Le gemelle silenziose

I knew nothing about June and Jennifer Gibbons before watching this. Apparently there have been other tellings of their story on the screen and stage, but it still feels like a fresh story. Beautifully shot and acted.

There's something relatable to their story. I definitely would see how long I could go without speaking as a kid, not that I ever made it more than a day or two. You see the young kids deal with being outsiders, bullying, and how happy they seem when they were isolated and using their imagination. I found it incredibly sad, wishing I could befriend them, hoping they succeed in their creative endeavors.

It's not the most direct, action filled storyline but I found myself invested throughout. I really enjoyed the cinematography, at times diving into their imaginations. Overall, it's something I would definitely watch again. It felt different than most things I've seen recently.

I am an identical twin. Understanding them was easy. I felt that bond as a child. The language they created, the words they conveyed to one another without speaking, the worlds they lived in, and the metaphorical dance they endlessly performed was something my twin and I had. The difference was that we grew out of that special closeness, the bubble that we inhabited eventually popped. The film takes us on a similar journey, flawlessly, as if the twins produced it themselves. The direction, script, acting, costumes, art direction, score, and cinematography all masterfully come together to recreate their perfectly delicate and complicated twin-dom. This is a brilliant film, a delicious character study that will touch you deeply... if you let it.

This is a film that deserves the screen time however it leaves you with too many questions if you aren't already familiar with the real life tradgedy that this was. The identical twin sisters had a heavy accent from there culture that they were shunned and made out to be a circus act in a predominantly white school. They basically could not fit in and in the middle and end so many people were able to study, dissect, and write books based on them to profit off the fact that if they had just been treated with an ounce of dignity for speech classes as children their entire lives would have been different.

This is a film inspired by true events and is not a documentary to many people's dismay. Most people have the wrong expectations about the style of this film and give it a bad review. I accepted the filmmakers choice to use non-twins for this film. Telling a story like this with this type of artistic creativity could be confusing for people that can't tell twins apart. What this film does bring to the viewer is highlights of some of the bigger moments in the twins lives while occasionally using some art and claymation to emphasize parts of the story being told, and I accepted the use of claymation as a dramatic effect that could resemble the imaginations of the twins, and the inspiration for the music and scoring was quite acceptable and appropriately sets the tone for your emotions. I did think the acting was very good, and when they were silent they easily were able to covey the right expressions to keep me engaged and aware of each twin's reactions and emotions.

In a world that's alien and quite distressed, two girls decide how their time will invest, shunning prejudice and hate, they are the masters of their fate, no matter how hard others push and poke and press. In a world that they create to hide and shelter, they're each other's guardian, trustee, curator; but fighting against the tide, just brings torrents that collide, with the damage acting as a separator.

What an incredible piece of filmmaking with two outstanding leads by two incredible actors. For me, I'm happy for the director to have used some poetic licence, if I want the facts verbatim I'll watch a documentary or read a biography, but I'm a lot more engaged with a presentation that allows some interpretation and inspires me to investigate further. Those two performances are top drawer!