WHAT MAISIE KNEW, 1975, 16mm B&W, 60 min.

Prix de la Lumière, Toulon Film Festival, Toulon, France, 1975

With Epp Kotkas, Kate Manheim, Saskia Noordhoek-Hegt, Linda Patton, Yvonne Rainer and Jerry Bauman, James Barth, John Erdman and Philip Glass.
Music: “Etudes Symphoniques” by Schumann, “Flute solo” by Jon Gibson

“A film made around the subjective camera, the vision of a child, and a re-reading of the Henry James novel. The concern is not with reality and appearance but the manner in which these terms come to be constituted.” – Constance Penley

“The film is a kind of Maisie in Wonderland.” – Ruby Rich

As Henry James said, “You still have room for wonder at what Maisie knew.”
The film is about looking. I bet that slight variations of few recurrent elements would encourage the viewer to free associate and to fantasize a kind of narrative. – BM

Permanent Collections:
“Histoire du Cinema,” Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
New York Public Library, Donnell Branch, New York
Pacific Film Archives, San Francisco, California
National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia