MovieChat Forums > La mujer sin cabeza (2008) Discussion > I liked her two other films much better

I liked her two other films much better

posted 15 years ago by CinemaBuff84
3 replies | jump to latest

I loved La Cienaga (talk about a slow & methodical narrative) & had similar feelings about her last film The Holy Girl which was even more interesting narratively.

This film on the one hand had a very interesting narrative construction but it seemed to drag more than the other films even though La Cienaga had a very banal pacing.

The Headless Woman you like get a real good lead performance and an interesting narrative construction but not as interesting. It's like the method is there but the content & plotting was not as interesting or compelling.

6/10

[–] Stonez890 13 years ago

Yea, La Cienaga and The Holy Girl were much better. The thing with La Cienaga is that it appears as though nothing is happening through a series of seemingly unrelated events, but every seemingly unrelated scene ties intogether with the others, and I think the message and focus in that film was much more clear than this one.

The Holy Girl is probably her most accessible piece. But you're absolutely right, the lead performance was excellent and the narrative construction was interesting, though it seemed a little un-focused and unsure of itself attimes. I think Martel was trying to say something, but the film's construction disabled her to do it properly, IMHO. There are some themes you see throughout the film, such as the class differences between the Native Americans and the upper-middle class Argtentinians (I see this theme in every one of her films, especially La Cienaga), but I don't think she fleshed tem out as well as she did in La Cienaga. The film just felt a tad TOO vague. It's not as though I don't respect or recognize subtlety, I just don't think that because I recognized what she may have been trying to hint at at times, that it automatically makes the film good, and I think the reason behind that like you said is because IMO she failed to make the film compelling. I didn't think it was horrible though, just not as good as her previous two films.

[–] Tchoutoye 13 years ago

Haven't seen La Cienaga yet, but I agree The Holy Girl is much better than The Headless Woman.

The Headless Woman is too minimal and rather dull. All the characters besides the eponymic protagonist were flat, and the setting too domestic. Martel pushed her style, which I would call "hyper-mundane", a bit over the edge.

In contrast, that mundane style is balanced out well in The Holy Girl with the interesting atmosphere of the contained world in the hotel, and with the emotional chemistry within the triangle of the mother, daughter and doctor.

[–] ben-152 12 years ago

Call me the odd man out, but I really liked The Headless Woman, perhaps a little more than La Cienega. I'm speaking as someone who calls Michael Haneke one of his favorite directors, and to me, Woman felt like one of his films. The contempt for the Bourgeois, the clinical and slow pacing, and the disturbing elements coming from the mundane and minimalist tone. I saw much of this in La Cienega, and there were a number of scenes, particularly the hunting scenes, which set me on edge because the film was so leisurely, but there was something lurking beneath the surface. And I'm glad that what happened at the end happened, because I knew there would be something major to set things off balance.
I can see why people might dislike The Headless Woman. Many of the issues surrounding class were not apparent when I originally saw it, but I'm sure I'll be able to appreciate them when I see the film in the future. They weren't as obvious as they were in La Cienega, but still evident. While watching Woman, it was a headscratcher, but I understand it better now, and still find it disturbing. As I said, as a Haneke fan, I really really loved The Headless Woman, even though I know it's not as popular as her others. I would love to see The Holy Girl, it sounds good.