The Secret Life of Words
Christine August 4th, 2007
It has been some time since I’ve passed along any good movies to you so here is a suggestion. This one is a very serious but excellent film The Secret Life of Words (2005) starring Canadian actress Sarah Polley, with Julie Christie and Tim Robbins. Polley just does an amazing job portraying a refugee from the Bosnian- Serbian – Yugoslav conflict, a mysterious and silent woman named Hanna who is requested by her employer – a manufacturing company – to ‘please take a vacation because you haven’t had any time off in four years’. Hanna reluctantly heads off to a coastal retreat in Ireland and ends up becoming a nurse to a burn victim on an off shore oil rig.
“As Hanna tends to Josef`s wounds, it soon becomes clear he`s desperate to divulge secrets–as if words and transparency will free him from his sightless, immobile state. Meanwhile, Hanna remains protectively silent, listening but revealing little. Incrementally, a sense of mutual recognition and empathy unfolds between them...”
Directed by Isabel Coixet. This film was an Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Venice Film Festival, 2006. Ms. Coixet writes of Polley’s role:
“I wrote the role of Hanna for Sarah Polley because I know, since I worked with her in “My life Without Me” of her extraordinary capacity for metamorphosis: that mysterious quality that means she can be surly and tender at the same time, sweet and strong, unfriendly and charming. This is a difficult, risky role, with no points of reference, we barely know where this woman is from, but we do know WHO she is. And Sarah gave herself to Hanna with closed eyes and a fierce passion which, for me and for all the crew members, left a lump in our throats on more than one occasion.”
Technorati Tags: The Secret Life of Words, IRCT, film
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