La Nina Santa
CANNES -- Catholic school girls and provincial doctors -- are there two more repressed groups? -- rub elbows, and a few other body parts, in this unduly dry In Competition entrant. Although a contemporary drama, "La Nina Santa" (The Holy Girl) feels like a period piece from long ago, such is its stodgy dramaturgy.
In this Spanish, coming-of-age story, two sexually immature groups, adolescent students and middle-aged doctors, intersect at a small hotel where a medical convention is being held. The hotel is run by a glamorous divorcee (Mercedes Moran), and it is the hangout of her adolescent daughter, Amalia, and her schoolgirl chums. In between choir rehearsals and Biblical discussions, the girls whisper about all the good things they can't reveal among adults; accordingly, these girls are on their own in these matters, literally and figuratively, groping for answers.
Not surprisingly, the middle-aged cadre of physicians does not seem any more sexually advanced, tied up in long-term marriages and leading the lives of respectable physicians. Like many physicians of their era, the good doctors are of the dweeb variety, nerds who have trouble relating to their patients, especially the taciturn Dr. Jano (Carlos Belloso), who exhibits repressed symptoms almost immediately -- eying the girls, even rubbing up against Amalia (Maria Alche) in a crowd. His seeking her out is no mere random, predatory mistake -- she has cast yearning glances his way and pursued him.
In essence, "La Nina Santa" is a forbidden-love story centering around societal and religious conventions. Filmmaker Lucrecia Martel has intelligently presented a situation where the dictum of religion, as well as the professional guideposts of a respected profession, provide only facile guidance in matters of overall human need, resorting to shallow homilies or institutional dictum. In particular, Martel counterpoints the schoolgirls' rigid religious discussions and hymn singing with their teenaged exuberance and life-embracing natures.
Overall, "La Nina Santa" is a disappointingly barren drama: A running gag of a compulsive maid spraying disinfectant all over provides the film's most entertaining moments. Intercutting between the tedious choir practices and the nerdy socializing of the dull doctors, "La Nina Santa" is a drama of low-pulse rate and dim pallor, bereft of irony and anemic in essential dramatic functions, a surprising diagnosis considering Pedro Almodovar is an executive producer.
La Nina Santa
Pyramide
Credits:
Producer: Lita Stantic
Writer/director: Lucrecia Martel
Executive producers: Pedro Almodovar, Agustin Almodovar, Esther Garcia
Line producer: Matias Mosteirin
Cinematographer: Felix Monti
Editor: Santiago Ricci
Art director: Graciela Oderigo
Costume designer: Julio Suarez
Sound: Marcos De Aguirre, David Miranda, Guido Berenblum Music: Andres Gerszenzon
Cast:
Mercedes Moran, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapileta, Maria Alche, Julieta Zylberberg, Mia Maestro, Monica Villa, Marta Lubos, Alejo Mango, Arturo Goetz
No MPAA Rating
Running time -- 106 minutes...
In this Spanish, coming-of-age story, two sexually immature groups, adolescent students and middle-aged doctors, intersect at a small hotel where a medical convention is being held. The hotel is run by a glamorous divorcee (Mercedes Moran), and it is the hangout of her adolescent daughter, Amalia, and her schoolgirl chums. In between choir rehearsals and Biblical discussions, the girls whisper about all the good things they can't reveal among adults; accordingly, these girls are on their own in these matters, literally and figuratively, groping for answers.
Not surprisingly, the middle-aged cadre of physicians does not seem any more sexually advanced, tied up in long-term marriages and leading the lives of respectable physicians. Like many physicians of their era, the good doctors are of the dweeb variety, nerds who have trouble relating to their patients, especially the taciturn Dr. Jano (Carlos Belloso), who exhibits repressed symptoms almost immediately -- eying the girls, even rubbing up against Amalia (Maria Alche) in a crowd. His seeking her out is no mere random, predatory mistake -- she has cast yearning glances his way and pursued him.
In essence, "La Nina Santa" is a forbidden-love story centering around societal and religious conventions. Filmmaker Lucrecia Martel has intelligently presented a situation where the dictum of religion, as well as the professional guideposts of a respected profession, provide only facile guidance in matters of overall human need, resorting to shallow homilies or institutional dictum. In particular, Martel counterpoints the schoolgirls' rigid religious discussions and hymn singing with their teenaged exuberance and life-embracing natures.
Overall, "La Nina Santa" is a disappointingly barren drama: A running gag of a compulsive maid spraying disinfectant all over provides the film's most entertaining moments. Intercutting between the tedious choir practices and the nerdy socializing of the dull doctors, "La Nina Santa" is a drama of low-pulse rate and dim pallor, bereft of irony and anemic in essential dramatic functions, a surprising diagnosis considering Pedro Almodovar is an executive producer.
La Nina Santa
Pyramide
Credits:
Producer: Lita Stantic
Writer/director: Lucrecia Martel
Executive producers: Pedro Almodovar, Agustin Almodovar, Esther Garcia
Line producer: Matias Mosteirin
Cinematographer: Felix Monti
Editor: Santiago Ricci
Art director: Graciela Oderigo
Costume designer: Julio Suarez
Sound: Marcos De Aguirre, David Miranda, Guido Berenblum Music: Andres Gerszenzon
Cast:
Mercedes Moran, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapileta, Maria Alche, Julieta Zylberberg, Mia Maestro, Monica Villa, Marta Lubos, Alejo Mango, Arturo Goetz
No MPAA Rating
Running time -- 106 minutes...
