David Hayden

You know, when you think about what came before

There is a sense of claustrophobia and loss and disappointment and a lack of life and all of those things from 20s, 30s Dublin and Ireland generally.

And she's so dispassionate about that.

She doesn't give you anywhere to look.

It's straight at you.

You know, it reminded me of, I was thinking, it made me think of two filmmakers, one Jonas Mikas and his kind of portraits of New York, which are so joyful usually.

And then Chantal Akerman's wonderful film, Home in New York,

where there's these wonderful long, long shots of the streets of New York in a fairly shabby state in those days.

And then her ringing her mum at home and that connection between home and New York, home being Belgium.

That external look at New York really shows you the city.

And with somebody as acute and...

You know, actually, come back to that word watchful.

There's something quiet and determined in her apprehension of the city and its people.

And a sympathy that is not there.

She's not like an uptown person looking down on people.

She's looking at the same level as those people.

with their hurt, their confusion, their lostness, their self-exile.

And she captures all of that.

And she does it in the Long-Winded Lady.

These miniatures are so terrific.