Devcatko
Czech Republic,
2002, 85 min
Shown in 2003
CREDITS
- dir
-
Benjamin Tucek
- prod
-
Daniel Tucek
- scr
-
Benjamin Tucek
- cam
-
Antonín Chundela
- editor
-
Petr Mrkous
- mus
-
Ivo Heger
- cast
-
Dorota Nvotová, Jana Hubinská, Ondrej Vetchy, Tatiana Vihelmová, Lukás Latinák
- source
-
Golden Dawn Ltd., Saldova 7, Prague 8, Prague 18000, Czech Republic. FAX: 42-224-826-701. EMAIL: dan@goldendawn.cz.
- premiere
-
North American Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Skyy Prize contender. Benjamin Tucek in person.
OTHER
Girlie is the intimate portrait of Ema, a 17-year-old girl wading through the dreams and confusions of teenagers everywhere, helped along by her single mother, who’s just as dream-ridden—and confused—as she is. Living in one of the blander suburban stretches of the Czech Republic (rendered dreamlike through a subtle manipulation of the color), the playful, individualistic Ema richochets from day to day and man to man in her search for a life less ordinary. No Brad Pitts, Ben Afflecks or other fine-cheeked princes arrive to rescue this sweet punkish princess, however; instead she’s stuck with an assortment of hilariously down-market boys-to-men: a sad-sack slob who later starts hitting on her mother; a sadder-sack boy seemingly ironed into his impossibly grandiose uniform (and who’s still in love with his bored beautician ex-girlfriend) and, finally, a morose, badly shaved cab driver without a cab. Tripping over one another in an assortment of terrible bars and worse apartments, these characters look for something, anything, to help the days go by. Accompanied by a poppy soundtrack, Girlie wisely refuses to position itself as a metacommentary on societal malaise or a gripping vision of alienation; instead, it merely presents one girl, and her mother, as they try to find wonder in the world.
—Jason Sanders
FACTOID #361
John Huston, director of classics The Maltese Falcon and The Misfits, was honored with a Festival tribute in 1968. His daughter Anjelica received the Peter J. Owens Award in 1991; The Dead, one of the father-daughter duo’s collaborations, screened at her onstage interview.
