I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT/ DE ESO NO SE HABLAR

Argentina, 1990, 102 minutes, Colour.
Marcello Mastroianni, Luisina Brando, Alejandra Potesta, Walter Marin.
Directed by Maria Luisa Bemberg.

This is an unusual drama. It is from Argentinian, Maria Luisa Bemberg, a writer and director of seven films including Miss Mary with Julie Christie and I, the Worst of All, a period religious drama about a literary nun and her treatment by the Inquisition.

This film is about a mother who gives birth to a child who is a dwarf. The mother is passionate about her daughter and protects her. In her adolescence, she encounters a rich man of the town, played by Marcelo Mastroianni, who becomes interested in her, proposes and they marry.

So, the film is a portrait of mother and daughter and the relationship with the man. The theme is serious, sometimes the treatment has the touch of the comic, especially the behaviour of the Mayor who dies during the wedding ceremony. And, later, the rich man becomes the Mayor.

However, there is irony as the film develops, the young woman greeting the circus when it comes to town and, finding a place within the circus and leaving home.

1. The impact of the film? Reality and fantasy? Mother daughter, family, love, destiny? The moral fables versus realistic stories?

2. The Argentinian setting, the town, its detail? The musical score?

3. The title, Leonora, Carlotta, Ludovico? Why?

4. Mitch Amin, young, observer, memory, commentary?

5. We are Nora, pregnant, the birth, the birthday and the candles, the mothers and the whisper? Advice? Night, the memories?

6. Carlotta over two, small, dwarf, slow growth? Be an aura wanting her daughter to be “normal�, the piano lessons, French? At 15, Carlotta and her achievement, poise, ability, relationship with her mother? The professors? Ludovico? Life in the town?

7. The mother, shop, the priest and his power? The women? Carlotta playing? Ludovico, singing? Her proving herself? Playing, nervous? The horse, the gifts, anger? Showing her how to ride? The proposal, the expectations? The agreement? The wedding and the splendour? The dinner, the couple? The mayor, his role in the seven ceremony, dying, concealed? Ludovico becoming the Mayor? Forbidding the circus to come?

8. Marcello Mastroianni, his presence, singing, the horse and the pony, Murder and men? The horse and Carlotta? Playing? The drink, leaving, the return? Courting permission? The marriage?

9. Carlotta, growing up, the visit to the hospital, the horse, play, listening to her mother, the response to the proposal, the marriage, the ceremony? The joy? The mayor? The circus, the night visit? A future?

10. The parish priest and his influence? The mayor? The background of the military? The bar, the doctor, the opening with the dual? The background of the brothel, Ludovico’s visits, Carlotta restraining him?

11. The woman and the deaf daughter? The sake

12. the circus, Carlotta and her place, writing, leaving?

13. Her mother, the closing of that episode in her life, her disappearance?

14. Herve, as servant, observation, love, the narration?