La Maternelle

Marie Epstein was an amazing person. Her collaboration on this film with Jean Benoit Levy is important to understand her contributions to French cinema. Their classic film, "La Maternelle," is one of the earliest French films to use speech. But what makes this film special is that it reminds me of what films can accomplish. They don't have to be complicated. Simplicity can sometimes be best if used properly. The actresses are quite simply unforgettable. The realism is worth watching about a young girl who is abandoned by her prostitute mother and the loving teacher who cares for her like the daughter. I don't like films today because they seem to forget their origins. Sometimes a gaze can say so much more than anything else. The film was shown to our class by Dr. Sandra Flitterman-Lewis who wrote her dissertation on this film and published it in "To Desire Differently." This film says so much more than most films today. It depicts poverty, depression, suicide, prostitution, and abandoning one child so carefully. You forget that it's black and white and 70 years old. It's worth watching.