Diary for My Children
To mark the release of Francine Laurendeau, celle qui aime (Somme toute, under the direction of Stéphane Lépine), we present some of the films that left a lasting impression on this influential voice in Quebec film criticism.
Winner of the Grand Prix, 1984 Cannes Film Festival
Márta Mészáros drew on her own wartime experiences to craft this haunting portrait of a young woman coming of age amidst a turbulent historical moment. After losing her father in the Stalinist purges, strong-willed teenager Juli is brought back to Hungary to live with Magda, a rigid Communist Party official who embodies the icy intellectual repression that has begun to take hold in the country.
Trailer with English subtitles. The film will be presented with French subtitles.
Márta Mészáros
Born in Hungary, Márta Mészáros spent her early years in the Soviet Union, her communist father having fled there to escape the dictatorship of his native country. But he disappeared during Stalin's purges at the end of the 1930s. Shortly afterwards, Mészáros also lost her mother. These early tragedies had an impact on the autobiographical part of her work. Following her film studies in Moscow, she returned to Hungary and made many short films, especially documentaries, an aspect that would persist in her later work. In the 1960s, she joined the Mafilm Group 4 and met the filmmaker Miklós Jancsó, who became her husband. In 1968, Cati made her the first woman to direct a feature film in Hungary. Mészáros then made a series of films, sometimes defying censorship and never shying away from any social issue. Political, feminist and formally audacious, her work has been met with both critical and public success over the years, making her a key name in Eastern European cinema.
