LA MUJER SIN CABEZA (THE HEADLESS WOMAN)
Argentina, 2008, 90 minutes, Colour.
Maria Onetto.
Directed by Lucrecia Martel.
This is tough going, especially if one does not get on the wavelength of the film early. The screenplay is often elliptical, leaving it to the audience to discover or work out what is going on.
We see a group of Buenos Aires mothers and listen to their chat about swimming pools, children and other assorted topics. We follow one of them as she drives home. Momentarily losing concentration, she has an accident. Has she simply crashed? Has she hit someone or something? And, what of her mental state as she composes herself? As she goes to a hospital for an X ray? As she books into a hotel for the night?
When she returns home she seems to be acting normally but she is distracted – she seems to have lost her head somehow. When she comes to realise that she may have been responsible for hitting a boy, her family and friends check on details and she rehearses her steps. It seems there is no evidence of the accident.
The question arises as to whether she is the one who knows what happened and others are refusing to acknowledge this – or what? The performance by Maria Onetto is fine and the director takes us into the mind and emotions of a troubled middle-aged woman in well-to-do Buenos Aires society.
1.The reputation of Lucrecia Martel? Her films and awards? Her enigmatic treatment of subjects? The impact of this film? For male audiences? For female audiences?
2.The Argentinian setting, the countryside, the city? Homes, hotels, hospitals? In the mountains, the sales of plants? The stormwater channel? The floods? A realistic atmosphere? The musical score? The songs?
3.The title, the reference to Vero? Her experiences? Her being disconnected and alienated from her surroundings?
4.The opening, the stormwater channel, the boys playing? Chasing each other? The transition to the women, social chatter, the children, the discussions about the pool and its opening? Vero in this context?
5.Vero, her driving, the phone, her lack of concentration, her feeling that she had run over somebody? Her getting out, sitting in the car for a long time, continuing the journey? The consequences and her going to the hospital, disconnected, the x-ray, not signing the document, not waiting, going to the hotel? The man visiting her, the issue of tea and sandwich? The lovemaking? Her later return to the hotel – and their having no record of her? Her going to the hospital and their having no record of the x-rays?
6.At home, her husband, his going to work, trying on the swimming costume? Leaving her to manage? The servants? Her background as a dentist, the cab, going to work, not relating well to the people there? Her going home?
7.Her daughter, her weak physical condition, her concern for her? The other daughter, the marriage, the decision not to go but to send a present?
8.Her friend Josefina? Their talk, going to find the plants? The man unable to lift the heavy containers? His waiting for the boy who was missing?
9.The floods, the missing boy, his being drowned?
10.Vero, her thinking that she had killed him? Talking to her husband, their checking the records and no-one being reported killed by car? Only the boy drowned?
11.The boy delivering the plants, her giving him the T-shirts? Her continuing her work, going to the children and inspecting their teeth?
12.Her manner, wandering, her wondering what had happened to her? Refusing any kind of assistance? Her gradually returning to normal? The meeting with the friends, the social – and the sudden ending of the film?
13.The portrait of an ordinary woman, her physical appearance, her blonde hair and the discussions about hair colour, her returning to black, saying she was probably grey? Her age, her relationship with her husband? With her children? The continued concern about the infirm daughter? Her friends, the servants? The experience and its mental and spiritual effect on her?
