Love. Mai Zetterling. 1982. ⚄

This is the third Zetterling-directed short from the Love anthology movie. This one is written by her, too.

[the end]

So this is from an anthology film about love, and Zetterling is contrary as usual: Most of this short is a sumptuous dinner prepared by a mother for her son.

The subtext here is all kinds of “eh?” and “urr”, but it’s a really enjoyable little movie to watch. Those dishes look delish!

Perhaps the most odd thing about this is that the mother and the son look pretty much… in the same age group? I tried googling what age they were, really, but the woman, Maureen Fitzgerald, has the most common name in Irish history? And the son was born in 1945? So he was late 30s? Which is what the mother looks like, too?

So… casting problems again.

But it’s a lovely ambiguous little movie.

Love. Mai Zetterling. 1982. ⚁

Oh, Zetterling directed three of the shorts in the Love anthology movie, so this is the second one. This one is written by Edna O’Brien.

[the end]

This is very odd. Like the scene where they’re eating oysters (on the shell) off of that woman’s body. Like… how did that happen? Did the guy sit there shucking oysters for ten minutes first before they got it on? Did he call room service (at his private apt), and then they got oysters on the shell delivered, and then they arranged them all over her boobs? They’re usually chilled? But if they weren’t, they’re now eating lukewarm oysters? That’s kinda disgusting?

THIS SEX SCENE MAKES NO SENSE.

Love. Mai Zetterling. 1982. ⚄

So this is a short directed by Zetterling and written by… JONI FUCKING MITCHELL!?!?! WHAT THE!!?

OK, now I’m all aboard. Let’s watch.

[the end]

What a plot! Mitchell (in blackface, reprising her role from the cover of Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter), goes into a happening disco, playing spiky new wave music, turns the music off, and puts some easy listening jazz on…

And then has a convo with a guy that says he’d ask her to dance if it wouldn’t make him feel like such a fag.

It’s complicated, is what I’m saying.

I like it. It’s all kinds of offensive, of course, but I think it achieves what Mitchell wanted? I’m guessing? It hasn’t been restored at all for this release, though. It looks like it was recorded from a SECAM broadcast onto VHS and then digitised for DVD.