Two women discover new love while trying to resolve their old relationships in this stylized drama. The Girl (Claire Keim) is a beautiful, bisexual cabaret singer who one night meets The Painter (Agathe de la Boulaye), an artist who is immediately and intensely attracted to her. The Girl and The Painter spend the night together, and are soon involved in an ongoing relationship, with The Painter spending most of her time at The Girl's flat in Paris. Meanwhile, The Painter finds it's not easy to break off her relationship with Bu Save (Sandra N'Kake), while The Girl is trying to keep her boyfriend, The Man (Cyril Lecomte), from finding out to much about her new romance, since she needs to maintain their relationship for the sake of her career. The Girl is the first feature film from Sandee Zeig, who helped to open the independent distribution firm Artistic License; it's based on a novella by Monique Wittig, who wrote the screenplay with Zeig. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Cast
Claire Keim
Ronald Guttman
Pascal Cervo
Credit
Claude Martin - Co-producer, Sandee Zeig - Director, Geraldine Peroni - Editor, Keiko Deguchi - Editor, Richard Robbins - Composer (Music Score), Philippe Renucci - Production Designer, Georges LeChaptois - Cinematographer, Dolly Hall - Producer, Sandee Zeig - Screenwriter, Monique Wittig - Book Author
The film is narrated by Agathe De La Boulaye as "The Artist". She is obsessed with a nightclub singer (Claire Keim) whom she calls "The Girl". One night the girl takes the artist to the hotel where she lives and they make love. The girl, who does not usually sleep with women, tells the artist that it is "just one night" but they begin seeing each other. The girl continues to see men and the artist has a long term lover, Bu Savè (Sandra Nkake), who accepts the artist's obsession.
The artist draws and paints the girl, but gradually grows frustrated with her work. She notices a man (Cyril Lecomte) watching her and the girl. The man behaves aggressively and possessively towards the girl. He starts following the artist and sends threatening letters to the girl telling her to get rid of the artist. The girl refuses. The man follows the artist and tries to attack her. The artist asks advice from Bu Savè, who gives her a gun.
When the artist cannot find the girl, she discovers that she has gone away with the man, who turns out to be the owner of the nightclub where the girl sings. When the man and the girl return, the artist gives the girl the gun.
The artist gets beaten up by the man and his friend. Later when she goes to meet the girl at the hotel, she finds the man there, naked and asleep. She leaves. The next day she returns and tells the girl that she is leaving her. The artist puts all her energy into her painting. One day she goes back to the hotel. As she climbs the stairs, she hears gunshots. She finds the man dead and the girl with a gun shot wound to her side.
Cast
Claire Keim as The Girl, a nightclub jazz singer. The narrator calls her "Agnus Dei".
The Girl was based on a short story of the same name by French writer and theorist Monique Wittig. It was Wittig's first English language story.[1] The screenplay was written by Wittig and her partner Zeig.
Ratings and distribution
The Girl was unrated in the United States.[2] In the United Kingdom it was rated 15 and in Germany it was rated 12. It premiered on September 9, 2000 at the Toronto Film Festival.[3] It went on to appear in 2001 at the Turin International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival.[4] It was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on April 20, 2001, distributed by Zeig's company Artistic License.[2]
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes gave The Girl a "rotten" rating of 13% based on 30 reviews.[5]Metacritic gave it a "generally negative" rating of 34% based on 14 reviews.[6]
