The Headless Woman

Sparing no suspense, Martel creates her own version of a “Hitchcock blonde,” a femme fatale who drives away without looking back after a car accident in which she hit, and probably killed, a dog, or maybe a boy. We witness both her distress and her deceit as, concussed but going about her life after the hit and run, she impassively allows her husband and lover to assure her innocence. One of the most critically acclaimed films of this century, The Headless Woman is “a masterly, disturbing and deeply mysterious film about someone who strenuously conceals from herself the knowledge of her own guilt” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian).