Necessary Fantasies: The Broken Circle Breakdown
The film tells us, right from the beginning, specifically how that dream will shatter. After the harmonies of the band onstage come the heavy silences of the second scene: Elise and Didier’s six-year-old daughter, Maybelle, has cancer. The story is told in a non-linear way: Maybelle is ill, Maybelle is born, Elise is in the band, Elise learns how to sing, Didier watches a man attempt to revive his wife, Didier proposes to his future wife. Not in that order. It is impossible for the viewer to believe in a fantasy of the hero’s journey — to hope that after hardship comes a gratifying sense of resolution. We know too much, all the time. The broken timeline speaks to the concept of the fantasy and its impossible anchorage in time: it does not exist in the present, is in fact defined by its remoteness to the present, and cannot be realised in the future if it is to remain a fantasy.
By Mathilde Merouani.
The Unheard (Review)
The Unheard is Anne Worthington’s debut novel, which should make all discerning readers excited for what she writes next. It is an astonishingly accomplished work of fiction, skilfully balancing the need to tell a complete story while leaving much for the reader to infer. There is no spoon feeding here, yet the writing style and structure are never difficult to navigate while diving deep into the always compelling tale.
Jackie Law reviews Anne Worthington‘s The Unheard.