Film of the Week: Nurseâs tale is anything but saintly By Contributor Published: 15:00, 30 January 2021
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Saint Maud (Cert. 15, 84 mins, available from Monday on DVD/Blu-ray and to download and stream)
Starring: Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle, Lily Frazer
Kate (Morfydd Clark) prays daily, unwavering in her devotion.
âI canât shake the feeling that you must have saved me for something greater than this,â she rhapsodises to her God in the cramped confines of a sparsely furnished flat.
Maud walks away from the NHS to work in the private sector as a carer to famed American dancer and choreographer Amanda Kohl (Jennifer Ehle), whose halcyon days of hedonism and artistic expression have been cut short by terminal illness.
Morfydd Clarke in Saint Maud
- Credit: Angus Young
Directed by Rose Glass. Starring Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle, Lily Knight, Lily Frazer, Rosie Sansom and Turlough Convery. Out on Blu-ray/ DVD/ VOD from Studiocanal. Running time: 84 mins.
In horror film terms, Maud (Clark) is both Regan and Father Karras; the possessed child and the exorcist.
A recent trauma has seen her retreat from hospital nursing and become gripped by religious fervour. Amanda (Ehle) is a terminally ill former choreographer and dancer now stuck in a wheelchair with stage 4 lymphoma, who doesn t believe there is a maker to meet and is scared of the prospect of nothingness.
Written and Directed by Rose Glass.
Starring Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle, Lily Knight, Lily Frazer, Turlough Convery, Rosie Sansom, and Marcus Hutton.
SYNOPSIS:
Saint Maud follows a pious nurse who becomes dangerously obsessed with saving the soul of her dying patient.
Death is oftentimes uneventful. It’s what Jennifer Ehle’s Amanda, who is slowly dying from spinal lymphoma, tells her live-in nurse, the eponymous Saint Maud (a breakout role for Morfydd Clark so revolutionary it might as well be ripped from the Book of Revelations). Now, it would be wrong and disingenuous to say that Maud has always been a religious fanatic, as the extent of those origins are left unexplored and not necessarily relevant.
A24’s New Nightmare SAINT MAUD Finally Gets US Release By Mike Sprague
First-time writer-director Rose Glass’
Saint Maud finally hits theaters and drive-ins on the 29th. Even better, Epix will stream the film beginning on February 12th.
Mark your calanders!
The film follows live-in nurse Maud who arrives at the home of Amanda, a famous dancer now frail from illness and trapped in her grand, isolated house. At first, Amanda is intrigued by this religious young woman, who provides a distraction from her failing health. Maud, in turn, is bewitched by her new patient. But Maud is not all that she seems. She is tormented by a violent secret from her past and by ecstatic messages she believes are directly from God. She becomes convinced she has been sent to Amanda not simply as a nurse, but to serve a divine purpose. As her grip on reality slides out of control, Maud’s care turns into a deadly mission to save Ama
Saint Maud is written and directed by Rose Glass in her feature directorial debut with Andrea Cornwell and Oliver Kassman serving as producers and was set to hit theaters in the US on April 3 and the UK on May 1, but amidst global pandemic concerns is now left undated. It made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September to rave reviews, currently maintaining a 93% approval rating form critics on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.
Saint Maud is a chilling and boldly original vision of faith, madness, and salvation in a fallen world. Maud, a newly devout hospice nurse, becomes obsessed with saving her dying patient’s soul but sinister forces, and her own sinful past, threaten to put an end to her holy calling.