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La Cienaga (film)
La cienaga (2001) is an Argentine, Spanish, and French film, written directed by Lucrecia Martel. The film was executive produced by Ana Aizenberg, Diego Guebel, Mario Pergolini, and produced by Lita Stantic. The picture features Graciela Borges, Mercedes Moran, Martin Adjemian, Daniel Valenzuela, among others.
The picture is set in the high plains of northwestern Argentina and portrays the life of a self-pitying Argentine bourgeois family.
Plot
The film tells the story of Mecha (Graciela Borges), a middle aged woman in her 50's who has several teenagers. Her husband Gregorio (Martin Adjemian) wants to remain looking young. Both have to deal with their gloomy Amerindian servants, who Mecha accuses of theft and laziness.
Both take to drinking to cope with day to day living.
The family spends their summers in their rural shabby country home they name "La Mandragora" in order to avoid the hot and humid weather of the city.
Mecha's cousin, Tali (Mercedes Moran), lives in the nearby city of La Cienaga and has a brood of small, yet, noisy children and a husband, Rafael (Daniel Valenzuela), who loves his family and also hunts.
Before long, the crowded domestic situation in both homes strains the families' nerves, exposing repressed family mysteries, and tensions that threaten to erupt into violence.
Background
Director Lucrecia Martel has said in media interviews that the story is based on "memories of her own family." Taubin, Amy. The Village Voice, "Temples of the Familiar," film review, October 3-9, 2001.
Martel has also acknowledged the film is different. She said, "I know what kind of film I've made. Not a very easy one! For me, it's not a realistic film. It's something strange, a little weird. It's the kind of film where you can't tell what's going to happen, and I wanted the audience to be very uncomfortable from the beginning." Telegraph. Film review and interview with Martel, October, 2001.
Filming locationThe film was shot entirely in Salta, in the Salta Province, Argentina. Director/screenwriter Martel was born in Salta.
Cast
Graciela Borges as Mecha
Mercedes Moran as Tali
Martin Adjemian as Gregorio
Daniel Valenzuela as Rafael
Leonora Balcarce as Veronica
Silvia Bayle as Mercedes
Sofia Bertolotto as Momi
Juan Cruz Bordeu as Jose
Noelia Bravo Herrera as Agustina
Maria Micol Ellero as Mariana
Andrea Lopez as Isabel
Sebastian Montagna as Luciano
Franco Veneranda as Martin
Fabio Villafane as Perro
Diego Baenas as Joaquin
Distribution
The film was first featured at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 8, 2001. It opened in Argentina on March 8, 2001 at the Mar del Plata Film Festival, and released wide in Argentina on April 12, 2001.
The drama was also shown at various film festivals, including: the Karlovy Vary Film Festival; the Toronto Film Festival; the New York Film Festival; the Warsaw Film Festival; International Film Festival, Rotterdam; the Titanic International Filmpresence Festival, Hungary; the Adelaide International Film Festival; the Uruguay International Film Festival; and the Havana Film Festival, Cuba.
In the United States it was presented at the New York Film Festival on October 2, 2001. It also opened in Los Angeles on October 12, 2001.
Critical reception
Writing for The New York Times, critic Stephen Holden liked Lucrecia Martel's debut film, and called it "remarkable," writing, "The steamy ambiance in which the characters fester is a metaphor for creeping social decay...La cienaga perspires from the screen, it creates a vision of social malaise that feels paradoxically familiar and new." Holden, Stephen. The New York Times, "Summertime, and the Living Is Approaching Unbearable," October 1, 2001. Last accessed: December 14, 2007.
Critic David Lipfert also liked the director's various sociological messages and metaphors contained in the film. He believes the "New Argentina Cinema" is moving beyond the themes related to the military dictatorship period of the late 1970s and early 1980s. He wrote, "[Martel's] intense, in-your-face portrait of a dissolute middle class lacks the usual justifying criminal context. Martel simply holds up a mirror to Argentinean society, and the result is devastating. Instead of creating an allegory with archetypes, she shows characters that are all too real. When still, her camera is low and close as though we were right on top of the actors." Lipfert, David. Offoffoff.com, film review, October 12, 2001.
When the film opened in New York City, the film critic for The Village Voice Amy Taubin wrote, "Lucrecia Martel's La Cienaga is a veritable Chekhov tragicomedy of provincial life. Making a brilliant debut, Martel constructs her narrative from quotidian incidents, myriad comings and goings, and a cacophony of voices competing for attention...[i]n a debut feature that's assured in every aspect, Martel's direction of the younger members of her cast is particularly notable."
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 36 reviews, marking the film as "Fresh." La cienaga at Rotten Tomatoes. Last accessed: February 18, 2008.
Awards
Wins
Berlin International Film Festival: Alfred Bauer Award, Lucrecia Martel; 2001.
Havana Film Festival: Best Actress, Graciela Borges; Best Director, Lucrecia Martel; Best Sound, Herve Guyader, Emmanuel Croset, Guido Berenblum, Adrian De Michele; Grand Coral - First Prize, Lucrecia Martel; 2001.
Toulouse Latin America Film Festival: French Critics' Discovery Award, Lucrecia Martel; Grand Prix, Lucrecia Martel; 2001.
Uruguay International Film Festival: First Work Award - Special Mention, Lucrecia Martel; 2001.
Uruguayan Film Critics Association: UFCA Award Best Latin American Film; 2001.
Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best Actress, Graciela Borges; Best Cinematography, Hugo Colace; Best First Film, Lucrecia Martel; 2002.
Nominations
Berlin International Film Festival: Golden Berlin Bear, Lucrecia Martel; 2001.
Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best Art Direction, Graciela Oderigo; Best Director, Lucrecia Martel; Best Film; Best Original Screenplay, Lucrecia Martel; Best Supporting Actress, Mercedes Moran; 2002.
MTV Movie Awards, Latin America: MTV Movie Award, MTV South Feed (mostly Argentina) - Favorite Film, Lucrecia Martel; 2002.
External links
La cienaga at cinenacional.com .
La cienaga review at Cineismo by Guillermo Ravaschino .
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