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Ridley’s performance is affectless and deadpan, until it isn’t.

For most of her life, Jane Birkin, who died Sunday at 76, acted as a bridge — an elegant one, with an affectless grace that never betrayed the strains of load bearing.

Astrud Gilberto sings “The Girl from Ipanema” in a light, affectless style that influenced Sade and Suzanne Vega among others, as if she had already moved on to other matters.

Astrud Gilberto sings “The Girl From Ipanema” in a light, affectless style — as if she had already moved on to other matters — that decades later influenced singers such as Sade and Suzanne Vega among others.

But even the lighter works can sting a little: In “Trial Witch,” an ostensibly playful story about a housewife who’s granted magical powers of transformation — she turns cats into dogs, and shrinks the riders of a crowded train car to two inches tall to give herself more room — the protagonist mentions her husband hitting her in such a casual, affectless manner that it colors the entire narrative.