Over the course of the film, her minor rebellion grows more specific and less superficial. At first, she hides her tampons (or the medieval equivalent) in the outhouse, and then she terrorizes one suitor after another. Left with no alternative, he decides to marry Birdy to a wealthy lord, and she sabotages him in any way she can. She wants nothing more than to play with her friends and be left alone, so problems arise when her father Lord Rollo (Andrew Scott) starts losing money.

The gambit is smart and successful, a way for Dunham to depict a plucky young protagonist who is not modern, exactly, but whose dreams and desires are similar to what girls share today.īella Ramsey, whom you may recognize from Game of Thrones, plays Birdy as a curious, opinionated lord’s daughter.

Instead of sunny Los Angeles in the ‘90s, Dunham’s film is set in medieval England, which is another way of saying that Dunham – like Sofia Coppola in Marie Antoinette – relies heavily on anachronism as a cinematic tool. This is a cover of “Alright,” not the original version, presumably chosen because it’s more mellow and better reflects the setting. She overlays the opening scene to the song “ Alright,” originally by Supergrass, which was used prominently in Amy Heckerling’s modern update of Emma. Before Catherine Called Birdy gets started, writer-director Lena Dunham wants you think about Clueless.

Who is birdy