THE NASTY GIRL
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1991 Frank Maloney
THE NASTY GIRL is a German film by Michael Verhoeven and stars Lena Stolz in the title role. The story concerns a young woman in a small town in Bavaria who begins to research the town's history during the Third Reich. When she encounters roadblocks and hatred, she digs in and eventually uncovers the whole, buried past.
Stolz is a wonder, fresh, impish, wise, knowing, innocent, and very, very beautiful. Her performance makes me impatient to see her again very soon. She is supported by a large cast of character-type actors; I particular commend the man who plays her husband and the woman who plays her grandmother.
I was interested in the story and the characters, but I was also intrigued by the mix of styles used to make the film. It is alternately and sometimes simultaneously a conventional movie, a TV-style documentary, and a stage play. The mix is smooth and seamless, although at times it appears arbitrary and without any dramatic justification. Still when you see the title character on camera with a mike narrating her own dramatic actions or when a court scene is presided over by a fat, coughing, blue statue of blind justice, I am charmed by the audacity of the film-making and challenged in ways that I seldom am by a movie.
I hope you get to see this movie. What it has to say is both comic and important and the way it says it is intriguing and successful.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
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