The Headless Woman
La mujer sin cabeza
Spain, France, Italy, Argentina
2008
87 Min
Color
2.35:1
Spanish
Synopsis
The latest film from Lucrecia Martel, who is proving herself as a major new talent in world cinema.
Veronica is driving on the highway in northwestern Argentina. She becomes distracted by the ringtone of her mobile phone and runs over something, but drives on. The story will revolve around her meltdown following the accident and the possible death of someone. The police confirm that there were no accident reports. But she has doubts about what she had really hit. Was it an animal? A child?
The mystery of what happened, or what is imagined to have happened, has intrigued audiences and critics alike.
Director
Lucrecia Martel
Lucrecia Martel was born in Salta, northern Argentina, in 1966. As a teenager she did a good deal of filming of her large family, but she never suspected she would end up studying filmmaking. In 1986 she moved to Buenos Aires to study communication. She made a few short films, among them Rey Muerto (Dead King) which received several international awards.
Between 1995- 1998 she directed documentaries for television and children’s programs with a dark sense of humor and which were widely acclaimed by the Argentine press. In 1999 she received the Sundance+-/ NHK Filmmakers Award for her script La Cienaga (The Swamp) about families in Northern Argentina. —Filmbug
Wall
Displaying 4 of 30 wall posts.
Paolo Simeone
30Apr13
Irrisolto e per questo anche incomprensibile. E da questo suppongo ne derivi anche l'apprezzamento.
Namaste
10Mar13
Gripping rendition of doubt & guilt, while desensitized to the outer world. Intriguing title: headless as oblivious to what happens around (oblivion at a larger scale: upper class/the poor) and as suggestive of anonymity. Beautiful cinematography, subtle hints conveying the inner struggle, nice touch with the small handprints on the window, riveting close-up shots accompanied by blurred silhouettes in the background.
EmreSaglam
27Feb13
There is questionary in betweenness states on Lucrecia's narative that should unrestricted narative really protect the cathartic tension in feminist rhetoric? Also visual pleasure and the gaze of "other" really work on the film.
Related Films
Fans
Displaying 5 of 382 fans.
Articles
Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
Cineaste, N1FR, frieze
By David Hudson on August 25, 2010
Cineaste grapples with politics even more than usual in its Fall 2010 issue, n+1's new online film review is unlike any other — in a good
Movie Posters of the Year
By Adrian Curry on January 1, 2010
Since it’s no secret by now that The Girlfriend Experience is my favorite movie poster of the year and since I already selected a few of these
Senses of Cinema, "The White Ribbon," DVDs
By David Hudson on December 30, 2009
It's a busy Wednesday between Christmas and New Year's, with film journals posting new issues, a handful of films opening in theaters and
Topics/Questions/Exercises Of The Week—21 August 2009
By Glenn Kenny on August 21, 2009
A Day In The Death Of James Cameron's Avatar: "I have a feeling this week's cannonball of publicity isn't going to let up until December
The Auteurs Daily: Three Husbands and One Headless Woman
By David Hudson on August 19, 2009
"Like my other films, The Headless Woman doesn't end in the moment that the lights go up, it ends one or two days later," Lucrecia Martel
Dread Desert, Part II: a conversation with Lucrecia Martel
By Daniel Kasman on October 23, 2008
J. Hoberman once said that "to not get Bresson is to not get the idea of motion pictures," and that's a fine assertion (and judgment) and all
Dread Desert, Part I: "The Headless Woman" (Martel, Argentina)
By David Phelps on October 23, 2008
Imagine that we are sitting in an ordinary room. Suddenly we are told that there is a corpse behind a door. In an instant the room we are
Cannes Film Festival, 2008: "The Headless Woman" (Martel, Argentina)
By Daniel Kasman on May 25, 2008
Above: Vero (María Onetto) in one of the film's many emblematic, ghostly uses of foreground and background in its compositions. Argentinian
Lists
Displaying 5 of 189 lists.
Reviews
Displaying 2 of 2
La Mujer sin Cabeza
By Diezmartinez on March 9, 2011
Por angas o por mangas, la obra de la cineasta argentina Lucrecia Martel permanece virtualmente inédita en México. Es cierto que su opera prima La Ciénaga (2001) se presentó en alguna Muestra Internacional… read review
The Headless Woman
By Gino on June 24, 2010
The Headless Woman is under beautiful direction, and is something of a minor masterpiece. It’s incredibly acted by Maria Onetto and the rest of the cast, and I believed every last second of the FIlm… read review
Forum
Displaying
1 discussion topic.
The Headless Woman (2008)--Middle Class Guilt?
26 posts by 7 people
about 1 year ago