Saint Frances

Bridget spends the night with a guy she met at a party, only to discover the next morning that she had started her period while they were having sex—there are traces of blood not only on the sheets but also on their faces. Embarrassed but not shocked, the casual lovers get down to the business of cleaning up the mess. The first few minutes herald the tone of the entire picture: Alex Thompson’s film features a combination of sincerity and levity that often produces a provocative effect. A somewhat confused thirtysomething named Bridget finds out that she’s pregnant and decides to have an abortion; she’s also starting work as a caretaker for little Frances, the determined daughter of a lesbian couple. This is not in the least a story about trauma, maternal instinct, or delayed puberty. Instead, we see a series of predominantly humorous scenes from the disordered life of a young woman on the border between Gen X and Gen Y. Thompson’s film won audience awards at the SXSW and LA Outfest festivals and a critics award at the Champs-Élysées Film Festival in Paris.