Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

The Headless Woman (2008)

Director: Lucrecia Martel

Time Out rating

Average user rating

26 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

In what could be one of the greatest films ever made about the emotional realities of a damaged mind, this giddily disorientating latest from Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel (‘La Ciénaga’, ‘The Holy Girl’) is a work of frenzied genius. It opens with glamorous, middle-aged dentist Vero (María Onetto – a tour de force) driving along a quiet dirt track. There’s a sudden bump. She’s hit something. But what? A dog? Or maybe one of the teens we’ve seen loitering on the roadside? Clutching her brow, she speeds off without finding out what, exactly, just dented her fender.

As with the question of who is sending the tapes in Michael Haneke’s ‘Hidden’, Martel spends the remainder of the film cultivating a mystery whose solution, it transpires, may be extraneous to the actual story she is trying to tell. Casually dispensing with exposition and formal character introductions, she instead burdens us with an intimate, first-hand experience of Vero’s temporary discombobulation. Vero’s tragic attempts to bluff her way through a life that has lost all meaning are perfectly realised by Martel’s brand of ambient, almost dreamlike social realism, where each shot demands a swift decoding to reveal its ulterior purpose.

In line with the director’s previous films, there’s an incisive political subtext lurking under this ostensibly interior drama. While Vero’s loss of memory adds a level of discomfort to her daily life, it also allows her a spell of self-reflection and moral rejuvenation. Her anxiety awakens a mindfulness of her bourgeois complacency which in turn makes her reassess the connections she has with her own family. The bitter closing shot, though, suggests that you can never change those accustomed to a life of privileged conformity. It’s a supremely disconcerting kiss-off to a cinematic head-trip like no other.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 2060: 11-17 February, 2009

Email Tweet Share

User reviews of this film

FTW said...

Posted on Jul 03 2011 18:25 This is a classic example of why I love (the majority of) TO reviews. I'd read the review several times before watching the film and, when I got to the end, I was as mystified as many of the one star user reviews on here. Read the TO review again and suddenly understood what he meant by 'bitter' last scene. Then, I realised I'd forgotten to 'swiftly decode each shot'. So, obviously I have to watch it again. The review is helping me see what I may have missed. That's mainly what I ask of a review. Because this is not a normal film and, having not quite grasped it, I'm glad someone was there to give me the tools to have another crack.

Report as inappropriate
jack said...

Posted on May 12 2011 13:44 All you harsh critics didn't get this film and that's okay, not everyone has to enjoy the same things. But there are some of us out there, David Jenkins included, who appreciated what the film was trying to do: show the inner life of a woman in shock over having possibly committed a crime, and also to create the realistic environment in which she lives. This was interesting to me for two reasons. One, because of the brilliant performance of the lead actress, I was endlessly curious about what had happened to her and how she would react to social interactions. And second, because I've never been to Argentina, I was intrigued as I got an education about the stratification of that society and how it is similar and different to the one in which I live. Although this film won't top my best film list, it was memorable and provocative, and that's saying a lot.

Report as inappropriate
mustard57 said...

Posted on Dec 17 2010 10:24 Phew! I completely agree with the one star reviews of this film. I just couldn't understand why anyone would seriously rate this. At least I'm not going mad. How this can be described as a work of "frenzied genius" is a mystery - particularly "frenzied" ( although it's certainly not genius either - how can such a slow moving, dull and rather empty film merit such an adjective.
I really think I can help people by telling them that unless you have a lot of time to spare, you are best not watching this film. Basically, it's really dull and nothing happens. Yes I know life is like that, but that's rarely what your average viewer wants from a film. The central character is deliberately uninteresting, and someone for whom no sympathy is intended, but you have to work that out for yourself when you get to the end and wonder what on earth the point was. She leads a slightly pampered lifestyle, seemingly has no thoughts of her own, and no initiatives. She accidentally runs someone one over - perhaps - though this is never really clarified. She doesn't stop, and then the film is largely focussed on her rather dull though privileged ( in relative terms ) suburban existence. There are better films out there and I feel I could have used my limited time more profitably by watching one of them!

Report as inappropriate
Mike said...

Posted on Aug 27 2010 17:58 I'm surprised that this film is running again. I saw it last autumn and totally agree with the majority of audience reviews - this is a seriously boring and overhyped film, worthy of one or two stars. Read the audience reviews first (below) before even considering this one - much better to try "Le Refuge" or "London River" - both very good.

Report as inappropriate
Marion said...

Posted on May 20 2010 14:42 Was the crash a red herring? ( It certainly looked like an animal that she had run over.) From other clues in the story was she suffering from the early onset of Alzheimers?

