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In this episode, I explore the mystery and power of Jonathan Glazer’s 2004 masterpiece, “Birth.” This is the most important episode I’ve ever produced for the podcast. This is the film that defines me, that I can’t get out of my system, that has haunted me for over a decade. I have never identified so profoundly with a character as I do with the woman in this film. She is Anna (played by Nicole Kidman), a widow who encounters a 10-year-old boy who claims to be the reincarnation of her dead husband, Sean. For me, “Birth” is a film about grief and ghosts and how we can’t always let go of the dead. I talk about my own struggle with grief, how this film is part of my soul, and quote Joan Didion and James Joyce as I chart the emotional impact of this unforgettable movie.

Full show notes:

• Alexandre Desplat’s score for Birth on Spotify
• Last.fm website
• Listen to my episode on The Double Life of Veronique
• Sylvia Plath’s poems Daddy, Electra on Azalea Plath, and Sheep in Fog
• Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking
• Listen to my episode on L’avventura
• Winter Trees by Sylvia Plath
• The Dead by James Joyce
• Listen to my episode on Big Little Lies, Broadchurch, and The Keepers
• Listen to my episode on La Ceremonie
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

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