This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

That was an excellent one.

Good concept, poorly executed.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

I believe this movie represents how it felt to be an out-spoken feminist in the 60s. The people you were preaching to weren't listening, the people you were preaching against were laughing of you. It must have been a terrible struggle, and this movie portrays this in an interesting manner.However, while feminism movement is still going strong (and rightfully so), this movie does not hold up as that relevant any more. The feminist struggle was different back then than now, and while some of the problems are the same, the "war" (as they call it in the film) is different, making this movie feel as dated as it is.The highlights of the movie are some of the surreal scenes. I believe this is the only movie with a chase scene where a snowmobile is chasing a kicksled.So, I would say watch this if you are interested in either feminism in cinema, or the situation of the feminists in the 60s and 70s. Or if you are interested in (swedish) film history, as this release caused some controversy. But if you are a casual moviegoer that (amazingly) stumbles upon this, you probably will not be too happy.

Watching "The Girls" at film school it struck me how confused and disorganized this film is. There is nothing wrong with confusing the audience, something Davind Lynch has showed us over and over again, but in combination with this film lacking plot, the characters being 2 dimensional and lacking any sort of characteristics and the all out confused nature of the "narrative" this film comes of as little less than a drug fueled, surreal mess.Which is fine if the film is interesting. This film is not interesting. I have heard a lot of people calling it feminist. Maybe people call it that because the main characters are female and the director/writer is a woman. Well feminism is "the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men". In this aspect the film is not feminist as the women say they won't to break free, but in reality are quite dependent on the men. At the end one of the actresses say she wants a divorce but this does not come off as she does it to liberate herself and be equal to the men.

I had high hopes for this, featuring a trio of Bergman's greatest actresses (Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Gunnel Lindblom) in the leads and a pair of his greatest actors (Gunnar Bjornstrand, Erland Josephson) in supporting roles. Unfortunately, Mai Zetterling (whose LOVING COUPLES I somewhat enjoyed) goes way over-the-top with the experimental flourishes. The story involves a production of Aristophanes' classic sex satire "Lysistrata", with the play, reality, and fantasy bleeding into each other in a series of obvious juxtapositions, half-baked metaphors and heavy-handed social commentary. Subtlety is not to be found here, and the film's divebomb approach to the battle of the sexes is often grating and tedious. These actors are usually a joy to watch, and they give it their all, but they just can't overcome the material, which comes off as another naive product of 60's progressiveness. The heart's in the right place, but the execution is too irritating. Nice photography and a strong cast aren't enough.

Put together five of Ingmar Bergman's actors of choice -- Bibi Andersson, Gunnel Lindstrom, Harriet Andersson, Erland Josephson, and Gunnar Bjornstrand, and you would think this would be a more powerful, meditating feature tackling the topic of feminism as filtered through the play "Lysistrata", channeled through the eyes of its three female leads. Mai Zetterling's movie THE GIRLS is an oddity within itself. Too obscure at times, too serious for its own good, it dissolves into a series of conversations each of its three leads have within themselves and how the play seems to mirror their own lives, as well as their own growing dissatisfaction with the way things are in relation to women's position in society. Where the story takes its cue is in welding both the current times (1968) into a play that takes place thousands of years ago, and making us, the audience, clearly understand that attitudes towards women continue to be the same even now. From the eye of someone coming into this movie nearly forty years after its release, things have changed quite a bit -- the story is automatically dated --, but it would be an interesting debate to see just how far women have come since the rise of feminism in the early Seventies. On this note, THE GIRLS is worth seeking out -- not only because of its three strong female characters, all of them uniformly brilliant in their different takes of women coming to terms with who they are. On a minus, however, are the fantasy sequences, filmed in a bleached black and white which become almost impossible to assimilate because of the lack of any depth... it would have been best to make it a Bunuelian experience and leave the viewer wondering what was real or not. Even so, for those who appreciate Swedish cinema, this is lighter fare than Bergman, and less introspective.