There’s an unexpected implication when Antonella Sudasassi Furniss exposes the parameters of her film set at the start of “Memories of a Burning Body,” following lead Sol Carabello into one room to have her makeup done and a gaffer in another arranging the lights for a scene. It isn’t to accept the artifice of the film or to set up a premise, but rather to plant the idea that there may be certain limitations to what a particular life can be, with Sudasassi Furniss’ refusal to leave the room for the rest of the film reflecting something that might be too on the nose to ever say directly. The film centers on a trio of wisened women, all around the age of 70, who are asked to recall how they developed their individual sexual consciousness in a culture where to even speak of the subject was considered shameful.
Even now, these women remain behind the scenes throughout Sudasassi Furniss’ entirely audacious yet only intermittently engaging sophomore feature, having provided audio interviews to the director about their lives as their cloistered coming-of-age is portrayed on screen. By granting anonymity to the women as they speak candidly about bedroom behavior and domestic abuse, the filmmaker sets up a visual challenge — not unlike the one recently faced by director Anna Hints, who turned a spa into a fascinating forum to air out similar thoughts about repressed desires and marginalization in “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.” Sudasassi Furniss’ approach is similarly novel, following around a nameless woman around the flat from the time she was a young girl (played at various ages by Carballo, Paulina Bernini and Juliana Filloy), while remaining primarily preoccupied with typical domestic duties. Meanwhile, the audio interviews tip off Sudasassi Furniss’ surreal flourishes, which bring an imagination towards these women’s lives that’s far grander than that of the mundane expectations society has for them.
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One surprising sight — chickens in a study, cleaned away by a woman describing her upbringing on a farm — is only an appetizer for what’s to come. A doorway can open onto a ferris wheel as someone remembers their first kiss, or a room becomes a darkened movie theater for a memory of a couple reaching second base. But the flights of fancy within the same space effectively remind of the strict borders around their experience, as the women also recall panicking over getting their first period with no education from their Catholic schools to prepare them, as well as awkward sexual encounters where their own pleasure was considered a distant second to the goal of procreation.
Ironically, “Memories of a Burning Body” might’ve benefitted from a stronger structure in clarifying the one that its subjects are rebelling against. Sudasassi Furniss seems to take her cues from an interviewee who describes “time as a bubble,” floating around from one general topic to the next without much connective tissue. As transfixing as individual sequences can be due to the subjects’ candor, especially around adjusting to the limited roles of wives and mothers, the film itself often will build momentum it can’t sustain as the conversation jumps around.
Still, “Memories of a Burning Body” definitely has the power to move when Sudasassi Furniss ably turns most of the other obstacles presented by the sensitive material into strengths. Such horrific acts such as marital rape might be overwhelming if dramatized visually in traditional narrative terms; instead, by leaning into the audio, the sad resignation that can be heard in the women’s voices to such treatment moves past the shock. The director is also careful to include the giggles of her interviewees when they can’t believe what they’ve overcome, or simply show the sense of humor that got them through their lives. Intimacy might’ve been in short supply in their homes, but Furniss’ film allows all that was pent up to pour right out.