Zeitgeist Films

Today on DVD - The Tree! An adaptation of Judy Pascoe’s novel (Our Father who Art in the Tree), the film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as Dawn, who begins to believe that the spirit of her recently (as in, within the film’s first ten minutes) deceased husband has taken up residence in the (ENORMOUS AND REAL) Moreton Bay fig tree next to her house. 

She and her children (some of whom are more convinced than others) take comfort in the tree* as they struggle to make sense of their loss.

After all the press around Gainsbourg’s psychologically devastating** work with (Cannes Persona non Grata) Lars von Trier, her role as a mother coping with tragedy by talking to a tree seem downright normal - certainly more wholesome (lest you forget, the tree in Antichrist is covered in naked. All kinds of naked).

Pick up the film before you go out to see the surprisingly popular*** Melancholia, also starring Gainsbourg! 

*literally. they sit in the tree. 

**to Gainsbourg and to anyone who has seen Antichrist.

***surprising because of all the sad bathtub-sitting in the trailer, not because it doesn’t look fabulous and artsy and breathtaking and a little bit exhausting.