Les Mains Négatives/Marguerite Duras

France | 1978 | 18mins | 16mm
Les Mains Negative was shot from the window of a moving car in the early hours of the morning, during a popular holiday season. The deserted boulevards of Paris are punctuated by interspersed groups of dark-skinned workers, stray prostitutes and vagabonds.
Duras alternates between speaking to a man who painted a prehistoric stencil of hand (main négative) or talking as if she were that man...

Nathalie Granger/Marguerite Duras

REVIEW: "the camera records the physical appearance of two expressionless women who look a lot like Jeanne Moreau and Lucia Bose. They share a house with their two children, one of whom, Nathalie, is apparently a problem. "She wants to kill everyone," says one of the women, who seem to be interchangeable. "She wants to be an orphan, or a Portuguese maid."

Nathalie, however, remains docile—this being a minimal movie."