In my opinion Little Girl Blue represents a new low in the history of Czech cinema.
The at times sophisticated imagery, however, reveals a talent behind the camera: Ramunas Greicius. But the camera is "wasted" here, as well as Nina Simone's ingenious music. One of the greatest jazz performers of all time, Simone seems oddly misplaced in this substandard wannabe art film, a self-congratulatory and preposterous work, bereft of true art, bereft of life, bereft of emotions.
This is in fact one of the most pretentious, utterly disengaging and even infuriating films I have ever seen. Period.
Alice Nellis is, from what I know, a relentlessly overrated director whose work for me defines a new form of "speculation." She has – God knows how – managed to woe herself into the caste of renown young Czech directors, and yet it is perhaps only her debut, Ene Bene, which deserves some praise. The fact, however, that she received the New Director's Award in San Sebastian for her extraneous and numbingly boring film Vylet, is a mockery vis-a-vis all the talented newcomers around the world who have to fight hard for recognition. I rather refrain from arguing that a director has or has not been justly awarded for her or his work, but in this case I can not help being astonished.
The praise Alice Nellis has been showered with, in the Czech Republic, could be attributed perhaps to the fact that there are unfortunately not many women here making films about women. But this should by no means be a criterion for judging a film's worthiness. As a woman, I can only say that this film does not speak to my heart nor does it intrigue me on an intellectual level.
For me, the best part of Little Girl Blue comes with the end credits, not only because an irked viewer now finally breathes a sigh of relief, but also because you will find here a particular treat, an involuntary joke so to speak. Under "second boom operator," a name is listed which, placed into this context, made me want to laugh: Roman Polanski. It's fun to imagine Roman Polanski holding the boom for Alice Nellis... But of course it is not the master himself being referred to here. His name, however, should remind any cinema lover of the definition of greatness. While Polanski is synonymous to the best cinema has to offer, Nellis is, in my opinion, certainly antonymous to it.