Debates on the Regional in the Cinema of Lucrecia Martel

Abstract

The problem explored in this paper is framed within the debates on regionalism that cut across the various fields of artistic production.

The main objective is to analyze the presence of the regional in Lucrecia Martel’s cinema within the framework of different debates that, in various contexts, took place among the filmmaker, some sectors of criticism—both journalistic and specialized—and spectators.

Taking Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural fields as a point of reference, the method used is based on the analysis of the positions of some of the agents involved in the dynamics of the field of Argentine cinema in the mid-1990s: filmmakers, critics, and spectators.

Among the results obtained, we observe that the presence of the regional in Martel’s cinema can be read as the symbolic capital that has contributed to the filmmaker’s consecration at both the national and international levels. However, different perspectives and appreciations converge in the accumulation of this capital, including those of various sectors of criticism and of spectators.

At the same time, although she uses some similar techniques and resources, Martel distinguishes herself from other filmmakers of the same period not only because she chooses to film in the interior of the country, but also because she does so from a perspective that demystifies the essentialist views through which regions are often represented.

From this derives a cinematographic production, and a discourse that legitimizes it, which depart from the single narrative of Buenos Aires urbanity.