My Friend Marjorie (2006) Online

Shown on Channel 4, this short animation is about an old woman recalling her early romances with her husband. Meeting him while he was working in a rather jobbing part of show business, the woman tells of her early affair and the later challenges that came when they had a child. Although not everything is clear within the narrative of this short film what is clear is that this story is a very personal one to Louise Wilde. The Marjorie of the title is not a character but a real person and I think this comes through very well in the narration.

Marjorie is as natural as one would hope and she tells her story with a familiarity and affection that can be heard in the edges of her voice. It hit me how effective this is when the final statements came – I did not totally understand them but the pain and honesty in them is impacting nonetheless. Alongside this delivery the animation feels secondary but it is good with imagination feeding a style that did take me a minute to buy into (it is quite jerky figures).

Overall then this is a personal short that is memorable thanks to the honesty in the title character and the animation is good enough to support this. That said I would have liked a bit more depth in the telling of this tale as I thought that it must surely work better if you know Marjorie in the way Wilde herself does – but of course few viewers will and the film might have been better it if had shared a bit more knowledge with the audience.