For her third feature and first documentary, the gifted actor-turned-filmmaker Sarah Polley (Away From Her) has chosen to focus on her parents: Canadian actor and casting director Diane and British-born actor Michael.
Like any married couple, they experienced their fair share of happiness and disappointment. Diane in particular, is seen to have been a very private figure behind her outgoing veneer. Through interviews with family members and friends, as well as employing archive footage and brilliantly staged Super-8 reconstructions, Polley’s riveting investigation into Michael and Diane’s life, as individuals and a couple, becomes an exploration of the role of memory, questioning its ownership and also the veracity of recollection. Can we ever uncover every facet of those closest to us and, ultimately, do we want to? Stories We Tell is an intelligent, generous and deeply satisfying experience.
