‘The Girl From Monday’ shows a playful Hartley
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, April 21, 2005
Since creating a stir with his earliest independent features, 1989’s “The Unbelievable Truth” and 1990’s “Trust,” writer-director Hal Hartley has taken his own distinctive path. Although he’s been creating projects steadily the last few years, his feature film work has slowed in favor of theater, European TV, and experiments in video.
“The Girl From Monday,” a new Hartley offering, is a frisky feature shot entirely on video. And this is not video pretending to look like film, as many independent films are these days; this is video that brandishes its inexpensive origins. (Hartley will introduce the film in person on April 29.)
It’s billed as “a science fiction,” and is set in a near future just after the “Great Revolution.” Everything is run by Triple M,the Major Multimedia Monopoly, which allows for buying and selling of anything – indeed, individual human beings (barcodes tattooed on wrists) can measure their worth exactly, because everybody’s listed on the stock exchange.
In Hartley’s wackiest idea, sex itself becomes a yardstick for human worth. Get turned down by a potential sex partner, and see your stock drop.
Jack Bell (the excellent Bill Sage) is an advertising whiz. His company wants to sell anything and everything. Jack’s life is mysteriously connected to an underground movement that includes people who have sex, oddly enough, “just because it feels good.”
He has a visitor from another planet (Brazilian model Tatiana Abracos) staying in his apartment. He is also intrigued by a co-worker (Sabrina Lloyd), who initially appears to be the picture of corporate docility but may have more going on.
Hartley’s deadpan-whimsical style is still in place here, but the possibilities for video pyrotechnics give the film a jumpier surface than his early work. It feels right for the subject of the picture: a world where everything is wired together, where easy technology allows people to be monitored, where video cameras might be so omnipresent as to be ominous.
“The Girl From Monday” is a small movie, and I would love to see this director working on a bigger scale; but it makes for a playful doodad.
“The Girl From Monday” HHH
Diverting: Some deadpan whimsy from Hal Hartley, shot on frisky video, about a future where everything (including sex) can be commodified and used as a stock-market measurement of human value. A small one, but Hartley fans should find it diverting.
Rated: Not rated; probably R for nudity.
Now showing: Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle; 206-267-5380.
“The Girl From Monday” HHH
Diverting: Deadpan whimsy from Hal Hartley about a future where everything can be commodified and used as a stock-market measurement of human value.
Rated: Not rated; probably R for nudity.
Now showing: Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle; 206-267-5380.
