''A Girl's Own Story'' is a 1984 short Australian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films ''The Piano'' (1993) and '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for which she has received a tot ...

. It was screened in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

section at the

1986 Cannes Film Festival The 39th Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 19 May 1986. The Palme d'Or went to '' The Mission'' by Roland Joffé. The festival opened with ''Pirates'', directed by Roman Polanski and closed with '' El Amor brujo'', directed by Carlos Saura ...

. The short centers on the female adolescent experience—particularly female desire—using a fragmentary approach.

Plot

The film is set during the 1960s at the height of Beatlemania. It opens with schoolgirls singing a Beatles song in the courtyard of their Catholic school to the delight of their classmates, but a nun arrives to break it up. Two girls, Pam and Stella, are in a bedroom where they kiss cutouts of Beatles members that are pinned to the wall. One of the girls is wearing the cutout of her favorite Beatle as a mask to practice kissing on her friend. This is intercut with scenes of one of the other schoolgirls, Gloria, who is at home playing a game of make-believe with her brother Graeme. Pam's home life is a scene of dysfunction due to her unfaithful father and a depressed mother. Despite the parents' marital strife, the couple ends up reconciling much to Pam's surprise. A leitmotif of music-box notes plays intermittently throughout the film.

Cast

* Gabrielle Shornegg as Pam * Geraldine Haywood as Stella * Marina Knight as Gloria * John Godden as Graeme * Joanne Gabbe as Sister * Colleen Fitzpatrick as Mother *

Paul Chubb Paul Dunford (14 January 1949 – 9 June 2002), professionally billed as Paul Chubb, was an Australian film, television and stage actor and scriptwriter primarily in genres of comedy and drama. Early life He was born in Arncliffe, a suburb of S ...

as Father * Jane Edwards as Deidre * Cynthia Turner as Nun 1 * Valda Diamond as Nun 2 *

Katharine Cullen Katharine Cullen (born 9 June 1975) is an Australian actress, daughter of actors Max Cullen and Colleen Anne Fitzpatrick. Education *NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art). Bachelor of Dramatic Art. *The College of Fine Arts (COFA), Universi ...

as Little Pam

Filming

Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...

admitted during an interview that at 14 she was originally cast as the lead in the film but turned it down because of her reluctance to kiss a girl and wear a shower cap.

Reception

''A Girl's Own Story'' received acclaim and won the 1984 Rouben Mamoulian Award at the Sydney Fim Festival and the Best Direction Award at the Australian Film Institute. It screened in the

section at the

. Filmmaker

Todd Haynes Todd Haynes (; born January 2, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender ...

said "A Girl's Own Story''' is a film of acute tenderness and beauty". In a retrospective review, Cristina Álvarez López of

Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; The Auteurs before 2010) is a global curated film streaming platform, production company and film distributor. Mubi produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusivel ...

wrote the film "signals concisely the fragile, liminal territory to be explored: a space between childhood and womanhood, between desire and repression, and between curiosity and trauma".

References

External links

* *
A Girl's Own Story
' at

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software a ...

*
A Girl's Own Story
' at Senses of Cinema {{DEFAULTSORT:Girl's Own Story, A 1984 films Australian drama short films 1984 drama films 1984 short films Australian independent films Australian black-and-white films Films directed by Jane Campion 1984 independent films Films about puberty Films about adolescence 1980s feminist films 1980s English-language films English-language drama films