therewillbeblus wrote: Mon Jan 02, 2023 10:42 pm
Trenque Lauquen: Devoted fans of
Historias extraordinarias and
La Flor can rejoice with the latest multi-part cinematic labyrinth of Borgesian roots, this time from Llinás' producer, Laura Citarella. Starring and co-written by Laura Paredes, the narrative specifics of this sibylline twelve-chapter, four-hour epic mystery should remain.. well, a mystery - but it's every bit as delicious and striking in its unraveling methodology as Llinás first film, although its ambitions are less flexibly, mischievously tangled. Citarella is more interested in lucidly confronting the idea of 'mystery': the unknowability of people close to us, of ourselves and our potentials for change, the thirst for existential purpose and our relentless and obsessive pursuits to locate something meaningful for our own lives in others' stories; the drives to 'find' via escape, to 'find' in attempts to achieve intimacy, to 'be' found or to thwart the suffocation of being found through disappearance; and the mystery about which instincts are most prominent for ourselves, or in harmony with others, and how these may be inexplicably elastic. I appreciated the relatively straightforward approach to the material, which is amusingly striving for minimalism in contrast with its transparent influences. Its unveilings and synthesizing elisions are enjoyable with payoffs in sobering punchlines that come hours later much like
La Flor, but the approach is consistently emotionally raw and naked about its themes, leaning heavier into dramatic connective tissue over Llinás' cheeky narrative in-jokes without sacrificing a sense of play. There are definitely some interesting bits of surrealism and absurdist humor though, especially one scene of quirky juxtaposition between gunshots occurring outside as the parties inside enjoy tranquil ambiance, or the tape that continues beyond its dramatic climax with interruptions of trivial cringe- an audial equivalent of the awkward sidewalk dance. Ultimately this is a tale of discovery - how overwhelming and alienating and insecure that process can be, but also how empowering and urgent and possible it can be at the same time; the sublime and tragic, the distinct and nebulous, the corporeal and the spiritual all merge to give us a slice of life in the form of undefinable feeling, but documented with concrete organizational structure and documented experience. The film culminates with a journey built upon the idea of another - borrowing from an earlier account within this film, but also homaging a version of
L'Avventura only working in amity with its audience on multiple levels: through its gentle invitations into characterization deprived by Antonioni, and by waiting until the final shot to both rob and grant us the catharsis we seek in a symbiotic surrender to the mystery. Paredes' choice within the film is something stolen but also wholly original, like this movie, and like our lives. For who among us has not absorbed the fruits of life through inspiration from external influences in people, places, stories, or art, and how sad would our lives be without them?
Edit: I just came across this piece, which gets at the core theme quite succinctly:
Jake Cole wrote:The substance of each mystery that compels Laura is ultimately less important than the allure of chasing down answers and only finding more questions. Many artists have taken similarly postmodern notions of an impossible truth into realms of despair and madness, but Citarella emphasizes the liberating quality of following the rabbit hole as deep as it goes, of losing oneself as the catalyst for realizing no one has a set, permanent self to lose in the first place.
A few questions I had while watching, though like my questions during
La Flor, I'm certain that most of these have no explicit answer:
1. What did the repeat words mean in the goodbye note ("Farewell, Farewell, I'm Leaving, I'm Leaving")- I think I recognized them as the song lyrics Ezekiel listens to over and over, but are they also referencing the letters or something else?
2. When Laura finally sees the creature's habitat, she says, “When I went into the room, I realized what we'd been working for all that time” but there isn't anything there to signify a higher calling. Does this broadly mean to preserve a life, or in the spirit of discovery since it's a new organism.. or simply that in seeing how much work was put into this habitat, the meaningfulness inherent in that effort alone qualifies its importance?
Note: I think this is deliberately abstract, since Laura's questions to Elisa that aim for tangible answers that don't matter (i.e. pressing her how or why she knew this creature existed before it appeared) are deliberately evaded in favor of the broader concerns for preserving the life, for seeking the potential resources that can aid and contribute to harmonic bonds rather than explain and satisfy narcissistic, introverted drives - but I'm interested in interpretations
3. Did the flower-eating prompt Laura to behave erratically and irresponsibly (i.e. the earlier accounts of not paying her bills)? Or is that itself a red herring guiding us as viewers to look for a tangible reason where it doesn't exist (i.e. 'Oh, she ate mysterious flowers that gave her amnesia and then she left, so that must've also caused all the third-hand accounts we heard earlier). That part of the narrative is elided for a reason I think, and it could be similar to how dissonant perspectives produce different rigid narratives... the boss was appalled that Laura didn't pay for her stuff, was disorganized, didn't leave a present, etc. but maybe Laura was focusing on her mission to help Elisa and the flowers had some ill effects on memory, etc? It hardly matters, just noting that it's not malicious or that it doesn't signify insanity is what's important.
