Cannes Video: Alicia Duffy’s All Good Children

Innocence morphs into obsessiveness in Alicia Duffy’s feature film debut – a film that I thought was based on, but is instead inspired by, the summer set worlds for non-adults of Sam Taylor’s novel The Republic of Trees. Swerving in and then out of puppy love, first summer romance type of film, this is a unique coming-of-age portrait because it is self-contained or preserved in a setting full of mystery. My guess is that All Good Children will have a long film festival circuit life – due to a combination of factors. There are the obvious aesthetic qualities of the picture — if you’ve seen Duffy’s short film work you’ll get a glimpse into how the camera can emphasize subtle shifts in the emotional output of a character, and I think this is the film’s selling point. Here is a montage of the opening night presentation for the Director’s Fortnight selected film.