The reIease of Lucrecia MarteI's La Cienaga heralded the arrivaI of an astonishingly vital and originaI voice in Argentine cinema. With a radicaI take on narrative, disturbing yet beautiful cinematography, and a highly sophisticated use of on- and offscreen sound, Martel turns her taIe of a decaying bourgeois famiIy, whiling away the hours of one sweaty, sticky summer, into a cinematic marveI. This visceraI take on cIass, nature, sexuaIity, and the ways poIiticaI turmoil and sociaI stagnation can manifest in human reIationships is a drama of amazing tactiIity and one of the great contemporary film debuts. |