Lucrecia Martel in the Spotlight

“From the very beginning, even when I’m writing, I think a lot about the sound. Many elements of my work in cinema come from oral storytelling and oral tradition. I think about sound and the rhythm of the sound.” Lucrecia Martel

The purpose of film is to create a diversion from our existing universe and invigorate our senses by providing the viewer with "real" life situations from a voyeuristic perspective. We watch cinema to escape our current life situation and observe how others would handle these situations, while still sharing their emotions and experience. As diverse as the world is in 2010, the cinema industry still lags in the recognition of female film directors and creator. As in many other career paths in media, women are not as commonly recognized, accepted or seen in any aspect of mainstream media- especially in film. Let's face it, the film directing world is dominated by the men and this has been a pattern since the introduction of cinema in the mid-late 1800s.

One critically acclaimed film director whose name has appeared in the media reviews during recent years is Lucrecia Martel, a native of Salta, Argentina. Lucrecia Martel is a well known writer, producer and screen director, who gained worldwide recognition from her film La Mujer Sin Cabeza (2008), La Cienaga (2001) and the short film Rey Muerto (1996). Lucrecia was born and raised in Argentina and studied Communication Sciences at the National Experimentation Filmmaking School in Buenos Aires. After several years of studying at the institution, it was shut down due to the lack of revenue. What sets Lucrecia apart from many of her female competitors is that she continued to develop her writing and directing skills by analyzing TV and gaining knowledge through independent study. Her initial experience was acquired from filming family celebrations and gatherings throughout her youth (she had a very long family tree).

Her films are intriguing because she focuses on the sounds of the environment and the images in her film are always serene and gray providing the viewer with a sense of grief, passion, and intensity. She always strives to make the viewer feel the emotions of each and every character in her film and her main goal is to leave the viewer in a daze as to what will happen next. This sense of ambiguity and invisibility is an intricate aspect of all her films. Lucrecia projects her films with themes of death, sex, love and life. Life is never clear and neither are her films. In particular, I was impressed by her use of imagery and color coordination in the horrorfilm La Mujer Sin Cabeza (The Headless Woman).

AWARDED FOR HER TALENT

1999- Sundance+-/ NHK Filmmakers Award (La Cienaga)

Works Cited

Document: http://features.metacritic.com/features/2010/best-women-film-directors-and-movies/

Document: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0551506/

Document: http://libcom.org/blog/headless-woman-directed-lucrecia-martel-milk-sorrow-directed-claudia-llosa-26052010

Images: http://www.cinencuentro.com/2008/09/11/lucrecia-martel-sera-homenajeada-en-festival-internacional-de-gijon/

Images: http://vanitasmagazine.blogspot.com/