Mary Poppins (1964)
Okay, so I said I wouldn’t be doing schmaltz, but Mary Poppins rises far above its musical cinema brethren with its depictions of different mothering types, and different functions of family. While, on the surface, it places its emphasis on the relationship between father and children, with Mary Poppins arriving to help repair it after significant damage, it is the mothers who quietly dominate proceedings.
Mary Poppins is the magical nanny who arrives to help the Banks family, whose father is increasingly emotionally distant from his wife and children. Mrs Banks, too, is busy with the business of campaigning for women’s rights, and so the assistance of Mary Poppins is most welcome. While she does not stay indefinitely, the family premise is an early rendering of a non-traditional way for a family to function. Both parents are occupied outside of the home, and rely on the work of others to aid in the care of their children. In the vein of the old adage “it takes a village”, this illustration of women in the family was very much ahead of its time.
