''Miss Mary'' is a 1986

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by María Luisa Bemberg and starring

Julie Christie Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1940) is a British actress. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, Christie is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She ...

Nacha Guevara Nacha Guevara (born Clotilde Acosta, October 3, 1940) is an Argentine singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress from Mar de Plata, Buenos Aires province. Biography Trained as a dancer and actress, she discovered by chance a career as a singer beco ...

and

Eduardo Pavlovsky Eduardo Alejo Pavlovsky, often nicknamed Tato Pavlovsky, (December 10, 1933 – October 4, 2015) was an Argentine playwright, psychoanalyst, actor and novelist. His best known plays included ''El señor Galindez'' in 1973, ''La muerte de Margueritte ...

. It was an Argentine- American co-production shot on location in Argentina.

Plot

In 1938, Englishwoman Mary Mulligan (

) arrives at the lavish estate of a wealthy Argentine family living outside of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. "Miss Mary" serves as the family's governess over the course of the next several years. As the primary caretaker of the family's three children, Mary teaches them English and oversees their childhood and adolescent development, at times both nurturing and disciplining them. As they move into their teenage years, the children mature, exploring sexuality and their place in society. Meanwhile, the aristocratic world around them is falling apart. The adults converse about Argentine politics, hinting at the impending arrival of Juan Perón on the political scene, which will signal an abrupt end to their lifestyle. Compounding the problem is the state of the family itself: the patriarch, Alfredo (Eduardo Pavlovsky), becomes physically intimate with another woman. Enraged, his wife, Mecha, (

) shoots a pistol blindly into the parlor where the affair is unfolding, and although the bullets cause no injury, the children are greatly disturbed. Mecha slowly deteriorates mentally and emotionally and grows stoically detached in the presence of her family. A few years down the road, Teresa, the youngest daughter in the family, proudly announces to her older sister, Carolina, that she has lost her virginity. Johnny, their older brother, has a sexual encounter with a woman more than twice his age. Confused by the experience, he rushes home despite a thunderstorm and confronts Mary in her bedroom. After a brief moment of awkwardness, they embrace and spend the night together, capping off a long, vaguely-defined relationship that has displayed both maternal and romantic tendencies. As Johnny sneaks back half-nakedly to his room in the early morning, his mother happens to see him stumble down the hallway. Immediately aware that Miss Mary has gone too far, she relays the information to her indifferent husband before returning to find Mary already packing up her things. She formally dismisses Mary, just as Mary reports that she is planning to leave the family anyway. Later, Teresa is shown preparing for her wedding, which she expresses doubts about following through with. Motivated by her support for her sister and her contempt for the shallow world in which she lives, Carolina announces her intentions to boycott the wedding. Mary is present at the wedding, and she slips Johnny a note as he walks down the aisle in a procession of the bride's family. Shortly thereafter, Mary converses with Johnny, ultimately revealing that she plans to return to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

now that

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

has ended. She boards a cruise liner and departs.

Note

This film is not to be confused with Miss Mary, the 1957 Hindi remake of the Telugu movie '' Missamma''.

Reception

The film was nominated for

Best Foreign Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

of 1986 by the U.S.

National Board of Review of Motion Pictures The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0091528, Miss Mary 1986 films 1986 drama films 1980s English-language films English-language Argentine films 1980s Spanish-language films Films set in Argentina Films shot in Argentina Films set in the Infamous Decade Fictional governesses Argentine drama films New World Pictures films