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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: HART SHARP VIDEO
EAN: 0829567031629
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: Arts Alliance Amer
Manufacturer: Arts Alliance Amer
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Arts Alliance Amer
Region Code: 1
Release Date: January 10, 2006
Running Time: 84 minutes
Sales Rank: 58752
Studio: Arts Alliance Amer
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
In the not-distant-future the market has taken over everything thanks to the marketers. The consumer is king and those who see value outside of the marketplace are 'enemies of the consumer' terrorists and 'partisan' enemies that the state must dispose of. Protagonist Jack seems to be at one with the media corporations (after all his marketing ideas led to the institutionalization of the exchange of sex for enhanced buying power) but is he somehow involved with the feeble and pathetic resistance movement? Does he love Cecile his colleague or is she a pawn in his game? And what of the mysterious girl from Monday? Are immigrants from the star system 'Monday' really assisting the partisans?System Requirements:Run Time: 84 minFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: R UPC: 829567031629 Manufacturer No: 829567031629
Amazon.com:
Shot on video in color and black and white, indie-god Hal Hartley's The Girl from Monday imagines a not-too-distant future in which the Multi-Media Monopoly (Triple M) corporation rules over a real consumer culture. Individuals have bar codes implanted on their wrists and their stock fluctuates according to their sexual activity. Bucking the system are the Partisans, a rag-tag group of 'counter-revolutionaries with no credit rating.' Hartley veteran Bill Sage (The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Flirt, Simple Men, No Such Thing) stars as Jack, a disillusioned Triple M advertising executive. Sabrina Lloyd (Sports Night) costars as Jack's rebellious co-worker, with Brazilian model Tatiana Abracos as the enigmatic eponymous character, an alien who takes ravishing human form when she falls to earth. The Sopranos' Edie Falco, who co-starred in Hartley's The Unbelieveable Truth and Trust, graciously appears as a judge. More interested in ideas than special effects, Hartley's characteristically deadpan 'science fiction' is not likely to win him a wider audience beyond his core, cult following. Fans of Chris Marker's La Jetee may also find this film a stylistic kindred spirit with its haunting use of still images. --Donald Liebenson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Well below par for Hartley
I used to really enjoy writer/director Hal Hartley's work. For my taste, though, he peaked with 1992's Simple Men. Flirt and Amateur were as pale imitations of his masterwork, and No Such Thing isn't worth mentioning. Although The Girl From Monday is credited as "A Science Fiction by Hal Hartley," it's still more indie than sci-fi. And that's just the final straw in a long series of missteps.
It's beautifully shot, and I have to give the guy credit for making an ambitious movie on digital video, but there seems to be no narrative thread apart from The Girl, who shows up at the beginning and leaves at the end. There's been some sort of consumer revolution that has allowed the virtual takeover of society by a media conglomerate, and Jack (Bill Sage) is the increasingly remorseful architect of that revolution.
A major component of the new system is the trading of "personal value" on the stock exchange. When two people consent to have sex, their personal value increases. (Sex without value increase is criminal.) Hartley dances around the "sex as value" concept quite a bit, but never really makes it stick. Hell, even the ham-handed Saturn 3 used a variation more effectively:
James: Yes, you have a nice body. May I use it?
Alex: I'm with the Major.
James: For his personal consumption only? That's penally unsocial on Earth.
Unfortunately, because we never get emotionally attached to The Girl, when the greedy (his word) Principal Funk cuts ... Read More
Rating: - Some special effects please
A bit cerebral, most viewers will likely need to watch it more than once to pick up the subtle nuances Hal Hartley likes to interject in his movies. Still, more or less an interesting story line that tickles the curiosity whether or not aliens from distant planets could live among us, and if they do/did, would the majority of us be able to recognize them? Being a fan of good special effects in scifi, the low budget character of this film almost ruined it for me; however, you can rely on the charisma/talent of Sabrina Lloyd here to raise it well into the realms of the watchable again.
Rating:  - Hal Hartley slightly missteps, but nails the times
Part of the problem of being a conceptual film maker, is that your work is essentially an essay. Each piece is about something, and Hartley's back catalog is deep and great. Since Henry Fool (probably his best film) he's moved into digital cinema to cut costs. His first all digital piece The Book of Life was awful and probably his worst film, but he followed it up with No Such Thing which was a big budget film that never made it major theaters. No Such Thing suceeded, but showed that when Hartley is risking more, he puts more into the film. The Girl From Monday is Hartley's second digital release, made on a shoe string budget, but unlike The Book of Life it succeeds where the former fails. Hartley drops us into a dystopian future that essentially is the present. His characters don't exercise control by robotics or some other technology, but simply through libertarian principles taken to their extreme, neuro-economics, and the logic of commodities. In essence, they're an advertising company that commodifies sex into The Rebel Sell. Sex becomes a subsidy for competitive consumption.
The Girl From Monday's only major flaw (like a lot of independent pictures) is a little to much white space. We're at times given long semi-epic moments of solitutude to further reinforce the hopelessness of the protoganist's situation. While Henry Fool or no such featured such moments, they occur as background around the events and ideas of the film, here they take center stage similar to the desolation in ... Read More
Rating: - WHAT WAS HAL THINKING?
ALTHOUGH A HAL HARTLY FAN.... I DIDN'T GET IT ?
TOO DEEP OR OVER MY HEAD MAYBE? I JUST DIDNT LIKE IT AS MUCH AS HIS PAST WORKS! MAYBE SIFI JUST ISN'T HAL'S BAG?
Rating:  - eerie
the story is gripping, eerie and relevant, the filming and acting are brilliant, hal hartley at his best
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