The Girl

Even watching without subtitles to assist, I got a lot out of Marta Meszaros' first feature-length film THE GIRL. This beautifully shot (in black & white of course) slice of life lacks the depth and didactic nature of her later works but was already evidence of a diamond in the rough.

Less a dramatic piece than a character study, the film is built around the strong central presence of Kati Kovacs, a young actress who resembles another great feminist director Margarethe von Trotta, a fellow actress at the time this was shot. We see her in the big city, but most of the film has her in a rural setting, living with a motley group as an outsider.

The matriarch there is very well-played, and allows Meszaros to show how a traditional role in society does not prevent a woman from having an impact in her circle. The take-no-prisoners feminism of MM's later films appears in a wonderful little scene of the head of the house watching a communal TV set fixed on a beauty pageant, then as now so gaudy and phony in a manner only Donald Trump could love. The reaction of the matriarch, heroine Kati and others in this scene is subtle but priceless.

She later spends much of her time in an unlikely romance with a guy who suggests Stanley Baker, that great (though largely forgotten) British star whose career would peak in ZULU (catch him doing a brilliant job opposite young Helen Mirren in a BBC DVD of the play "The Changeling").

Meszaros is not afraid to show how dull everyday life can be -unlike Hitchcock her cinema has always favored realism over contrivance. In this sense, I found the film's rather sudden ending shocking -shocking in its simplicity and lack of dramatic emphasis. The Hungarian title translates as "The Day Has Gone", so this slice of life does carry with it a feeling of futility that fits the overall theme.