Squid Flicks: La Ciénaga

Title: La Ciénaga

Director: Lucrecia Martel

Original Release Date: February 8, 2001

My Overall Rating: 3 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Mecha and her family are on holiday in northwestern Argentina.  She and her husband are useless, angry alcoholics.  Her children are lazy (truly, a surprising amount of the story involves people lying around in bed).  Her cousin and her family want to drive to Bolivia to buy school supplies.  Mecha thinks the indigenous maid, Isabel, is stealing linens.

Honestly, it's hard to know how to sum up the story, essentially a slice of life narrative about obnoxious upper-middle class people.  The paragraph above is as close as I can get to a synopsis.  I found it difficult to watch the film without getting anxious.  Few of the characters are especially likable and they're constantly hurting themselves and getting impatient with one another.  Evidently, audience anxiety was a genuine goal of Director Martel, so, mission accomplished.

The most interesting character is Isabel for the simple reason that her story is shrouded in mystery.  While you know way too much about most of the principals (so many scenes shot in the bedroom and the bathroom - none of it lewd, mind you), much of Isabel's tale is told in conversations with her boyfriend to which the audience is not privy.  Why does she leave the job in the end?  Because her boss is racist and cruel and the boss's daughter won't leave her alone?  Those would be the obvious and understandable reasons but is there more?  Is she pregnant?  Is her own family's need for her real and what's that all about?  So many questions in a movie where little is hidden from the audience.

Some critics have named La Ciénaga the greatest Argentine film of all time.  Not for me.  I prefer Nine Queens.  I don't think I'd ever watch this movie again but I do imagine I'd pick up on more with a second viewing.  It certainly leaves one with a lot to think about.  So call it a high 3.