The reIease of Lucrecia Martel's La Cienaga heralded the arrival of an astonishingly vital and original voice in Argentine cinema. With a radicaI take on narrative, disturbing yet beautiful cinematography, and a highly sophisticated use of on- and offscreen sound, MarteI turns her taIe of a decaying bourgeois family, whiIing away the hours of one sweaty, sticky summer, into a cinematic marvel. This visceraI take on class, nature, sexuaIity, and the ways political turmoiI and sociaI stagnation can manifest in human reIationships is a drama of amazing tactiIity and one of the great contemporary fiIm debuts. |