Sight&Sound - 05.2020

(Jacob Rumans) #1
May 2020 | Sight&Sound | 57

WE WERE YOUNG
Binka Zhelyazkova, Bulgaria, 1961
Bulgaria in World War II. A world
of partisans, fear and shadows. At
night, a man and a woman have
ventured out in search of each
other. Each has a torch. Director
Binka Zhelyazkova shows us the
light of those torches. They edge
towards each other, touch, then
overlap, like a Venn diagram,
like the eclipse of two moons.
When film noir is discussed by
critics and film lovers, few female
directors are mentioned, yet lots
of women directed noirs. We We r e
Young (A byahme mladi) is one
of the best – penumbral, tight
as a drum, unafraid of despair.


THE WAYWARD GIRL
Edith Carlmar, Norway, 1959
Liv Ullmann’s debut, in
Norwegian director Edith
Carlmar’s first film The Wayward
Girl (Ung flukt). Ullmann sits
apart from the posh lad with
whom she has run away. She
wanted to escape her parents

and their conventions, and he
was a route out. But, here in
the countryside, her lust for
life, for adventure, is unsated.
The lad runs out of steam, but
she doesn’t. Carlmar’s film is a
coming-of-age classic – fresh,
alert to landscape and light,
and beautifully framed.
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