Michel Gondry’s heartfelt and intimate documentary
A Thorn in the Heart stands at the intersection of two unique film traditions: a strain of offbeat cinematic autobiography characterized by self-reflexive, patchwork essay films that proliferated on the festival circuit just after the advent of digital video, and a subgenre of French pastoral documentary -- typified by Nicolas Philibert’s
To Be and to Have and Raymond Depardon’s
Profils Paysans chronicles -- dedicated to poetically capturing the vicissitudes of Gallic farm life. The subject in this case is Gondry’s aunt Suzette, a retired schoolteacher in her eighties who spent the period of 1952...
Released:
2009
Rated:
NR
Length:
86 mins