A strikingly well-directed, relentlessly dreary debut feature from Argentine director Lucrecia Martel.
La Ciénaga (2001)
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Reviews Counted:36
Fresh:31
Rotten:5
Average Rating:6.9/10
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: This Argentinean tale, which revolves around a group of families passing summer vacation in a rural country house, does not rely on a concrete plotline, but rather roves, rambles, and stumbles upon... This Argentinean tale, which revolves around a group of families passing summer vacation in a rural country house, does not rely on a concrete plotline, but rather roves, rambles, and stumbles upon each new event. The most notable characteristic of LA CIÉNAGA is its mood--a brooding, dreadful, fearsome tension that does not wain or cease even in the very last moment of the film. No event, no action, no exchange of words, no scene of the movie is more or less important than another. Instead, the film continues nonsequentially in what feels like a prolonged wait. Using gorgeous, realistic photography--of green mountains against a grayish humid sky, of the bright colors of summer swimsuits and shorts stained with blood or mud, of the simultaneously beautiful and disgusting human body--Lucrecia Martel's oeuvre is about strings of images and the suggestion of potential meanings. Never, however, does the director step over the line and reveal too much to her viewers. As characters come and go from the film's focus, maintaining a chilly distance from the viewer, LA CIÉNAGA unfurls slowly, languorously, and without closure. [More]
Starring: Mercedes Moran, Martin Adjemian, Leonora Balcarce, Silvia Bayle
Starring: Mercedes Moran, Martin Adjemian, Leonora Balcarce, Silvia Bayle, Juan Cruz Bordeu, Noelia Bravo Herrera, Maria Micol Ellero, Andrea Lopez
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Screenwriter: Lucrecia Martel
Studio: Code Red
Reviews for La Ciénaga
Look closely and you'll find something not often present in your average art-house flick -- a hint, intense and unsettling, of art itself.
Martel glues together a disjointed picture of a society where tension lies only skin deep.
I found it a fascinating fly-on-the-wall experience, seeing the kind of ugly moments a family would hide from us had we been officially invited in.
The triumph of La Cienaga lies in Martel's way of fashioning the kind of ensemble performance that draws us in by convincing us we're watching behavior, not acting.
A disturbing narrative of anomie, bigotry, and dysfunctionality that holds up a revelatory mirror to human nature.
By its end we are glad to see the last of most of its characters, but we will not quickly forget them.
A dark drama cuts to the bone with its relentlessly bleak portrait of family life breaking down.
Within the first moments of her debut feature, La Ciénaga, writer/director Lucrecia Martel demonstrates a piercing sensibility and a sharp eye.
There may be whispers of reality to this abandon- all-hope vision of Argentina, but it's a truth presented didactically, without eloquence, vitality, or a mordant glimmer of spirit.
Oblique but potent, it's a film that will likely resonate with dispirited people everywhere.
There's a dying cow stuck in the swamp. And that pretty much says it all, metaphorically speaking.
Martel can barely contain her disgust, and like Bunuel before her, she knows just when to cut the laughs and go straight for the throat.
It's entrancing and unsettling at the same time, the kind of film that makes you feel decadent just for bearing witness.
Creates a vision of social malaise that feels paradoxically familiar and new.
Represents an auspicious debut by Argentinian writer-director Lucretia Martel.
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