SAINT MAUD
Guided By Voices
RELEASED 1 FEBRUARY 2019 | 15 | Blu-ray/dvd/download
Director Rose Glass
Cast Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle,
Lily Knight, Lily Frazer
There’s a famous quote attributed to the late psychiatrist, Dr Thomas Szasz: “If you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.”
Quite how that relates to young nurse Maud (Morfydd Clark) is at the heart of director Rose Glass’s extraordinary psychological horror. Maud talks to God and regularly hears back from the big boss man. While offering palliative care to glamorous former dancer Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), Maud comes to realise that He has given her a new mission: to save her patient’s soul – by any means.
It’s an astonishing breakout performance from Clark, who radiates both an eerie serenity and
An instant modern classic
the sense that she could explode into violence at any given moment. Despite this, Maud remains sympathetic, either a tool of supernatural forces or just unwell.
Throughout, disorientating direction, subtle but effective visual effects and smart design choices conjure an unsettling seaside Gothic mood. Amanda’s house, with its arched windows and shadowy corners, feels like a haunted chapel, while Adam Janota Bzowski’s score shudders, groans and vibrates as it builds to the film’s brutally effective finale. Praise be! Saint Maud is an instant modern classic.
Extras Glass and editor Mark Towns provide commentary. “Maud & Amanda” (four minutes) goes into casting the film’s leads, interviewing Clark, Ehle, Glass and others. “Creating The World” (five minutes) looks at the influences, costumes and locations. “Constructing The Scene” (nine minutes) looks at special effects. Finally, there’s an in-depth Q&A (28 minutes) between Glass and critic Robbie Collin.
The voice of God in the film is also performed by Morfydd Clark, with her tone pitched right down.