Book of Hours

short fiction

  • a young woman in a white dress with red print, seen from the back walks up a hill pushing a bike forward, in the background a lot of yellow flowering broom and some broken trees
  • close-up on an elderly womans hand with rolled up sleeve holding the handle of a rollator, a white and orange tile pattern of the floor in the background
  • A young woman is having breakfast cereals and an elderly woman, her grandmother is pealing potatoes, both are sitting at a round table in an old farm house kitchen with a lot of patterns, a wood-fire stove in the background
  • A young woman shows anelderly woman sweeping during a summer afternoon while sitting on a rolator in front of a round table in an old farm house kitchen with a lot of patterns and yellow and green pastel tones, a traditional wood-fire stove in the background
  • clearing in the woods with broken trees and yellow flowering broom, blue sky, a young woman in a white dress pushes a bike forward, in the background stands a man pointing in the opposite direction of her way
  • A young woman shows an image on a smartphone to an elderly woman presumably her grandmother while having dinner together sitting at a round table in an old farm house kitchen with a lot of patterns

Book Of Hours

2019 | Short Fiction

26 MIN | 2.35:1 | DCP | LUX. VO. | Subs: Eng., Fr., Pt.

Book of Hours portrays the day-to-day cohabitation of Suzan, an artist in her late twenties, and her octogenarian “Bomi” (grandmother in Letzebuergesch), in a dilapidated farmhouse in rural Luxembourg. Their preoccupations do not only differ in mealtimes. As concerns over tomb flowers and a painting in the making cause frictions, both women share flashes of fear over withering away.

 

Honorable Mention NEXXT Competition, 16th FEST New Directors | New Films Festival

9th Luxfilmfest, LU
16th FEST New Directors | New Films Festival, PT
9th Cinecipo – Insurgent Film Festival, Belo Horizonte, BR
27th Openeyes Filmfest Marburg, DE
Ambitus Film Festival, RU
Toronto Lift Off Film Festival, CA
Braziers International Film Festival, Oxfordshire, UK

Backbox Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, LU
Cabin Fever, LIAR, Carey Institute, NY

Original title Livres d’Heures
Cast Yvonne Noesen-Ries, Suzan Noesen, Alina Faber, Yannis Meys
Writer and Director Suzan Noesen
Cinematographer Amandine Klee
Editor Pia Dumont
Sound Bruno Schweisguth
Music Georges Goerens
Set and Costume Michèle Tonteling
Producer  Suzan Noesen, Yasin Özen

The experimental film Livre d’heures/Book of Hours is a fictionalised account by Suzan Noesen of her experiences while living together with her 87-year-old grandmother. Developed in collaboration over several months and rehearsed in improvisation sessions for two weeks prior to the shoot, Book of Hours starts a journey of self-discovery that deals with intergenerational differences, identity and the interdependence between two women.

Structured like a Christian book of hours – a religious calendar for every-day, social life in medieval times – the film is separated into four chapters: “Patterns”, “The Virgin Hours”, “The Divine Office of Time” and “The Penitential Psalms”. Each serves to mediate the individual, conflicting perceptions of duration of these two women born two generations apart. Looking at their small gestures and interactions in daily life, the differences in body and speech rhythm creates conflicting temporalities through the close, lingering relationship of the camera with the characters and their surroundings.

Placing these two women within this timelessness of slow, observational cinema, their separate identities shines through in speech, manner and visual patterns. “Bomi”, Noesen’s grandmother, relates to nature and seasons, cherishes traditions and rituals and demonstrates a timeless curiosity about the world and her grand-daughter’s endeavours.
Tied to the pressures of our modern-day, accelerated existence, Suzan and her art are trapped by time into the pressures of delivering, creating and performing. Despite living figuratively in separate “times”, the two women meet through a candid relationship and a bond that surpasses past, present and future: the shared destiny of women or maybe the intergenerational link inherent to female identity and family. The film also enters another surreal dimension with an unknown girl, who walks with her bicycle aimlessly through the woods. In this psychological twilight zone, this mysterious figure seems to search for her way, a new path or even an identity perhaps. She serves as a metaphor for a female identity passed down through heritage looking for a new destiny.

From the micro-gestures and patterns of daily life, Suzan Noesen pieces together a compelling portrait of two women which delivers a real insight into the performativity and fluidity of personal identity.