We all long to be loved and accepted. It is this kind of universal feeling that runs throughout this animated film. Highly relatable with a strong vein of feminism, Signe Baumane’s (Rocks in My Pockets) My Love Affair with Marriage is going to make an impression upon Tribeca goers.
A story about a young girl named Zelma (Dagmara Dominczyk – The Count of Monte Cristo – 2002, Rock Star) as she grows up to be a woman. Zelma is someone who always seems to be on the hunt for something. That something is love. To be fully accepted and loved by someone. A man. She had been brainwashed at a young age via songs and stories about love and its importance in a woman’s life. Not that she enjoy the feeling of it per se, but rather that it would give her life meaning. These same stories set out how a woman was to act as well. This search for love lasts 23 years. It features many ups and downs. Good and bad things.
As Zelma grows older and falls in love, again and again, she begins to realize that maybe all these stories she believed to be filled with truths were actually leading her astray. Or contributing to her repression. As such her body begins to rebel against all this.
The animation style is like a mixture of what the Monty Python people used and old-fashioned hand drawn animation. Not what we have become used to today and yet with a quaint appeal to it, the animation is truly part of the story here.
Another part is the fact that this film took six years to make. You can understand as it is an independent film and there must have been money restrictions. But also part of it must have been the care taken in the making of it. You can see that and feel it in almost every frame. A lot of little details are there to be discovered, whether of the visual type or in the words chosen in the dialogue.
While it is an animated film, it certainly is not aimed at young people. This is animation meant for adults. Its concepts are deep. Its subject matter truly adult.
For centuries now a woman’s purpose in life has been to find a man, get married and have children. As much as we believe equality has been attained in regards to men and women, it has not. At least when it comes to what society believes constitutes a fulfilled life for a woman. That is still marriage and kids.
My Love Affair with Marriage is enjoying its world premiere at Tribeca.