MA BELLE, MY BEAUTY (2021) with filmmaker Marion Hill - Block Museum
In Canada, the film can be accessed through Hoopla and Tubi. In the United Kingdom, availability is more limited: the film is not currently available for streaming, but viewers can purchase or rent it through Sky Store. It is important to note that as of the most recent updates, the film is not available on streaming services in Australia or New Zealand either. fylm Ma Belle My Beauty 2021 mtrjm awn layn - fydyw lfth
Some critics found the pacing too languid, and the ending ambiguous to a fault. But for viewers tired of queer stories ending in death or heartbreak, the film’s final image — all three dancing in the kitchen to a vinyl record, not quite together, not quite apart — is a radical gift. MA BELLE, MY BEAUTY (2021) with filmmaker Marion
Min-jun wanted to make a film from these scraps, to stitch Mira’s ghost into the city’s present. Hana wanted to translate Mira’s letters for subtitles, to make her voice live again in a language that could be understood by someone who had never been allowed to own her story. Working together, they chronicled how the city had borrowed beauty and paid too little for it. They interviewed tailors, bar patrons, the saxophonist; they visited the lot where an old studio had been bulldozed and found a single, rusted reel buried in the dirt. The reel had no title and no credits—only a frame of Mira laughing in a raincoat. Some critics found the pacing too languid, and
In the end they made a choice that felt like compromise and like truth: the film would present Mira as both luminous and private. It would show what she had given to cinema and what she had taken back for herself. It would leave spaces—black frames, empty chairs—where audiences could imagine whatever they wished. The film’s title card read simply: Ma Belle, My Beauty. Under it, in small type, a line credited “unseen hands” and then the list they had compiled—short biographies of the seamstress, the hairdresser, the list of names that Mira had made luminous again.
Lane’s arrival reignites old passions and deep-seated jealousies. As the characters navigate their shared history, the film delves into the challenges of re-establishing boundaries and the lingering pain of abandonment.