| Boxes | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster | |
| Directed by | Jane Birkin |
| Written by | Jane Birkin |
| Produced by | Emmanuel Giraud |
| Starring | Geraldine Chaplin Michel Piccoli Jane Birkin Natacha Régnier Lou Doillon Adèle Exarchopoulos John Hurt Maurice Bénichou Tchéky Karyo |
| Cinematography | François Catonné |
| Edited by | Marie-Josée Audiard |
| Music by | Frank Eulry |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 95 min |
| Country | France |
| Languages | French English |
Boxes (French:Les Boites) is a 2007French film and the directorial debut ofJane Birkin. Birkin also stars alongsideGeraldine Chaplin andMichel Piccoli. The film is based on Birkin's own family life, chronicling three marriages and the three children she bore from these marriages. The title alludes to the way in which she compartmentalises these relationships and stages of her life.[1] The film was nominated for the Grand Prix at theBratislava International Film Festival. The film premiered in theUn Certain Regard portion of the2007 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May.[2] It was released in France on 6 June 2007.
InBrittany, a middle-aged woman, Anna lives in a rambling home with her sometime dead father (Piccoli), her opinionated mother (Chaplin) and the memories of her three grown-up daughters. As Anna struggles with her mid-life crisis, the possessions and photographs in the home begin to spark her memories of childhood and earlier adulthood.
In particular the memories evoked are of her three husbands and the children she bore with them. Her first marriage to Fanny'sEnglish father (Hurt) failed and as a consequence, Fanny (Régnier) barely knows him. Fanny's half-sister is Camille (Doillon), who Anna had with Camille's now dead father, Max (Benichou). There is also her third husband, Jean (Karyo), with whom she had Lilly (Exarchopoulos), but he left to pursue affairs.[3]
Birkin wrote the script forBoxes in 1995, shortly after her father's death.[4] The film was shot in Birkin's own family home inLandéda.[5] Birkin offered the main role of Anna to Chaplin, but Chaplin turned this down, feeling that as the role was written for a 45-year-old woman, she would be better suited to the role of Anna's mother.[6]
Le Figaro praised the "worrying, unpredictable and touching sincerity" of the film.[7] Michèle Levieux ofL'Humanité said that the film was so well written, it deserved to be adapted for the stage.[6]