The Holy Girl
by Lucrecia Martel
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alejandro Urdapilleta, Carlos Belloso, Julieta Zylberberg, Maria Alche, Mercedes MoranDirector: Lucrecia Martel
Brand: HBO Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Dubbed)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 92754
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Product features:
- The Holy Girl poignantly captures the lives of two teenage girls, Amalia, daughter to the owner of the hotel, and the girl's best friend Josefina, as they adjust to their growing sexuality and religious passion. After an encounter with the respected Dr. Jano, a physician attending the convention, Amalia confides in Josefina that she is going to deliver him from sin. After submitting to her wishes,
Movie Reviews of The Holy Girl
Movie Review: Lucrecia Martel: An Argentinean Filmmaker in the Vein of Buñuel and Almodóvar
Summary: 5 Stars
Lucrecia Martel is one gifted artist. Her latest film, 'La Niña santa' (The Holy Girl) was conceived, written and directed in a style that is a tough and puzzling of Luis Buñuel and Pedro Almodóvar: what you see on the screen is an enigmatic mixture of sexuality and spirituality, comedy and drama, polemics and parody, all woven together in a fascinatingly beautiful story that demands a lot from the audience. Martel is a talent of enormous potential and magnitude.
In a somewhat seedy hotel somewhere in Argentina (? Buenos Aires,? Rosario) lives divorced party planner Helena (a brilliant Mercedes Morán), her also divorced brother Freddy (Alejandro Urdapilleta), and her teenage daughter Amalia (María Alche). Amalia goes to parochial school with her friend Josefina (Julieta Zylberberg) and there they study Catholic life and the need for a 'vocation'. Both girls are caught up in the throes of adolescent sexual awakening and committed spiritual development, with the loggerheads the two themes can produce. Josefina is having safe sex (ie [...] sex) while demanding that her perpetrator not speak during the act. Amalia finds a different encounter.
In the hotel is a convention of doctors, among them one Dr. Jano (Carlos Belloso) who, though married with children, has a secretive act of pressing himself against the buttocks of young girls (an act of molestation), and while listening to a street Thermin player, he rubs against Amalia. Amalia becomes obsessed with the act and its possible permutations and finally decides that this man's redemption is her 'vocation'. While she confides the incidents to Josefina, she otherwise keeps her secret.
Meanwhile Helena is monitoring the doctors' convention and meets Dr Jano, is attracted to him, and agrees to be an 'actress' for a convention closing drama on doctor/patient relationships. Dr Jano is invited to Helena's room where of course he meets the stalking Amalia, and the tension of the multiple innuendoes mounts. Dr Jano's family arrives at the convention dousing Helena's hopes for a assignation, but encouraging Amalia to corner Jano to reassure him he is a good man (ie, she provides his redemption - her 'vocation' commitment for her spiritual training). How this plays out in the end provides the food for post-film thought and is best left for the viewer to see.
Martel's technique for drawing characters is unique and extraordinary, made all the stronger from her carefully selected cast of top-flight actors (many of whom she has used in prior projects, 'La Cienega' etc). Her camera designs (fulfilled by cinematographer Félix Monti) and her wondrous emphasis on sound (including original music by Andres Gerzenson as well as repeated use of thermin reproduction of music by Bach and Bizet) give her film a special look that is becoming her trademark.
Her executive producer is Pedro Almodóvar which should tell the audience a lot about the importance of this film. Lucrecia Martel creates difficult, highly intelligent, at times meandering, but always fascinating movies. She is a budding giant in the industry. In Spanish with English subtitles. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, September 05
Summary of The Holy Girl
The Holy Girl poignantly captures the lives of two teenage girls, Amalia, daughter to the owner of the hotel, and the girl's best friend Josefina, as they adjust to their growing sexuality and religious passion. After an encounter with the respected Dr. Jano, a physician attending the convention, Amalia confides in Josefina that she is going to deliver him from sin. After submitting to her wishes, Dr. Jano realizes that no matter how good the temptation, nothing is worth the evil it causes.Prepare to be carried away into the dreamlike world of The Holy Girl, Lucrecia Martel's sultry mood piece. In a dowdy hotel in Argentina, a small-scale morality play is unfolding: devout teenager Amalia (Maria Alche) determines to save the soul of the middle-aged man who inappropriately rubbed up against her in the street. He's a doctor (Carlos Belloso) visiting town for a conference, staying at the same hotel where Amalia lives with her mother (Mercedes Moran). It gets complicated when Amalia's mother makes the doctor's acquaintance and finds herself attracted to him--without knowing about his dark little secret. Martel, whose first feature was the remarkable La Cienaga, creates a world both spiritual and sensual for this story, aided by the central performance of Maria Alche, whose religious devotion is at war with her Lolita looks. The overall effect is like the hotel's pool room, a heady feeling of humid atmosphere but with a lucid argument at its core. This is a fascinating film. --Robert Horton
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