Saint Maud
Director: Rose Glass
Release year: 2019
Maud, a private nurse from a care agency, starts a new job looking after acclaimed dancer Amanda who has Stage 4 cancer and is close to death. Amanda still lives a hedonistic, drama-filled life which clashes with Maud’s newfound faith. When Amanda affectionately calls Maud her saviour, Maud takes this as a sign to try and save Amanda’s soul.
This is writer and director Rose Glass’s first film, and with cinematographer Ben Fordesman, she makes Scarborough, which is not far from where I live, shine with a (forgive me) religious light. Morfydd Clark’s Maud is a terrible delight, oscillating between a lost, unsure woman with a troubled past and determined follower of the voices in her head. It’s disturbing to see reality flex under Maud’s psychosis.
Amanda is a fascinating figure, bored with dying, used to a far more social and exciting life, and stuck up in a big house on the cliffs. She’s already halfway to heaven, but Maud can’t let her be, confused by Amanda’s sexuality when she has her own orgasmic relationship with God, and convinced she needs saving from damnation before she dies. Amanda calls out Maud’s meddling in front of friends at a birthday party—her scorn comes back to bite her.