The pool doesn't work and it hasn't been working for a couple of years. This is a
metaphor in the film, La Ciénaga, meaning "the bog" in English. As in a bog, everything gets stuck, which is also the case with the Argentine economy. It has been in a slump for some time now. The summer estate pool is filthy, the light bulbs are flickering and drunk grey-hairs are walking around. The parents are aging. The father is an adulterer. The mother is a pity party. The teenage girls are curious and the boys are always playing in the swamp. La Ciénaga is a one of a series of three for the director Martel. All three of the films are depictions or memories of Martel's childhood in the northwestern part of Argentina. La Ciénaga depicts a memory of her upper middle class family staying in their dilapidated summer home, La Mandrogora, during one of the many Argentine financial crises.
Stuck and miserable, Doña Marcel stutters around with her scarred bust, seemingly permanent sunglasses and vino cup topped with ice as the summer melts her away into another slippery alcoholic slope. She is empty. Her husband is an adulterer who just dyed his hair black for the Carnaval. Too bad he is too drunk himself to accomplish much. She, on the other hand, is melting away in unhappiness. Looking to the Indian servants for support only ends with accusations, racists remarks and an endless ringing telephone.
There are Catholic references throughout the story. These wrap together the end of the film, when Momi, Marcel's teenage daughter, loses all faith and hope. Her best friend, and also live-in Indian servant, Isabella, leaves the family and her job to live with Perro, her lover. Martel visually alludes to, but never reveals in dialog, that Isabella becomes pregnant, which is why she left with Perro. Momi is mortified. She goes into town to see the sighting of the Virgen del Carmen; a symbol of hope and faith to the Argentine Catholics.
The casting of the film is fair. In my opinion, it failed in doing its job and did not make it easy for me to believe that the Marcel's are a family. Perhaps the actors were selected for their abilities and not because the they could pass as a family. The production design and camera work was excellent. Martel did not fall short of making me feel as though I was in a sticky swamp. I definitely felt the sweat of the swamp, it was sucking me in little by little.
I did not particularly empathize with the characters. I did not experience a connection to any of them. The overtone of bigotry towards the Indians, overlaid with a story about a woman who is trying to get a grip on her life and her bourgeois tendencies, detached me from the family. I did not care about any of them. If Martel's mission was to leave me stuck in the bog with the family's misery for an hour and a half she succeeded.
Martel's most notable scene is when Doña Marcel trips on some towels and falls at the pool, resulting in open lacerations on her chest. As well as when the boys are hunting and they come across a cow that is stuck in the bog. The pacing of the film is executed very well during Doña Marcel accident. Although, I was not interested in the story of the film, I did feel many emotional beats. The film does not pay off for me in the end, though I could have missed the sighting of the Virgen.
Stuck and miserable, Doña Marcel stutters around with her scarred bust, seemingly permanent sunglasses and vino cup topped with ice as the summer melts her away into another slippery alcoholic slope. She is empty. Her husband is an adulterer who just dyed his hair black for the Carnaval. Too bad he is too drunk himself to accomplish much. She, on the other hand, is melting away in unhappiness. Looking to the Indian servants for support only ends with accusations, racists remarks and an endless ringing telephone.
There are Catholic references throughout the story. These wrap together the end of the film, when Momi, Marcel's teenage daughter, loses all faith and hope. Her best friend, and also live-in Indian servant, Isabella, leaves the family and her job to live with Perro, her lover. Martel visually alludes to, but never reveals in dialog, that Isabella becomes pregnant, which is why she left with Perro. Momi is mortified. She goes into town to see the sighting of the Virgen del Carmen; a symbol of hope and faith to the Argentine Catholics.
The casting of the film is fair. In my opinion, it failed in doing its job and did not make it easy for me to believe that the Marcel's are a family. Perhaps the actors were selected for their abilities and not because the they could pass as a family. The production design and camera work was excellent. Martel did not fall short of making me feel as though I was in a sticky swamp. I definitely felt the sweat of the swamp, it was sucking me in little by little.
I did not particularly empathize with the characters. I did not experience a connection to any of them. The overtone of bigotry towards the Indians, overlaid with a story about a woman who is trying to get a grip on her life and her bourgeois tendencies, detached me from the family. I did not care about any of them. If Martel's mission was to leave me stuck in the bog with the family's misery for an hour and a half she succeeded.
Martel's most notable scene is when Doña Marcel trips on some towels and falls at the pool, resulting in open lacerations on her chest. As well as when the boys are hunting and they come across a cow that is stuck in the bog. The pacing of the film is executed very well during Doña Marcel accident. Although, I was not interested in the story of the film, I did feel many emotional beats. The film does not pay off for me in the end, though I could have missed the sighting of the Virgen.