Here I Was Born, and There I Died. It Was Only a Moment For You; You Took No Notice
February 8th – February 15th
The Headless Woman - I was VERY impressed with this film from Argentinian Lucrecia Martel. That being said, I’ve only seen it the one time and this is certainly a movie that might benefit from multiple viewings. While not as gimmicky as Christopher Nolan’s Memento, like that one this film does place the viewer at a confusing vantage point.
After Veronica (Maria Onetto) hits something with her car, she wanders around the film in an amnesic daze. As Veronica regains control of her world, so does the viewer begin to fill in missing pieces. Who are these people? Family? Friends? Staff? What’s with her hair? The pool? Is there a cover-up? What did she hit with her car? Did she, in fact, hit anything at all? Director Martel brilliantly doles out details with enough cinematic restraint to temporarily satiate us but still keep us in a state of confusion. I have some idea as to what I’ve seen but remain both slightly perplexed and quite eager to revisit it again soon.
On top of the mystery of it all, the film is ultimately about class. Too often, we suffer a voluntary amnesia when it comes to looking at the socioeconomic divide straight on. It is a painful reminder of the stupid diversion that is much of big Hollywood. We must rely on foreign-language films (and rare/small US independent releases) to get anything approximating social commentary with regards to the issue of class–lest we are tempted to remain with the Hollywood trickeration that wants us to think about anything but.
