and French with English subtitles

Jane Birkin’s 2007 directorial debut follows 50-year-old Anna (Birkin) as she unpacks the long-enclosed contents of her house, and is based on Birkin’s own life. As Anna sorts through room after room of boxes, she unlocks core memories and appeals to the ghosts of those she’s lost. She ruminates on her relationships with her parents, her children, and their fathers—both living and dead—and realizes time is running out for her to make amends with the past. Birkin’s moving, hopeful portrait of a woman staring down mid-life demons ultimately asks if it’s possible to overcome heartbreak and continue believing in love.

“The Anglophile charm of this diary lies in a posture of distancing that is both magical and comical, and the systematic refusal of any dramatization.” –Positif

“From the outset, the expression of the strongest feelings is tinged with surrealist quirks, somewhere between Buñuel and Arsenic and Old Lace.” –L’Humanité