The Holy Girl (2004)

16-year-old Amalia looks to save the soul a middle-aged doctor.

Director:

Lucrecia Martel

Writers:

Juan Pablo Domenech (contributing writer), Lucrecia Martel

Stars:

Mercedes Morán, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapilleta

4 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mercedes Morán	...	Helena
Carlos Belloso	...	Dr. Jano
Alejandro Urdapilleta	...	Freddy
María Alche	...	Amalia
Julieta Zylberberg	...	Josefina
Mía Maestro	...	Inés
Marta Lubos	...	Mirta
Arturo Goetz	...	Dr. Vesalio
Alejo Mango	...	Dr. Cuesta
Mónica Villa	...	Madre de Josefina
Leandro Stivelman	...	Julian
Manuel Schaller	...	Thermin player
Miriam Diaz	...	Miriam
Rodolfo Cejas	...	Josefina's father
Maria Victoria Mosca Coll	...	Local girl

Storyline

ENT physicians gather at a provincial hotel in Salta. The hotel owner, Helena, is subdued, brittle, avoiding the calls of her ex-husband's pregnant wife. Family dysfunction seems everywhere. Helena's daughter, Amalia, about 14, discusses vocations in a Catholic girls group. Their teen imaginations conflate the erotic, the religious, and the lurid. Amalia notices Dr. Jano, and he notices her. She decides to make him her vocation, she follows him, he rubs against her in a public crowd, he's appalled at his actions. Meanwhile, Helena believes Jano is attracted to her even though he's married. Longing, guilt, scandal, and teen sensuality are set to collide.

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Plot Keywords:

hotel | 16 year old | doctor | f rated | tinnitus | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some sexual content and brief nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [ar (Spanish, English) Official site [Argentina]

Country:

Argentina Italy Netherlands Spain

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

6 May 2004 (Argentina)

Also Known As:

The Holy Girl

Filming Locations:

Salta, Argentina

Box Office

Budget:

$1,400,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

ARS 75,013 (Argentina), 11 May 2004, Limited Release

Opening Weekend USA:

$28,327, 1 May 2005, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$304,124, 4 July 2005

Company Credits

Production Co:

La Pasionaria S.r.l.,R&C Produzioni,Teodora Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

'La niña santa' (The Holy Girl) stars María Alché and is directed by Lucrecia Martel. Both Maria and Lucrecia graduated from the same film school, ENERC.

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Soundtracks

Cara de Gitana
Written by AMRI / Justiniano Orquera / Rubén Lotes
Performed by Daniel Magal

User Reviews

Lucrecia Martel: An Argentinean Filmmaker in the Vein of Buñuel and Almodóvar

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 anal 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 innuendos 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. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp