Review of The Godless Girl

yes it could be painfully slow at times but this movie really comes across with the goods. in an age in which everything on screen looks completely fake (I speak of the present) the intense final sequences of this film produce a kind of tension unmatched in anything you'll find at the multiplex. also the handling of religious themes - at times so hokey it could only be matched by the stories nuns used to tell in catholic school when I was growing up, efforts of the babes in black and white to scare us straight - is one of the surprising strengths of this film. In his intro on TMC Robert Osborne spoke of the sound scenes with speaking parts that conclude the picture, but ... I didn't hear any dialogue, so I don't know what was up with that! as another reviewer has commented, an early elevator shot is itself worth the price of admission, to die for, beautiful bordering on surreal. for a precious moment you're not looking at a Hollywood film at all. one could be forgiven for fast forwarding through some sequences, and the unhappy convention of releasing silents with inappropriately modern sounding film scores is a drawback, but if it comes on do give it its head and see it through. all in all it's quite the satisfying movie watching experience.