The Girl from Monday Tatiana Abracos

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Hal Hartley
USA 2005

A girl drops into the ocean from outer space. A being from a distant constellation called Monday, she has assumed the human form of a beautiful young woman in order to look for her friend who arrived years before and whom she suspects is in trouble; caught perhaps in the body he has assumed. On the star where she comes from people have no bodies. The world she drops into is in turmoil. On the heels of the "Great Revolution," the new city-state of NYC has been liberated by Triple M, the Major Multimedia Monopoly which has brought into being the "Dictatorship Of The Consumer," securing for the citizens greater choice, free access, personal autonomy, humanitarian reform, and technological progress. Jack Bell works for the Ad Agency that swept Triple M into power and was the man who suggested the cornerstone of its policies: the "Human Value Reform Act." Citizens are now public offerings on the stock exchange; each time they have sex and remain unattached their value increases depending on the current state of the market. Horrified at the de-humanizing consequences of his suggestions, Jack is the secret leader of the Counter Revolution. Partisans are perpetrating ever more daring blows against the empire; making love just because it feels good; disabling the state/corporate run broadcast center; passing around outlawed copies of "Walden" and generally undermining the system. Each small step Jack takes in his struggle against the regime seems to implicate another of his friends. The beautiful junior executive he works with, Cecile; the laid back but hyper-active teenage lady's man, William, who is also Jack's most valued operative; and Doc, Jack's informant and confidant at the Hospital. The Girl from Monday herself is holed up in Jack's apartment, learning in increments how to use her body. Jack and Doc have seen her kind before. And they know that if she stays long enough and begins to make friends, she'll become stuck in her earthling body and never be able to return to Star 147X in the constellation Monday. But, inevitably, small kindnesses occur, sacrifices are made, attachments are formed, and our responsibility for one another endures. Tragic but beautiful and funny, The Girl From Monday is a fake science-fiction movie about the way we live now.

Theatrical Release: USA 26 January 2005 (Sundance Film Festival)

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DVD Review: Hart Sharp Video - Region 1 - NTSC

Big thanks to Per-Olof Strandberg for the Review!

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Distribution
Hart Sharp Video

Region 1 - NTSC

Runtime 1:21:03

Video
1:1.78 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 5.99 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate

Audio English (Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0)

Subtitles English, None

Features Release Information:
Studio: Hart Sharp Video
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1:1.78

Edition Details:
• Trailer (2:09)
• Making of (19:42)
• About the filmmaker (1 page text)

DVD Release Date: January 10, 2006
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Chapters 8

Comments Shot on Digital Video, the film resembles more an audiovisual poem, or a music video, than a basic feature film. Every frame in this film is manipulated in some way. Most of the film has a feeling of "missing frames" in the motion; it looks like if you selected on your DVD player 1.5 speed with normal sound. There are missing frames, black and with segments, freeze frames and many parts have an intentional blurry effect to them. The eye gets used to this quite quickly, and it's probably made to get an low budget film to look more stylish, especially when it's a sciences fiction film.

Instead of using an establishing shot to get the audience to know in what place we are located in, Hal Hartley has created the atmosphere with sound! We have a close up of an actor, and we hear in the sound where we are located in, or that someone is coming towards us!

The film wouldn't functions so well, if there wasn't such a well planned sound milieu. That and the music by Hal Hartley, makes the entire 5.1 soundtrack a piece of art, and I would purchase this DVD alone for it!

Not a film for everyone, but I liked it, especially the style it was made in!
- Per-Olof Strandberg

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