- 7/9/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
La Nina Santa
CANNES -- Catholic school girls and provincial doctors -- are there two more repressed groups? -- rub elbows, and a few other body parts, in this unduly dry In Competition entrant. Although a contemporary drama, "La Nina Santa" (The Holy Girl) feels like a period piece from long ago, such is its stodgy dramaturgy.
In this Spanish, coming-of-age story, two sexually immature groups, adolescent students and middle-aged doctors, intersect at a small hotel where a medical convention is being held. The hotel is run by a glamorous divorcee (Mercedes Moran), and it is the hangout of her adolescent daughter, Amalia, and her schoolgirl chums. In between choir rehearsals and Biblical discussions, the girls whisper about all the good things they can't reveal among adults; accordingly, these girls are on their own in these matters, literally and figuratively, groping for answers.
Not surprisingly, the middle-aged cadre of physicians does not seem any more sexually advanced, tied up in long-term marriages and leading the lives of respectable physicians. Like many physicians of their era, the good doctors are of the dweeb variety, nerds who have trouble relating to their patients, especially the taciturn Dr. Jano (Carlos Belloso), who exhibits repressed symptoms almost immediately -- eying the girls, even rubbing up against Amalia (Maria Alche) in a crowd. His seeking her out is no mere random, predatory mistake -- she has cast yearning glances his way and pursued him.
In essence, "La Nina Santa" is a forbidden-love story centering around societal and religious conventions. Filmmaker Lucrecia Martel has intelligently presented a situation where the dictum of religion, as well as the professional guideposts of a respected profession, provide only facile guidance in matters of overall human need, resorting to shallow homilies or institutional dictum. In particular, Martel counterpoints the schoolgirls' rigid religious discussions and hymn singing with their teenaged exuberance and life-embracing natures.
Overall, "La Nina Santa" is a disappointingly barren drama: A running gag of a compulsive maid spraying disinfectant all over provides the film's most entertaining moments. Intercutting between the tedious choir practices and the nerdy socializing of the dull doctors, "La Nina Santa" is a drama of low-pulse rate and dim pallor, bereft of irony and anemic in essential dramatic functions, a surprising diagnosis considering Pedro Almodovar is an executive producer.
La Nina Santa
Pyramide
Credits:
Producer: Lita Stantic
Writer/director: Lucrecia Martel
Executive producers: Pedro Almodovar, Agustin Almodovar, Esther Garcia
Line producer: Matias Mosteirin
Cinematographer: Felix Monti
Editor: Santiago Ricci
Art director: Graciela Oderigo
Costume designer: Julio Suarez
Sound: Marcos De Aguirre, David Miranda, Guido Berenblum Music: Andres Gerszenzon
Cast:
Mercedes Moran, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapileta, Maria Alche, Julieta Zylberberg, Mia Maestro, Monica Villa, Marta Lubos, Alejo Mango, Arturo Goetz
No MPAA Rating
Running time -- 106 minutes...
In this Spanish, coming-of-age story, two sexually immature groups, adolescent students and middle-aged doctors, intersect at a small hotel where a medical convention is being held. The hotel is run by a glamorous divorcee (Mercedes Moran), and it is the hangout of her adolescent daughter, Amalia, and her schoolgirl chums. In between choir rehearsals and Biblical discussions, the girls whisper about all the good things they can't reveal among adults; accordingly, these girls are on their own in these matters, literally and figuratively, groping for answers.
Not surprisingly, the middle-aged cadre of physicians does not seem any more sexually advanced, tied up in long-term marriages and leading the lives of respectable physicians. Like many physicians of their era, the good doctors are of the dweeb variety, nerds who have trouble relating to their patients, especially the taciturn Dr. Jano (Carlos Belloso), who exhibits repressed symptoms almost immediately -- eying the girls, even rubbing up against Amalia (Maria Alche) in a crowd. His seeking her out is no mere random, predatory mistake -- she has cast yearning glances his way and pursued him.
In essence, "La Nina Santa" is a forbidden-love story centering around societal and religious conventions. Filmmaker Lucrecia Martel has intelligently presented a situation where the dictum of religion, as well as the professional guideposts of a respected profession, provide only facile guidance in matters of overall human need, resorting to shallow homilies or institutional dictum. In particular, Martel counterpoints the schoolgirls' rigid religious discussions and hymn singing with their teenaged exuberance and life-embracing natures.
Overall, "La Nina Santa" is a disappointingly barren drama: A running gag of a compulsive maid spraying disinfectant all over provides the film's most entertaining moments. Intercutting between the tedious choir practices and the nerdy socializing of the dull doctors, "La Nina Santa" is a drama of low-pulse rate and dim pallor, bereft of irony and anemic in essential dramatic functions, a surprising diagnosis considering Pedro Almodovar is an executive producer.
La Nina Santa
Pyramide
Credits:
Producer: Lita Stantic
Writer/director: Lucrecia Martel
Executive producers: Pedro Almodovar, Agustin Almodovar, Esther Garcia
Line producer: Matias Mosteirin
Cinematographer: Felix Monti
Editor: Santiago Ricci
Art director: Graciela Oderigo
Costume designer: Julio Suarez
Sound: Marcos De Aguirre, David Miranda, Guido Berenblum Music: Andres Gerszenzon
Cast:
Mercedes Moran, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapileta, Maria Alche, Julieta Zylberberg, Mia Maestro, Monica Villa, Marta Lubos, Alejo Mango, Arturo Goetz
No MPAA Rating
Running time -- 106 minutes...
- 5/17/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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