The Salta Trilogy of Lucrecia Martel
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Please do not remove this page The Salta Trilogy of Lucrecia Martel Jubis, Oscar https://scholarship.miami.edu/discovery/delivery/01UOML_INST:ResearchRepository/12355413470002976?l#13355505070002976 Jubis, O. (2009). The Salta Trilogy of Lucrecia Martel [University of Miami]. https://scholarship.miami.edu/discovery/fulldisplay/alma991031447750602976/01UOML_INST:ResearchR epository Open Downloaded On 2021/09/30 17:00:39 -0400 Please do not remove this page UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI THE SALTA TRILOGY OF LUCRECIA MARTEL By Oscar Jubis A THESIS Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Miami in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Coral Gables, Florida December 2009 ©2009 Oscar Jubis All Rights Reserved UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts THE SALTA TRILOGY OF LUCRECIA MARTEL Oscar Jubis Approved: ______________ ______________ William Rothman, Ph.D. Terri A. Scandura, Ph.D. Professor of Motion Pictures Dean of the Graduate School ______________ ______________ Christina Lane, Ph.D. Yvonne Gavela, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Motion Pictures Assistant Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures JUBIS, OSCAR (M.A., Film Studies) The Salta Trilogy of Lucrecia Martel (December 2009) Abstract of a thesis at the University of Miami Thesis supervised by Professor William Rothman Number of pages in text (109) During the past decade, Lucrecia Martel has emerged as the most respected filmmaker from South America. This thesis is motivated by my conviction that Martel’s films are worthy of serious engagement and critical scrutiny. It is also motivated by my curiosity about the seemingly inexhaustible pleasure and edification I derive from them. Martel describes her filmmaking as “cine de autor” (auteur cinema). Indeed, her films evidence a personal involvement in every aspect of filmmaking. This thesis will define and explore the characteristics and conditions of her authorship. This thesis constitutes an expression of the enduring usefulness of auteurist criticism. In this case, this critical approach is entirely appropriate and likely to yield the deepest insights into the films. The introduction to my thesis provides pertinent biographical information and the necessary socio-cultural context to set the stage for an intellectual immersion into her three features to date: The Swamp (2001), The Holy Girl (2004) and The Headless Woman (2008). I propose that these films constitute a trilogy that distills Martel’s experience of growing up in the remote province of Salta and critiques the social and cultural forces at play in provincial Latin American life. However, no matter how specific the sense of place the films convey and how grounded they are in subjective experience, they illuminate universal aspects of being a person in the world and contain progressive prescriptions for living from which anyone can benefit. My research into the literature on the films of Lucrecia Martel failed to find any serious and thorough appraisal of Lucrecia Martel’s films as a trilogy. While my analysis benefits from familiarity with the available literature, the operative critical approach privileges my direct experience with the audiovisual material provided by the films. Each film will be subjected to a close reading illustrated with images from it. These readings focus sharply on certain sequences I deem crucial to the conveyance of characterization, meaning and ideology. These readings aim to think with the films rather than think against or about them. They explore the themes and issues that arise within the narratives of the films as well as the formal means by which they do. DEDICATIONS This thesis is dedicated to Professor Bill Rothman whose work in Film Studies fueled my desire to pursue a degree in the field, and to Cristi Jubis whose support and encouragement made it possible. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………..1 A Work of Auteurist Criticism………………………………... 7 The Film Career of Lucrecia Martel………………………… 14 Nuevo Cine Argentino………………………………………....15 Rey Muerto...........................................................................20 The Girl from Salta……………………………………………..21 2 THE SWAMP…………………………………………………...24 3 THE HOLY GIRL…………………………………………….....53 4 THE HEADLESS WOMAN……………………………………78 References……………………………………………………………106 iv Chapter One Introduction 1 2 This thesis is motivated by my strong conviction that the films written and directed by Lucrecia Martel are worthy of serious engagement and critical scrutiny. It is also motivated by my curiosity about the seemingly inexhaustible pleasure and edification I derive from her films. While it is significant that Martel calls what she does cine de autor (auteur cinema), this is less important than whether her films provide evidence of Martel as a film author. Indeed, her films evidence her personal involvement in every aspect of filmmaking at every step in the production process. This thesis will define and explore the characteristics and conditions of her authorship. This introduction to The Salta Trilogy of Lucrecia Martel will provide the necessary socio-cultural context and pertinent biographical information about Martel to set the stage for an intellectual immersion into her three features: The Swamp (La ciénaga, 2001), The Holy Girl (La niña santa, 2004) and The Headless Woman (La mujer sin cabeza, 2008). This introduction also addresses challenges to the idea of film authorship and the practice of auteurist criticism. The remainder of my thesis is dependent on close readings of the films accompanied by screen captures. A work of criticism of a primarily visual art form is enhanced by visual material excerpted from the film(s) because it serves to illustrate the critical commentary. It is an approach to criticism I learned from Professor Bill Rothman, beginning with a reading of his groundbreaking Hitchcock-The Murderous Gaze (1982). This approach is flexible enough to suit criticism of films as disparate as Hitchcock’s and Martel’s and rightfully based solely on the writer’s experience with the audiovisual material the films provide. 3 In other words, I subscribe to the idea that the best film criticism is firmly grounded on and originates from observable and audible detail. The complexity and density of these films demand a close scrutiny of their detailed fabric in order to offer deep insights into their meaning and artistry. My experience with the films reveals a number of stylistic trademarks and identifies a series of recurring themes. Martel’s cinema is essentially autobiographic in that the films originate from memories of life in the province during her formative years. These memories are, to a remarkable extent, processed through the senses. A great deal of attention is devoted to how her characters perceive the world around them, the link between perception and emotion, and the interpretation of reality based on those perceptions and influenced by those emotions. The films are replete with scenes of characters engaged in sensory perception, in the reception of stimuli on which their views of the world are based. Additionally, as I will illustrate, the films elicit metaphorical allusions from the activities of the senses. The tendency to show characters at the moment of perception corresponds to a sensualist view that underscores that sensations are the building blocks of cognition. In view of how the first two films of the trilogy depict the limitations of traditional worship, it can be argued that Martel’s worldview borrows from the positivism of Auguste Comte. I am referring specifically to the notion that a “religion of humanity” would or should fulfill the role of fomenting social cohesion once held by organized religion. The films endorse a universal morality based on 4 the commonality of human nature and the need to respond to human frailty and transgression with acknowledgement and compassion. Working within a primarily visual medium, Lucrecia Martel aims to elevate sound to a position of equality with the images. The script and the sound design of her films are painstakingly constructed over a long period of time until they are perfectly calibrated and faithfully followed during the shoot. What I call extra- imaged sound, aural stimuli produced outside our views of the world-on-film, is particularly important to narrative thrust and the conveyance of meaning. It calls attention to the space that exists beyond what the screen allows us to see. Very often in Martel’s films, sound precedes the image with which it is associated to make the viewer conscious of its ability to have independent impact on thought and emotion. Whereas the soundtracks of Martel’s films are planned beforehand, their mise-en-scène is fluid and improvised. Camera placement and movement, number and length of shots, blocking (the positioning of actors within a filmic space), and lighting are determined on the set. These aspects are worked out 5 depending on what each scene is meant to communicate to the spectator. There is no conscious effort to either adhere to an established or “classical” style or to disregard it just for the sake of being original or on the “cutting-edge”. At times, reaction shots precede views of the action that motivates them, forcing the viewer to reconsider the connection between cause and effect. One salient characteristic of Martel’s aesthetics is the almost total absence of orientation or establishing shots, which she finds too impersonal