One of our favorite films of 2008 — one that technically didn’t come out in ’08 — Lucrecia Martel’s disorienting and eerie, “The Headless Woman” (“La Mujer Sin Cabeza”) is finally coming Stateside via Strand Pictures in August.
We’ve been championing this film since we saw it at the New York Film Festival last fall and were bowled over by its intentionally discombobulating eschewing of film grammar (no establishing shots, breaking the invisible line, clipped editing and strange spatial frame relation). It actually messed with our equilibrium, which is exactly how you’re meant to feel. It’s creepy and anxiety-ridden experience, but a powerful piece of work and a testament to the Argentinian filmmakers keenly observing eye.
We’ve been wondering for months when this film would come out in North America. And we weren’t the only ones. The film was at the top of both IndieWire’s Best Undistributed Films of 2008 and Film Comment’s similar list (not online for some reason).
The picture centers on an Argentine woman in a small, remote city who becomes paranoid, disoriented and confused after a hit-and-run car accident. Gotta love the Spanish-language poster for the film released last year. Very Russian agit-prop in its aesthetic and especially the fonts. The film is a haunting experience and we can’t wait to see it again.
‘Woman,’ is Martel’s third feature and if you’ve never seen 2001’s “La Ciénaga,” and 2004’s “The Holy Girl” (“La Niña Santa,” we highly, highly recommend them. They’re not always the easiest films to swallow, but their opaque nature is extremely unique and she’s an important voice in new cinema. The film will start out August 19, at New York’s Film Forum which means a limited and small run, but it’ll hopefully hit your arthouse theater too and if not, at least we know it’ll eventually be out on DVD.