Saint Maud

Rose Glass: Saint Maud (2019) with Morfydd Clark as Maud.

Saint Maud / Saint Maud.
    GB © 2019 Saint Maud Limited / The British Film Institute / Channel Four Television Corporation. PC: Escape Plan Productions / Film4 / BFI Film Fund. P: Andrea Cornwell.
    D+SC: Rose Glass. Cin: Ben Fordesman – colour – 2.39:1. PD: Paulina Rzeszowska. AD: Isobel Dunhill. Set dec: Anna Mould. Cost: Tina Kalivas. Makeup & hair supervisor: Alex King. Prosthetics: Robb Crafer, Kristyan Mallett. SFX: Scott MacIntyre. VFX: Danielle Dunster. M: Adam Janota Bzowski. S: Paul Davies. ED: Mark Towns. Casting: Kharmel Cochrane.
    Song: "That's an Irish Lullaby (Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral)" comp. J. R. Shannon, Engl. lyr. J. R. Shannon, French lyr. André Hornez, sung by Bing Crosby. From: Going My Way (D: Leo McCarey, 1944).
    C: Morfydd Clark (Maud / Katie), Jennifer Ehle (Amanda Kohl), Lily Knight (Joy), Lily Frazer (Carol), Turlough Convery (Christian), Rosie Sansom (Ester), Marcus Hutton (Richard), Carl Prekopp (Homeless Pat), Noa Bodner (Hilary).
    Also credited: Nancy (the peppered cockroach). A splinter unit. William Blake.
    Languages: English, Welsh.
    Loc: Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
    84 min
    Festival premiere: 8 Sep 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.
    GB premiere: 9 Oct 2020.
    Finnish premiere: 23 Oct 2020 – released by Cinema Mondo with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Valtteri Tavast / Frej Grönholm.
    Corona emergency security: 25% capacity, face masks, distancing, hand hygiene.
    Viewed at Kino Engel 1, Helsinki, 31 Oct 2020.

IMDb synopsis: "Follows a pious nurse who becomes dangerously obsessed with saving the soul of her dying patient."

AA: Saint Maud is an assured debut film by Rose Glass. It belongs to the new wave of horror film, bringing fresh inspiration to a genre that had until recently been suffering from repetition and a tired recourse to sadism.

Immediately I'm struck by a fine sense of the mise-en-scène and cinematic storytelling, as well as a powerful soundscape, all contributing to a compelling dream mode.

Maud, a private palliative care nurse, is assigned to care for Amanda, a renowned choreographer, now terminally ill with stage four lymphoma. Amanda is passionately enjoying the pleasures of life, to the bewilderment of Maud who has recently experienced a religious conversion.

A disturbing incident has taken place at the hospital where Maud used to work. Remarks by her colleague lead us to understand that Maud was not to blame, but the guilt has become so overwhelming that Maud has converted to Catholicism and even changed her name.

Amanda at first empathizes with Maud's religious fervour and offers her a volume of William Blake's visions as a present. But when Maud starts to save Amanda from what she perceives as her life of sin and tries to estrange a female escort from visiting Amanda, she is promptly dismissed.

Maud experiences a searing conflict between the spirit and the flesh, and it is a fight to the finish. She succumbs to sin, redeems herself via burning her clothes of evil and tormenting her body, including wearing a fakir's nail shoes.

She shares a moment of reconciliation and tenderness with Amanda, but Maud is unable to handle Amanda's confession that she had faked her religious ecstasy.

"You are the loneliest girl I've ever seen", states Amanda.

Saint Maud is not really a drama of religious delusion. It is more a tragedy of solitude and alienation. A deranged interpretation of religion is only an outlet for Maud's extreme marginalization.

There is tragic grandeur in Rose Glass's vision, a cosmic scope in her views of swirling clouds, the immense moon, the sky and the sea. Saint Maud is more than a pathological case study. It is a nightmare vision of contemporary life in which we are all in danger of being stranded into isolated bubbles.

I was reminded of Roman Polanski's psychological horror films (Repulsion, The Tenant), and William Friedkin's The Exorcist, but not in the sense of imitation. Rose Glass creates a personal blend of poetry, tragedy and horror equal to the best artists' work in the genre.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:

PLOT FROM WIKIPEDIA:

" A nurse named Katie fails to save the life of a patient in her care, despite her attempting CPR.

Time passes and Katie, now referring to herself as Maud, is working as a private palliative care nurse in an un-named English seaside town and has become a devout Roman Catholic. She is assigned to care for Amanda, a dancer and choreographer from America who is terminally ill with stage four lymphoma and confined to a wheelchair. Amanda is embittered by her fate and confesses to Maud that she fears the oblivion of death. Maud comes to believe that God has tasked her with saving the atheist Amanda’s soul. Maud reveals to Amanda that she sometimes feels God’s presence tangibly and appears to be overcome with ecstasy as they pray together, something that Amanda pretends to experience also.

Maud becomes suspicious of Amanda’s companion Carol, who visits the house regularly and who Amanda pays for sex. While in town one evening, a former work colleague called Joy recognises Maud/Katie and gives her her phone number in case she needs company. Maud later takes Carol aside and implores her to stop visiting as she believes Amanda’s soul is in jeopardy. Carol feigns agreement but later comes to Amanda’s birthday party, which is attended by her bohemian friends. In front of Maud, Amanda informs the party goers that Maud tried to drive Carol away and mocks the young nurse for trying to save her soul. Maud strikes Amanda and is subsequently dismissed from her job as a carer.

Believing that God has rejected her, Maud visits a pub to find companionship but is rejected by most of the people she meets. She goes home with a man and during sex suffers flashbacks of the death of her patient and her futile attempts at CPR, which causes her to stop. The man proceeds to rape her and then taunts her by revealing he remembers her once hooking up with a friend of his during her hedonistic past.

While out walking, she encounters Amanda’s new nurse and interrogates her for information before storming off when she realises that her replacement enjoys a good relationship with Amanda. In her decrepit apartment, Maud begs for a sign from God who appears to converse with her and tells her to be ready for an act that will demonstrate her faith. Joy then visits and apologises for reacting badly to an earlier phone call from Maud/Katie. During her visit, Maud interprets a rolling cloud formation as a sign from God and blesses Joy, who leaves for work.

That night, Maud, dressed in a shawl and bearing rosary beads, waits outside Amanda’s house and enters after the care nurse leaves. She finds Amanda in bed, severely weak. Amanda asks forgiveness for mocking her faith and Maud joyously reminds her of the time they experienced God’s presence. Amanda reveals that she feigned the experience and states that God isn’t real. Maud recoils in horror as a demonic Amanda hurls her across the room and mocks her for needing to prove her faith. In a frenzy, Maud stabs Amanda to death.

In the morning she is briefly seen with luminous angel wings. She wanders onto a beach and douses herself with a flammable liquid before horrified onlookers. She utters her last words — “Glory be to God” — as she self-immolates. In her last moments, she imagines the onlookers kneeling in reverence as the fire consumes her. "