Veteran documentarian Claire Simon immersed herself in the daily goings-on of a public hospital in Paris’s 20th arrondissement to produce this astonishing work of observational cinema. Focusing on women of varied backgrounds and in every stage of life, OUR BODY, traces the lifecycles of the female body and its myriad encounters with the medical system. From cancer screenings and fertility appointments to a teenage girl grappling with an unwanted pregnancy or a trans woman considering the beginnings of menopause, Simon’s panoramic portrait is by turns moving, nuanced, and rousing. With concerted intimacy that takes on a personal dimension for the filmmaker, Simon reminds us that, in the four walls of a doctor’s office, the personal is political. “Explores the lives of patients and doctors in a women’s hospital in Paris…a work of vast emotional scope, and Simon… endows it with a grand conceptual framework to match…[she] films the lives of others with an empathetic passion that transforms observation into deep and resonant subjectivity.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker “A monumental work…a remarkable piece of cinema.”– Caitlin Quinlan, Sight & Sound (2023, 173 min, in French w/English subtitles)
