A family secret is uncovered by French filmmaker and director Mariana Otero in this unraveling foreign documentary. Otero investigates the secret and sudden death of her mother. As a child, Otero and her sister were not told about their mother’s death, they were led to believe that she ran off and vanished. Not until years later did they both realize that their mother had passed. After this discovery, they were not told how she died. The cause of her abrupt death remained a secret to her children, extended family and friends. The only person who knew what caused her death was her faithful husband, Antonio. Throughout this documentary, Otero interviews people who knew her mother and accounts for their interpretation of the incident. Due to extended interviews and heartfelt conversations with these people, Mariana Otero comes to learn that her mother, Clotilde died due to a back-alley abortion. Her unplanned pregnancy led this well-known artist to terminate or abort her unborn child, in an effort to focus on her painting career. Back-alley abortions became secretive because the act of abortion had been outlawed. Women, and in this case, Clotilde, resorted to taking the matter into their own hands. After Otero uncovers the truth about her mother, she retrieves Clotilde’s numerous oil paintings. Because Marianna Otero was very young, she did not get to really know her mother. Through the viewing of her mother’s paintings, she begins to connect with Clotilde through the essence and expressions of her oil paintings. A sacred and personal bond is formed between past expressions put on canvas and a woman who desires to know her deceased mother. Her mother’s painterly style, use of composition, portrayal of figures, palette of colors and alternating brushstrokes, expressed characteristics of her as a person and captured the passion and zeal she had for painting.
“This wrenching film won Best Documentary at the 2003 Valladolid International Film Festival” (Netflix)
Source Cited: http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/History_of_a_Secret/70080983?trkid=496624#height746trkid=496624#height746
A website on painter Clotilde Vautier with her Biography and images of her work:
http://www.clotildevautier.org/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=12&lang=fr
A Photo of Mariana and her sister
(http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.premiere.fr/var/premiere/storage/images/diaporama/histoire-d-un-secret/histoire-d-un-secret-2003/1948746-1-fre-FR/histoire_d_un_secret_2003_reference.jpg&imgrefurl=http://jeanmichel.gens.free.fr/gooimg.php%3Fq%3DIsabelle%2BOtero%26start%3D126%26imgsz%3Dmedium%257Clarge&usg=__ruURffIwQIV6njlUH4ltnT7RfO0=&h=401&w=600&sz=55&hl=en&start=0&sig2=LaUqp2Nhke1e6Hd5x8JEg&zoom=1&tbnid=TU5L7JtNKm62gM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=191&ei=TaJlTd31KYGBlAfV9KmSBg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhistoire%2Bd%2527un%2Bsecret%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4SKPB_enUS351US351%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D590%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=159&oei=TaJlTd31KYGBlAfV9KmSBg&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0&tx=137&ty=60)
Clotilde's Oil Painting
1960 - Nu rose
http://www.clotildevautier.org/index.php?option=com_morfeoshow&task=view&gallery=1&Itemid=19&lang=fr
-Angela Impagliozza
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