La Ciénaga

This movie is definitely not for everyone. In fact, this movie, I believe, is for nobody. We aren’t given anything to follow, to celebrate, to cry and even then, we cannot be left indifferent to this work. The combination of oppressive summer and decay isn’t much attractive on paper but the way Martel wants us to focus on the sounds, the visuals, the sentiment it gives us, makes this film uniquely beautiful. I am not saying this film is a visual masterpiece, it is not. However, the seemingly common and uninteresting settings share this sort of honesty that really impressed me. The movie reports the action more than it conjugates and develops it. I have to speak about the social critique the movie sets because otherwise people will believe I didn’t understand the deeper meaning of this contemplative work. Ciénaga is the Spanish word for swamp. Here, for me, the swamp represents the physical and mental environment of the decaying Argentinian bourgeoisie. The very dramatical opening scene is for me the only scene that really matters, it sums up the whole point of this movie in a great way. Only problem is that I was expecting this to steal my heart and take its place on my current top 4 but honestly, I feel like the movie doesn’t want to be our favourite. It wants to challenge the rules of regular cinema, but is expecting that people aren’t ready for it yet which is why I’ll limit myself to a 4.5/5 for its uniqueness.