The Headless Woman

The cinematic tricks it attempts are very effective at presenting both the confusion of its lead character and the contrasts of living conditions in a flawed society. It says all it has to say in about 45 minutes, though, and by the end the curiosity gives way to annoyance at both the films slavish devotion to its method and the ultimately unsympathetic and underdeveloped characters.

The strengths here are formal more than narratival. That Martel is able to use the technical aspects of the film (abrupt and elliptical edits, darkness, and the positioning of the actors) to mimic her storyline shows a special accomplishment. That said, I found the film difficult to connect with, as its central protagonist remains so far removed, not just from us, but from everyone in her life.

A few scenes hit their mark and create a strange captivating tension (the accident and firefighters on the bridge especially), but the rest is too understated. Class issues and parenting are brought up but never explored. Characters are never developed. Not holding the audience's hand is a good thing, but this is too fractured to be effective. There is some pretty good acting, even if the actors aren't given a lot.

It has a rather intriguing premise, one that involves delving into deep recesses of the mind of a woman who is unsure if she ran over a dog or a boy and is too paralyzed by her fears to actually take action and find out. This could have been a psychological masterpiece. Instead, it feels too disjointed and emotionally distant. Simply, this is one of those audacious experimental films that doesn't quite work.

Immensely boring film about the psychological effects of an accident, starring a bony and not likeable actress whose performance would have befitted an Eric Rohmer zombie film. There was one nicely-shot scene, in which tension is built up by sticking the camera in the back seat of this dangerous-driving woman's SUV. The rest of the film was like watching paint dry. A lot of pointless scenes which didn't advance the story, develop characters or express a theme or motif. Stunningly ineffectual.

Has a very interesting beginning and first third as we put together the pieces of a mystery. Then the film shifts gears and plods along as we are introduced to the protagonist's privileged upper middle class existence. The film starts to waver and fall apart because it tries to be deep through showing the disparity between class in society but it just ends up a mess. By the end we are left with a jumbled ambiguous conclusion that is neither profound nor well conceived.

Lucrecia Martel in the interviews told it's her clearest film. I am even afraid to think about her confusing films! It is filled with long scenes of trivial everyday activities that I could no way see anyhow significant to the story. No characters are introduced, and they all, except the protagonist, are just passers by. That makes films really boring, and even at the runtime of 90min it drags. I understand what idea director wanted to present, but the way it is done is simply bad.

Martel continues to refine her impressive, enigmatic aesthetic, as well as her maddening penchant for go-nowhere half-allegories who's meanings escape me. Nonetheless this is her most impressive, formally assured work yet, at best baring more than a passing resemblance to Antonioni in form as well as content.

a woman hits something on the road and she experiences anxiety that it might have been a person. eventually they find out it was, and the family covers things up. that's pretty much the movie in its totality, because everything about it is trivial, mundane and boring. on the back cover, words such as 'giddily', 'disorientating', 'frenzied' and 'headtrip' are used, and it's utterly beyond me how they apply to this.

Head firmly attached full duration of movie!!! Total rip off!

"Films that try to convey a state of disorientation live and die by their central metaphors, and the one that lends Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman its title is certifiably lame." - Akiva Gottlieb

The film was quite dull and I felt no connection to any of the characters, but when the film ended quite abruptly I did begin to question what had actually happened.

Brilliant mise-en-scène in this understated and elusive psychological thriller from Lucrecia Martel, who doesn't even let us fully into the mind of her protagonist. Vero, beautifully played by Maria Onetto, is she really oblivious to what we know to be happening, or is she keeping her cards to close to her chest? Is she conniving or confused? Is she a victim of her social standing or privileged beyond reason? Perhaps a little bit of everything? Realistic and at the same time spellbinding.

Its strengths are so extreme that I’m willing to overlook how trivial and monotonous much of it is. From the spell-bindingly vivid first 8 minutes, into the disturbing haze of ambiguity that the protagonist awakens into - there’s a lot here to admire. The ending returns to that psychological space but it’s impossible not to be disappointed. There’s a masterpiece here that, for whatever reason, couldn’t fully form.

Admirably made, but it certainly takes its time.

an elegant exploration of how the stories one creates in their head creates the tension in and sets the tone for everyday. the contrast between how framing & editing flows between classical narrative form and arthouse is another significant way this tension and mood are depicted. a brilliant film that puts not the events but their affect in the display window.

I found this a relatively slow and not especially substantial film. It didn't really appeal to me and I wouldn't especially recommend it.

Second watch. I'll pull it from 70 to 60. Yes, it is about the structural condition of being a bourgeois and the ethical troubles it brings once there is a crack in the ideology that sustains all your (hypocrite) morals. Vero-looks like a word game with "truth," or veracity-is unable to address this (maybe imagined) murder of hers, for probably the other is an absolute other, impossible to "represent" and come face to face. Yet, it is utterly descriptive and pessimistic. Not my taste.

Contemplative, experssionist. Tells a lot even while moving slowly through its short runtime. Delightful.

why didn't you just check if you killed someone :(

Leaving the cinema I liked it but was underwhelmed. Since then it has grown for me. It burrows in to your head and festers there. What did happen? you ask yourself time and time again, running through all the details over and over. Personally I found them contradictory and yet for that very reason all the more intriguing, all the more enraging, and all the more making me want to return to see what I missed.

Some wonderful off-kilter cinematography and a great dazed lead performance mix with very strong social commentary on privilege and patriarchy. I did definitely wish there was more of a traditional structure, however.

Star Rating: ★★★★1/2

Immediately throwing its audience into a tangle of interpersonal relationships and spelling out nothing, The Headless Woman can be difficult. Yet its abrupt, disorienting cadences capture its subject's tunnel vision and fundamental disconnect. As her anxieties that she hit a person grow, it appears she finally grows privy to the system of privilege that keeps her life afloat but the blurry impressionism of the parting shot questions if anything is actually clearer.

Too subtle considering it's from her point of view.

A disquieting and unnerving viewing experience for me. Based on nightmares the director herself had, this feels more like a horror film than most despite being grounded in an art cinema framework, where one is stuck with the main character in her trauma, with claustrophobic framing of scenes and unsettlingly vivid diegetic sound. The result is a masterpiece for me that will divide people greatly.

Martel is a very minor art-filmmaker. Not especially insightful, she exemplifies the second-rate aesthetics of underdeveloped cultures. Her over-subtle approach hides the superficiality of her dull, dull style.

Antonioni comparisons are apt. Wish I liked Antonioni more.

Perhaps a bit too heady for me (pardon the pun), but I kept waiting for the payoff here that never really came. I think it's almost too subtle and it makes it very difficult to understand the point. There's some interesting stuff going on cinematography-wise, especially with framing, but I was disappointed.