Lucrecia Martel

Lucrecia Martel
Martel at the presentation of the Audioteca at the National Library, 2015
Born (1966-12-14) December 14, 1966 (age 57)
Salta, Argentina
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter, producer
Years active1988–present
Notable work
PartnerJulieta Laso (2016–present)
Awardsfull list

Lucrecia Martel (born December 14, 1966) is an Argentine film director, screenwriter and producer whose feature films have frequented Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, and many other international film festivals.[1] Film scholar Paul Julian Smith wrote in 2015 that she is "arguably the most critically acclaimed auteur in Spanish-language art cinema outside Latin America" and that her "transnational auteurism and demanding features have earned her a hard-won reputation in the world art cinema festival circuit".[2] Similarly, film scholar Haden Guest has called her "one of the most prodigiously talented filmmakers in contemporary world cinema",[3] and film scholar David Oubiña has called her body of work a "rare perfection".[4] In April 2018, Vogue called her "one of the greatest directors in the world right now".[5]

Her 2001 debut feature film La Ciénaga (The Swamp), about an indulgent bourgeois extended family spending the summertime in a decrepit vacation home in provincial Salta, Argentina, was internationally highly acclaimed upon release and introduced a new and vital voice to Argentine cinema.[6][7][8][9][10] David Oubiña called it "one of the highest achievements" of the New Argentine Cinema, a wave of contemporary filmmaking that began in the mid-1990s in reaction to decades of political and economic crises in the country. The film, Oubiña wrote, is "a rare expression of an extremely troubled moment in the nation's recent history. It is a masterpiece of singular maturity".[4]

Martel's succeeding three feature films received further international acclaim: the adolescent drama The Holy Girl (La niña santa) (2004),[11] the psychological thriller The Headless Woman (La mujer sin cabeza) (2008),[12] and the period drama Zama (2017).[13]

  1. ^ Lucrecia Martel at IMDb
  2. ^ Smith, Paul Julian (January 22, 2013). "Transnational Co-productions and Female Filmmakers: The Cases of Lucrecia Martel and Isabel Coixet". In Parvati, Nair; Gutiérrez-Albilla, Julián Daniel (eds.). Hispanic and Lusophone Women Filmmakers: Theory, Practice and Difference. UK: Manchester University Press. pp. 12–24. ISBN 9780719083570.
  3. ^ Guest, Haden (January 1, 2009). "Lucrecia Martel by Haden Guest". BOMB Magazine. Retrieved June 29, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Oubiña, David [in Spanish] (January 26, 2015). "La Ciénaga: What's Outside the Frame". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
  5. ^ Powers, John (April 9, 2018). "Lucrecia Martel, One of the Greatest Directors in the World Right Now, Gets a Well Earned Retrospective at Lincoln Center". Vogue. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  6. ^ Christofoletti Barrenha, Natalia; Kratje, Julia; Merchant, Paul R. (2022). ReFocus: the films of Lucrecia Martel. ReFocus. The international directors series. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-8522-7.
  7. ^ Poblete, Joel (July 11, 2006). "El cine argentino está muy vital". Mabuse Film Magazine. Chile. Archived from the original on August 27, 2007.
  8. ^ Ebert, Roger (October 19, 2001). "La Cienaga Movie Review & Film Summary (2001)". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
  9. ^ McGavin, Patrick Z. (October 19, 2001). "Family tensions fill risky 'La Cienaga'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
  10. ^ "La Cienaga (2001)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
  11. ^ Scott, A. O. (April 10, 2005). "Blessed Restraint". The New York Times. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
  12. ^ Murat, Pierre (May 2, 2009). "La Femme sans tête". Télérama (in French). Publications de la Vie Catholique. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
  13. ^ Brooks, Xan (August 31, 2017). "Zama review – Lucrecia Martel emerges from the wilderness with a strange, sensual wonder". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved October 30, 2017.