Synopsis
This film is a tribute to Delphine Seyrig and her fascination with the book Calamity Jane’s Letters to her Daughter. These letters, which are letters from a mother to her absent daughter, became an emblem of feminism in the late 1970s. Seyrig had planned to make a film about Calamity Jane in order to reveal all of the sensitivity she expressed, as well as her view on life, shared in these letters, which were never received by her daughter because they were never sent to her. The reading of this correspondence opens the way to a personal reflection on feminism and the mother-daughter relationship. It is also a tribute to feminine creativity, as well as a form of commitment to continue sharing women’s stories.
A word from Tënk
Calamity Jane, that 19th-century character of American mythology, now elevated to a feminist role model. She was the picture of a liberated modern woman, moving from job to job, riding horses, smoking cigarettes and threatening to unload her pistol if she wasn’t served in men’s taverns. While many stories about her resemble legends, what matters more are the lives she has inspired and what has been created from her image. Having lived through the Conquest of the West, she remains a colonialist figure throughout the film. We’re also treated to some problematic views on Indigenous peoples, if only in the grossly exaggerated figurines in a western saloon.
Building on the myths surrounding Calamity Jane, the film is equally the story of Delphine Seyrig, a feminist actor and director who believed that happiness meant independence. No surprise, then, that she shared a fascination with Calamity Jane. The film explores both Seyrig’s quest and her internal monologue as created by filmmaker Babette Mangolte using 1980s-era shots of Seyrig reflecting: over coffee, behind the wheel of her car, at the window of a hotel. “That’s where Delphine found her way. The film had to be about never giving up, because that was Delphine’s greatest strength.” After Seyrig’s death, Mangolte took up her mantle and brought her quest to life in Calamity Jane & Delphine Seyrig, A Story.
Gabrielle Ouimet
Tënk's Artistic Director
