Hailed as her masterpiece, Yvonne Rainer’s second feature explores the nature of artifice via a coolly simmering woman in an unsatisfying relationship.

Expanding on the intricate minimalism of Lives of Performers, Rainer’s next film (again working with cinematographer Babette Mangolte) features a meticulous script narrated by the director. It probes the depths of a relationship by centring on the inner life of a woman whose sexual dissatisfaction belies a barely concealed fury, as she recalls memories that don’t match up with her current experiences of disconnection and the reveal of an affair.

Expanding on her dance work This Is the Story of a Woman Who … made the year prior, Rainer uses the medium of film to interrogate the tropes of melodrama and the clichéd storylines of soap operas. Through an assemblage of language (spoken, written and, in one scene, pasted onto the director’s own face), rigorously choreographed performances, still imagery and choreography inspired by the dancer Isadora Duncan, Rainer brings a cerebral edge to the notion of psychodrama.

“A remarkable juxtaposition of visual and verbal descriptive methods … Insight, irony and wit are marvellously combined.” – Time Out