THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY

US, 2014, 78 minutes, Colour.
Joe Swanberg, Sophie Traub, Robert Longstreet, Kristin Slaysman.
Directed by Josephine Decker.

An American film principally for those interested in the development of independent filmmaking, of avant-garde visual and musical styles, of experimental narrative.

In narrative terms, the film shows the father and a teenage daughter who work on the farm, employing somebody temporary during the summer, this time a man called Akin who claims he is not married but who, it is revealed, has a wife and child who later visit the file. While he professes his love for his wife, he has a roving eye and lusts after the farmer’s daughter, she ready to comply, dreaming about her dream lover. The work sequences, riding sequences, sex sequences, meals with the wife and the child visiting as well as neighbours.

In avant-garde visual style, commentators have noted some camera work that marked some of David Lynch’s films, blurred focus, surreal images, different editing and pace. And it is accompanied by a different musical score.

Akin is played by Joe Swanberg, a noted screenwriter and director.

While the film will be of interest to those who are doing film studies, and who admire independent filmmaking and risks taken, it will be of much less interest to ordinary cinemagoers.