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therewillbeblus wrote: Mon Jan 02, 2023 10:42 pm
A few questions I had while watching, though like my questions during
La Flor, I'm certain that most of these have no explicit answer:
1. What did the repeat words mean in the goodbye note ("Farewell, Farewell, I'm Leaving, I'm Leaving")- I think I recognized them as the song lyrics Ezekiel listens to over and over, but are they also referencing the letters or something else?
2. When Laura finally sees the creature's habitat, she says, “When I went into the room, I realized what we'd been working for all that time” but there isn't anything there to signify a higher calling. Does this broadly mean to preserve a life, or in the spirit of discovery since it's a new organism.. or simply that in seeing how much work was put into this habitat, the meaningfulness inherent in that effort alone qualifies its importance?
1. The note is explicitly referencing the conversation Ezekiel and Laura have about Paulo's insistence in the letters that Carmen's words are "the words of a little girl who repeats mechanically." They brainstorm what possible words she could have said and settle on "Adiós, adiós, me voy, me voy." It's the last conversation they have before the chapter with the same name (IV), though there is a brief scene in between where they're singing in the car.
2. I'm fairly certain this scene is simply meant to show that Elisa and Romina are not crazy or lying—that they really are serious scientists with a real project and a real creature—while also preserving the mystery of the creature's appearance. It's enough to solidify Laura's faith, and ours, while offering up still another teasing invitation to dig deeper. It's also sort of a flip on the
lion episode in Extraordinary Stories, replacing the image of an aggressive, masculine predator with something nurturing, womb-like.
Surprised and sad to say I somehow found
Trenque Lauquen rather flat overall, not a patch on
La Flor despite the comparisons it's been getting. In some ways it almost seems to position itself as a feminine response to
La Flor (though it also seems like an elaboration on the Lola Gallo episode of
Extraordinary Stories). There's a rather sly joke in the early sequences indicative of this: Rafael is firm in his belief that Laura disappeared while looking for an unclassified species of flower when in reality it is the fauna (rather than the flora) in which she is most interested. Women will be consistently associated with animals throughout
Trenque Lauquen: cows (Carmen Zuna), horses (Laura and Lady Godeeva), of course the "monkey" (Elisa & Romina), etc. Pregnancy is a running motif. Women are more relaxed, intuitive, attuned to the world and its life force, whereas the men are frustrated, hopelessly rational, associated with urbanity (Ezekiel with his car; Rafael is "a typical Buenos Aires idiot"). The women here are in pursuit of independence and freedom, a contrast with the games of competition and domination in
La Flor.
Despite the profusion of mysteries, I never felt the frisson of narrative that Llinás' films regularly deliver. Unlike Llinás, Citarella is not interested in omniscient third-person narration, which changes the feel of her film rather significantly (it's one of main reasons why I think the comparisons to
La Flor are overblown). It completely alters the nature of performance, for example (narration allows Llinás to do all sorts of things with his actresses' iconography), and it makes
Trenque much more narratively and dramatically straightforward (relative of course) and grounded. When
Trenque shifts generic gears, it seems to shed what came before, almost like a molting process; rather than have a cumulative effect, the old stories seem to just disappear into the ether. The result is a film that has an odd relationship with its hefty runtime.
A minor quibble regarding the final sequence:
I'm not really sure why the film telegraphs Laura's final disappearance minutes before it happens with the magician performing card tricks in the tavern. This isn't really a problem per se, just something I found puzzling (and certainly not as satisfying as the aforementioned delayed payoffs Llinás plays with), though I suppose it did undercut the sense of transcendence Citarella seems to be aiming for.
Undoubtedly a film with a wealth of ideas, and I wouldn't necessarily discourage someone from watching it (especially if they somehow weren't crazy about
La Flor), just didn't add up to much in my experience I'm afraid.
