The Scenic Route

Estelle, living in New York, has come out of a relationship that ended badly and begins seeing Paul; one day he stops calling. Not long after, her sister Lena comes to stay with her, and the person she brings home turns out to be Paul. The account builds this triangle not as realist drama but out of scenes borrowed from opera, classical painting and Victorian melodrama; we hear the events in Estelle’s own voice, and what she tells us does not always agree with what we see. Mark Rappaport’s seventy six minute American film was made from his own screenplay and shows that experimental cinema can bend a narrative without breaking it. Randy Danson plays Estelle, Marilyn Jones plays Lena and Kevin Wade plays Paul. It was completed in 1978.