Homage to the Strength of Love

There are a lot of ways to tell a story about a young girl’s summer spent in the Amish countryside during the year 1947. “Birch Interval” takes a bittersweet approach.

This wonderfully acted and sensitive memoir opens with 12-year-old Jessie’s mother flying off to study art in Paris and depositing her daughter at her brother’s Pennsylvania home.

As Jessie (Susan McClung) steps from the train and greets her Uncle Thomas (Rip Torn), her grandfather “Pa” (Eddie Albert), her Aunt Marie and cousins Esther and Samuel, we get the feeling she has made this summertime visit before: She’s embraced into the Amish scene as if she’s at summer camp. On this first day, her world seems sunnily secure. Then gradually, things start to crumble.

She sees her beloved Uncle Thomas lose grip with reality and eventually die in an insane asylum; her aunt becomes pregnant with the local sheriff’s child; she’s molested by several young boys, and she is completely rejected by her mother.

Yet amid the tragedy, we are offered a strong conclusion: Despite whatever horrors befall a child, the love of one strong person--in this case Pa--can secure deliverance and a happy life.

“Birch Interval” (1978), directed by Delbert Mann. 105 minutes. Rated PG.

“Chanel Solitaire” (1984), directed by George Kaczender. 124 minutes. Rated PG-13. If your interest is in gorgeous clothes and sumptuous locations, you will not be disappointed in this story about the life of designer Coco Chanel (Marie-France Pisier). But the film’s strength lies in its ability to show both sides of Chanel: a pathetically sad little orphan who starts with nothing but triumphs in the fashion world.