Redite is an art film directed by Patrick Boivin. Not only is it an experimental work, but it’s also a *developmental* work as well. It isn’t as confident or mature as later works like Radio and This and everything else. You can see Boivin sharpening his skills here.

But early Boivin is still fascinating stuff. Possibly inspired by Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, the film is completely silent, with flickery, sepia-toned mise-en-scene. We’re on an island. A lifelike marionette (Marjorie Rheaume, in a transfixing performance) wakes up, apparently having been thrown out with the trash. She discovers that her strings are attached to three wooden boards. She struggles to lift the boards over her head to free herself. After she does, a godlike hand reaches down from the sky and pins some sort of symbol to her chest.

Obviously, this one is open to interpretation. But what’s clear is that Boivin is a major talent.