Report as inappropriate
mo said...

Posted on Apr 05 2010 23:07 I think this is the most boring film I have ever seen; The trailer looked really good. Everyone left the cinema with looks of puzzlement on their faces. I'm quite happy to watch films where nothing much happens; I was transfixed the night that i first saw Eraserhead for example. I only stayed to the end because I thought something would actually happen. I feel that I have wasted 90 minutes of my life.

Report as inappropriate
Rob Arnott said...

Posted on Mar 28 2010 02:41 I have to agree with most of the comments here. I think you and Peter Bradshaw have been fooled into expecting a great film. It's really, really not. Technically it's excellent (perhaps a little too excellent, in the way that 'Climates' was pretty but boring), and the performances are great. However, as an evocation of a woman's mental breakdown it has nothing on 'A woman under the influence' or 'The piano teacher'- it offered pretty much nothing into her mindset. As a study of middle class guilt it is weak and undeveloped, and pales in comparison to 'Hidden'.
A big mistake.

Report as inappropriate
lm said...

Posted on Mar 26 2010 11:17 Desperately disappointing. To compare this film with Hidden is a massive insult to Haneke. No emotional drama, no dread, no tension, a sprawling, half-baked narrative, a series of cardboard cut-out characters whose role seemed pointless... I went to see it with my cinema buddy; we are both keen film buffs. Five minutes after the film finished, we were chatting about other things, the movie completely forgotten.

Report as inappropriate
Peter Ludbrook said...

Posted on Mar 26 2010 09:47 An interesting but disappointing film. The opening sequence seemed to set up a situation that would lead to a gripping developement. Instead characters were hardly developed to the extent that I didn't care about them. The film was so enigmatic that I found it impossible to be involved. I did wonder if Argentinean audiences would make more of it. The business of all her records including her stay at the hotel totally vanishing might well strike a resonance with an audience aware that so many Argentineans "disappeared" during the military dictatorship. Still I did stick it out to the end but I can well understand why many didn't.

Report as inappropriate
richard moon said...

Posted on Mar 25 2010 18:41 Seriously disappointing. Started as a rather intriguing Babel-type drama with some more sophisticated acting, but proved to be utterly banal.

Report as inappropriate
minnie mouse said...

Posted on Mar 14 2010 21:08 Just back from the Renoir - had to look up the film length on my blackberry halfway through (thank God only 90 mins) and from then on it was clockwatching all the way. I tend not to read reviews until I've seen a film as I don't like to be prejudiced on the way in, but in this case I regret that policy as if I had read just half of these scathing comments I would have gone to one of the many other good films that are out there at the moment. It begins so promisingly but gradually fades out into boring nothingness. Every decent rag except the Observer seems to have waxed lyrical about this utterly mediocre piece of self indulgent banality - I can only imagine that there was some kind of 'Day of the Triffids' like experience in which all of the reviewers were blinded and thus unable to see the film for what it really is.

Report as inappropriate
Bara Evans said...

Posted on Mar 12 2010 12:30 Time Out has great listings but awful, pretentious reviews. In my experience, the trick is to avoid the films they really rave about. If the reviewer raves and the audience boos, go with the audience. The reviewers are film buffs who use words like auteur. They revel in finding that lost masterpiece that others have missed. Did you see that under-appreciated masterpiece by the Iranain director about sheep sleeping in the snow?

Report as inappropriate
Chris A said...

Posted on Mar 06 2010 14:34 I've been running a weekly cinema group for over 6 years and in that time can't ever recall being so seriously misled by a review as we were with David Jenkins' ecstatic eulogising of this execrable film. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but come on – how could you get it so wrong? 8 of us left the cinema unanimous in our condemnation of such a dismally dull work - and we actually stayed to the end, unlike several others. Rarely have 90 minutes passed so achingly slowly. Leaving the camera static while events happen half in and half out of shot is not an homage to ‘Hidden’ – it’s just poor film-making. We expect occasions when films don’t quite match up to expectations, but this time we actually felt cheated. This is the first time I’ve posted an on-line review, as I normally rely on those paid to do the job rather than your average punter, but Mr Jenkins’ review is so off-beam that I feel obliged to warn others not to waste their money as we did. I expect ‘Time Out’ to steer me away from this sort of pretentious drivel, not sucker me into paying to watch it – please take more care in future.

Report as inappropriate
c said...

Posted on Mar 06 2010 08:50 brilliant, BRILLIANT, brilliant....Lucrecia Martel all the way...great review too

Report as inappropriate
c said...

Posted on Mar 06 2010 08:49 Brilliant film, great review too, Lucrecia Martel is a brilliant director

Report as inappropriate