Edwige_Urquhart Review of Boxes

Boxes (2007)

A woman goes through memories of her life, to get closure and understand them better

[10/10 · 31 July 2009]

I never been more touched by a film before. I wouldn't know if I would have enjoyed it as much if I didn't know Jane Birkin and her life. I would have enjoyed the film on a different level. As she gets closure with the relationships that she had/have in her life (her three lovers, her three daughters and her parents, mainly), we understand them better as well. Jane had a very public life, for she became famous early on, married John Barry (the film composer), had his daughter (Kate Barry, the photographer), was the companion of Serge Gainsbourg (the composer, singer and poet), had his daughter (Charlotte Gainsbourg, the actress) and finally left him for Jacques Doillon (the film director) and had his daughter as well (Lou Doillon, the actress). The love story between Jane and Serge is well known, and her love for him as well. But it's all public ideas. We're not intimate with her, we can only imagine. In "boxes", she lets us in. She tells us about her feelings, her view of what she's been through. She goes very deeply into things, she's very personal. At the end, the blur and public figure that we had of her became something else, something real. Now we see her better, as a woman who has been lost and found, then lost again, a woman who has passion, for her father, for her lovers, but mostly for her daughters. She shares with us her stories, their beginnings, meanings and ends. She tells us that, at the end, she is a mother above all, and though she has regrets, made mistakes and wish she has been a better mother, her daughters are everything to her. This film is simply beautiful. And Jane Birkin is as well.