Tania Martins

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"Autumn Adagio" is Tsuki Inoue's first feature, made with the money she won for the Grand Prize in Yubari the previous with "The Woman Who is Beating the Earth" (more on this film later). 

It tells the story of a repressed 40-year old nun, who through three encounters with different men, reflects on her femininity and her life. She meets a tedious middle aged man who cannot stop bothering her, a ballet dancer who advises her to play piano as if she were dancing and the son of one of the dying parishioners, who also happens to have sex with her. 

She grows frustrated and repressed, at the beginning, surrounded by talk of menopause and ageing womanhood. Though her three encounters, she finally gets the strength she needed to enter a gynaecologist's clinic and she finally gets the strength to open her mother's letter; which she reaches to touch and look at several times throughout the film.  The frame reflects her inner mood in a palette of greys and browns. The camera remains still and detached, but the characters' strength come through as you endeavour to understand them and their circumstances. There are some smile-inspiring moments, but overall, from a woman's point of view, it is rather affecting. To be able to realise the impact of the expression of one's sexuality and femininity. 

 The most inspiring scene is towards the end, when a small girl runs to the nun crying for having blood. The nun teaches her about menstruation through a metaphor; Gods gives you a ticket every month for a certain amount of time, which you can redeem later when you become a mother. Sister Maria, the nun, says she gave her tickets to God. The little girl responds that she has given them to people. 

[OFFICIAL WEBSITE]  http://www.autumn-adagio.com/ [OFFICIAL WEBSITE]

[TRAILER] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8lNoC7kczk [TRAILER]