Venue | Star Cinema Sidney |
---|---|
Director | Sonja Bertucci |
Length | 80 mins |
Rating | Not Rated (19+ Screening) |
$14.29 Plus Service Fee
Director: Sonja Bertucci
USA / 2024 / 80 min / Documentary
Synopsis
There’s a distinct sense of privilege in getting to know Betty and Morrie Maroff, the charming elderly Jewish couple who are the stars of Sonja Bertucci’s deeply intimate documentary. The Maroffs aren’t just elderly, they’re centenarians, with their memories, curiosity, love of the arts, and concern with the state of the world still intact. Shot over eight years, the film begins in 2022, three years after Betty’s death, as Morrie, then 107, talks about missing being able to share the memories they made together. Bertucci’s film takes us back to a few years earlier when Betty was alive, as the couple tell stories and argue around their kitchen table, augmented by excerpts from her detailed travel journals and his copious, artistically sophisticated photographs. Most moving is the portrait of the give and take of their marriage, shaped both by the conventions of their upbringing and personal wounds. Under Bertucci’s gentle probing, the self-deprecating Betty opens up about both her admiration and frustrations with her irrepressibly confident husband who, for all his talents, “had a lot to learn about emotions.” – LL