As one discovers and rediscovers Ford’s films, each gesture, each flower, carries the memory of those that came before and the anticipation of those yet to come. Every act is imbued with the weight of it all. Ford, of course, never emphasizes such symbols too strongly. Instead, he allows them to unfold naturally and with sincerity: Shirley Temple putting a few handpicked flowers in Victor McLaglen’s hand in Wee Willie Winkie (1937), the title card in Just Pals (1920) that reads “Will you give him these flowers so he’ll know that I am thinkin’ of him?”, John Wayne declaring his love by handing a bouquet to Maureen O’Hara in Rio Grande (1950) or offering a single yellow buttercup flower in The Quiet Man (1952). Ford is romantic, and that’s his strength.

In preparation for her projects, Ottinger produces thick books, in which visual and literary snippets are collected in a cut-and-mix collage technique. Some of these only contain script, others are collections of photographs, people, objects, poems, or any information on how a certain mood might be created. Often, they are not only work books but also travel diaries with vocabulary of the other language, maps, phone numbers, important addresses or notes.