{"id":14566,"date":"2014-09-27T22:28:12","date_gmt":"2014-09-28T05:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=14566"},"modified":"2014-09-27T22:28:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-28T05:28:12","slug":"bloody-daughter-film-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/bloody-daughter-film-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloody Daughter — Film Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bloody Daughter<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A Film by Stephanie Argerich<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The title of this film is misleading.\u00a0 It suggests either abuse or extreme hardship or menstruation, but none of these play out in the film.\u00a0 While ninety percent of the film focuses on Stephanie Argerich’s mother, the renowned pianist, Martha Argerich, the title comes from her father, Stephen Kovacevich, himself a pianist of the first order, and seems to refer to the roughness in Stephanie’s relationship with him.\u00a0 He offers an explanation of the term ‘bloody daughter,’ which doesn’t quite make sense, and seems to reflect confusion and misunderstanding.\u00a0 The term ‘bloody’ is a British expletive of disputed origins which is used as an intensifier, similar to the way we use ‘damn’ in the United States, or a less savory word that is much rougher and cruder.\u00a0 It doesn’t really fit well with the content of this film.\u00a0 I wish they had been able to dream up a different title.<\/p>\n

But the film is outstanding.\u00a0 It is a disarmingly intimate portrait of a very unusual family of remarkably talented people.\u00a0 \u00a0It is classified as a documentary, but it is actually a personal journal, rather than an attempt to construct an organized narrative of the facts.\u00a0 There are very intimate scenes throughout this film.\u00a0 Things one would not ordinarily include in a documentary.\u00a0\u00a0 A sequence of Martha waking up in bed in the morning and sipping her coffee at her bedside.\u00a0 A tense scene between Stephanie and her father doing paperwork to obtain his official acknowledgement of Stephanie as his daughter. \u00a0Kovacevich has stalled and dragged his feet on this matter for thirty-four years.\u00a0 No explanation of what that is about.\u00a0 An outdoor scene of Martha and her three daughters painting their toenails and discussing their lives in a park.\u00a0 Martha is on camera through most of the film.\u00a0 Stephanie is intently preoccupied with her mother.\u00a0 There are many close ups of her mother’s face and eyes, as if she is trying to incorporate her mother or understand her mother through the camera.<\/p>\n

While there is a lot of conflict and tension within this family, there is also great warmth and strong personal bonds.\u00a0 I wouldn’t call this a dysfunctional family at all.\u00a0 The members are engaged with one another, there is good communication between them, and there seems to be a lot of basic good will among them, despite some friction and misunderstanding.\u00a0\u00a0 They are a family that introspects more than is common in the United States, I would judge.\u00a0 They seem to make a genuine effort to understand themselves and their relationships to a degree that I find unusual as an American.\u00a0 American people are not very self-knowing, and one seldom hears them discuss their family relationships with much sensitivity or insight.\u00a0 This film is strikingly different in that respect.<\/p>\n

There is great music throughout the film.\u00a0 Both Martha Argerich and Stephen Kovacevich are world class pianists.\u00a0 There are sequences of them performing at various stages of their lives.\u00a0 It is clear that music serves as an adhesive that binds all of these people together.<\/p>\n

The film is in French and English with subtitles available in a number of other languages as well.\u00a0 There is a menu where you can select.\u00a0 Argerich speaks French despite originating in Argentina.\u00a0 Kovacevich is American, but has lived most of his adult life in England.\u00a0 Stephanie speaks English, and French with her mother.\u00a0 If you like classical music, piano, or European life and culture, this is an excellent film that is a personal, in depth study of a fascinating family of top quality musicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloody Daughter A Film by Stephanie Argerich   \u00a0 The title of this film is misleading.\u00a0 It suggests either abuse or extreme hardship or menstruation, but none of these play…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"