One Cut, One Life

This beautiful documentary is about life lived as most of us know it: messy, full of unresolved questions, and resonant with the haunting after-effects of loss, change, and tragedy. Specifically, One Cut, One Life is about several years in the lives of its filmmakers, collaborators Ed Pincus—a legendary director whose work includes the landmark Diaries (1971–1976)—and his much younger partner, Lucia Small. The film is bookended by themes of loss: Small is dragged down by the recent, violent deaths of two of her best friends, and Pincus's longtime bout with leukemia finally comes to a conclusion in 2013. Along the way, several psychodramas play out between the platonic collaborators, who share an intense but chaste love that nevertheless threatens Pincus's wife, Jane. Pincus himself has a number of decisions he must make about prolonging his life as long as possible, while Small has to contend for the first time with being the sole representative of their joint works at film festivals. Punctuating everything are gorgeous shots: of flowers (Pincus ran a flower farm), the seasons (China's Great Wall never looked better, dusted with snow), trees, etc., all capturing the world that Pincus is not ready to leave. Highly recommended. (T. Keogh)