A Shape of Error

  • 70'
  • USA
  • 2012
Abigail Child uses home-movie aesthetics to reconstruct a life in a time when film still had to be invented. Based on diary notes by Mary Shelley (1797-1851) and her stepsister Claire, she filmed the problems of love, pregnancies, babies who died and the written work of these women, who were very emancipated for their day. Child focuses primarily on Mary's intense love affair with Percy Shelley in the years when she was also writing her classic gothic novel, Frankenstein (1818).
The form of A Shape of Error is playful and adventurous, with split screen shots filled with doublings and mirrors, chronological facts in inter-titles and Mary’s poetic voiceover. For Child, the authenticity of the home video is a way to create intimacy. At the same time, her film is a self-reflective investigation of this authenticity, as she previously did in The Future Is Behind You. A Shape of Error is the first part of a trilogy about women and ideology, in which Shelley's biography tackles Romanticism.

  • 70'
  • USA
  • 2012
Director
Abigail Child
Premiere
World première
Countries of production
USA, Italy
Year
2012
Festival Edition
IFFR 2012
Length
70'
Medium
File
Language
English
Producer
Abigail Child
Sales
Abigail Child
Screenplay
Abigail Child
Cinematography
Abigail Child
Editor
Abigail Child, Yael Bitton, Mary Patierno
Production Design
Abigail Child
Sound Design
Abigail Child, Gisburg
Music
Zeena Parkins
Cast
Eileen Ryan, Nick Wilding
Website
http://abigailchild.com
Director
Abigail Child
Premiere
World première
Countries of production
USA, Italy
Year
2012
Festival Edition
IFFR 2012
Length
70'
Medium
File
Language
English
Producer
Abigail Child
Sales
Abigail Child
Screenplay
Abigail Child
Cinematography
Abigail Child
Editor
Abigail Child, Yael Bitton, Mary Patierno
Production Design
Abigail Child
Sound Design
Abigail Child, Gisburg
Music
Zeena Parkins
Cast
Eileen Ryan, Nick Wilding
Website
http://abigailchild.com