Episode 289: BIRTH (2004)

Trylove

In Jonathan Glazer’s BIRTH, one woman’s inability to move past the death of her husband brings only more tragedy to her life when she’s forced to confront a version of him she never knew. When a 10-year-old boy named Sean (Cameron Bright) claims to be the reincarnation of Anna (Nicole Kidman)’s husband of the same name, the soon-to-be-remarried widow slowly but surely finds herself falling in love with the man she thinks she sees inside — regardless of who he is on the outside. Kinda makes you want to crawl out of your skin, doesn’t it?

In this episode, we discuss the movie’s surreal plot, how it depicts the blinding effect of class divisions, trying to see the feeling behind the action, and its empathy ‘trick’.

References:

• “Love, Grief, and Reincarnation: The Legacy of Glazer’s Most Controversial Film” by Malcolm Cooke for Perisphere, the Trylon blog

Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/

#TheLongTake #35mm

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Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “The Rendez-vous” by Alexandré Desplat from the BIRTH soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 289: BIRTH (2004) and cicada chat

4:18 - The episode actually starts

8:42 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

9:22 - Pervasive discomfort and being ‘tricked’

18:14 - A woman’s inability to deal with grief

24:24 - How class blinds Anna and Kid Sean

44:36 - The “is Sean really reincarnated” question

48:44 - Competing opinions on the ending

56:42 - The Junk Drawer

1:09:27 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 2004