Title: Her Body
MPA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Natálie Císarovska
Starring: Natalia Germani, Denisa Baresová, Zuzana Mauréry
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
What It Is: Based on the tragically short and explosive life of powerful Olympic-athlete-turned-porn-star Andrea Absolonová (Germani), Her Body stories the driven titular figure as she navigates her identity following an earth-shattering injury that changes her life forever. Losing the ability to perform the sport she’s dedicated her life to, she decides to pursue a career in the adult-film industry, becoming notorious, but still struggles to find greatness within herself.
What We Think: An exciting subject matter for a film, this should make. Andrea Absolonová was a real person who lived and died from 1976-2004, passing away from brain cancer. There are no spoilers to this film. Her work, as she intended it, is out in the open, first as an elite athlete, then as an adult-film actress who appeared in over 80 films. With work as a documentarian, the director Natálie Císarovska, according to her director’s statement, did much research in order to portray the physicality of both industries, while also interviewing a few who knew and worked with Andrea.
The film does have a very naturalistic style, so it makes sense its come from a documentarian. The cast, including lead Natalia Germani, play beautifully and with a lot of heart in some moments, and feel very much like real people. Where the film starts to slow down is in its pulled-back tone and pursuit to take the vivacity out of Andrea following her injury and journey into the porn industry. While there’s no need to show the ugliest bits of her life or sensationalize anything, which Germani does well, the stripped-back approach also results in the feeling like the lead doesn’t care about anything that she does, other than the doing of it. Why be a porn actress? She seems incredibly dedicated to the career and defending her position in it–which is to say, the depiction of her being an actress for years felt rather monotonous, and lifeless. Those elements in themselves aren’t wrong or invalid to portray, but in the end seem like most of what the film is conveying. After the inciting incident of the injury, the film just slows down and drastically loses steam. What could have made the film stand out far more as a narrative still based on a true story was to bring more of Andrea’s personality to life through the portrayal and the tone of the film. The whole time, she just seems empty and drifting, and although I don’t know what the real Andrea was like and there weren’t any interviews of her I could find, there as to be something more to her and Andrea the character that could have made this depiction so much more emotional, intimate, and bright. Although the more objective or clinical depiction on the director’s behalf makes sense as she didn’t want to sensationalize or glamorize the porn industry, the film overall could have used more life and vivaciousness.
Our Grade: C, A biopic about a passionate person that unfortunately could use more passion in its storytelling, Her Story is a familiar tale about identity reformation and the limitation of our bodies. It, at times impressively, dedicates itself to the details and the not-so-pretty truths of the lives of athletes and pornstars, but in that also finds itself weighed down through misfortune and too-stripped-back presentation. While I typically advocate for accuracy and detail, I felt this was a similar circumstance to Never Really Sometimes Always, for succeeding in a realistic depiction of someone’s life in many aspects, though missing out on exploring and expressing those characters’ personalities. I hope to see this director create more films in the future as she certainly knows what she’s doing and chooses interesting topics, but if going with a narrative form, to take fuller advantage of its possibilities. But hell, if you like more toned-down movies or are looking to be introduced these sorts, this may be the film for you.