Of all the crystalline moments I cherish in Princess Cyd, which is playing this week at the Gene Siskel Film Center, one particular shot stands out: Miranda Ruth (Rebecca Spence), a novelist in her 50s, is walking out to sunbathe in her backyard, wearing a purple swimsuit she hadn’t remembered owning for years; by her side is her 17-year-old niece, Cydney (Jessie Pinnick), who’s staying with her for a couple weeks. Writer-director Stephen Cone presents their walk in slow-motion and accompanies it with a burst of bright classical music. While these devices are inherently cinematic, their combined effect feels more novelistic in nature. One is made aware of how the characters are internalizing the moment, with Miranda recapturing a forgotten memory and Cydney (or Cyd, as everyone calls her) creating a new, lasting one, sunbathing on this lawn at this house on the north side of Chicago for the second time.
I should disclose that I’ve known Cone for years, and that many of our conversations have revolved around Téchiné. For Cone, Téchiné is one of the great filmmakers, an artist who’s developed a unique view of human nature as well as a distinctive cinematic language with which to express it. His characters change the course of their lives suddenly and randomly, and they act on sexual impulses just as wantonly. Yet their behavior is always relatable on some level, as Téchiné, like a great novelist, invests his characters with rich inner lives. His stories ultimately speak to the great mysteries of human nature: Why do we fall in love with the people we do? What compels us to pursue our interests and not others? Do our pasts define us or are we dynamic beings, changing according to the times, our surroundings, our impulses?
