The Guitar

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 2007, 92 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

One morning Melody, a woman in her thirties, discovers that she is suffering from an incurable form of cancer. She immediately loses her job, and her boyfriend delivers the fatal blow to their fading relationship. In the knowledge that she has less than two months to live and nothing to lose, Melody decides to fulfil all her wildest dreams. She rents a palatial loft, goes on a spending spree and, in moments of intimate seclusion, teaches herself to play the electric guitar, something she has craved since her childhood days. The screenplay for this compelling drama which actress and debuting director Amy Redford based on a real story, was written by underground filmmaker Amos Poe, the creator of the celebrated documentary The Blank Generation. With disarming sensitivity, the talented Redford succeeded in capturing the mental state of a young woman confronted with her own mortality and her gradual discovery of an inner strength she never knew she had. One of the hits at this year’s Sundance festival, the film offers an excellent performance by Saffron Burrows, familiar from the films Miss Julie or The Loss of Sexual Innocence.

About the director

Amy Redford (b. 1970, USA), the daughter of actor and director Robert Redford, is chiefly known as a stage, film and television actress. She was hailed by the critics for her performance in Daisy Foote’s play Bhutan, produced in New York’s Cherry Lane theatre. Her filmography includes works such as The Understudy, Maid In Manhattan, When I Find the Ocean, This Revolution and Sunshine Cleaning, where she appeared alongside Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. Fans of TV series will recognise her from The Sopranos, Sex and the City or Law and Order. Amy Redford studied acting at university in San Francisco and at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in London. Her directorial debut The Guitar was successfully screened in the Premieres section at this year’s Sundance festival.