MovieChat Forums > La niña santa (2004) Discussion > This movie doesn't represent the Argenti...

This movie doesn't represent the Argentine society


I didn't feel identified by this movie at the slightest.

I think this movie does not represent the reality of the Argentina, in fact, I have seen both La Ciénaga and La Niña Santa and I think the way she presents the Argentine society to us is completely wrong and misleading.

These two movies try to be realistic but they show Argentines like just a bunch of lazy, careless, lousy white trash. Well, that is not how we are! I lived in Argentina for 20 years and I have never ever had any kind of experiences with people like the characters of her movies.

I just wish they made more movies that represent Argentines the way they are, not going to extremes where they either show the country as if it was the USA or Europe (like Nine Queens) or they show it as if it was some kind of big-ass ghetto where people are undesirable.

So I ask Argentines: did you feel identified with this movie at all? Did you, at any point during these two movies (La Ciénaga and La Niña Santa) say "oh yeah! that is so Argentine! That is exactly the way we are!!" I mean, hell, they didn't even drink mate! What kind of Argentine doesn't drink mate?



"The weak will seek the weak until they've broken them..."

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I feel 100% identified with this movie, come on there are thousands of getto places in argentina, every thing past general paz. Nine queens had a lot of seens in puerto madero, the richest place in Argentina. depatments go from 600 thousand dollars. I know i tried to buy one. damn jerks. everything has gone downhill since 2001(coralito)

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departments = apartments

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Jeesh...!!! Relax

So in order to be truly argentinian they have to drink mate, dance tango and play soccer? And then we complain about stereotypes... go figure!!!
By the way I didn't like the movie much, but at the same time I don't have to explain to others what the *REAL* Argentine is. And again, if you can read this (in english) how representative of Argentina are you?

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I am not representative of Argentina one tiny bit, I don't even live there anymore, but you know what? I don't claim to be representative of Argentina, I always say "I'm not your typical Argentine" so there!

And I never said anything about soccer or tango, I just said (and I will keep repeating it) that is NOT how Argentina is, at least not what I know of Argentina, and no, I'm not a rich person with an apartment in Puerto Madero nor do I wish to be, I specified movies like Nine Queens didn't represent Argentina either because they tried making it look like it was all richness when it's not.
I'm just saying, if you're gonna make two movies about Argentina that are going to be seen by the entire world, make it a little better, don't only show the villas and the *beep* that the country has and present is as if that is what the whole country was like, I also disagree with only showing the rich spots and making it look like we're some kind of first world country (like Nine Queens does).
I'm just saying, be realistic! There sure are villas and we sure have white trash in Argentina but that is not all there is, so she might as well show some of the other parts too.

Two out of two movies she made are the same, show the same kind of people, well, I don't mean to be rude (although I know I am being rude) but those people are not the kind of people I'm proud of. Why don't they make a movie about middle class, for a change? I'm sick of seeing either wealthy rich or lousy poor on movies, I want to see some of what I know of my country, some of the big majority that is the middle class, the working class, the ones that are actually worthy of having a movie made about them. And no, I don't include myself in that category, I'm one that never even liked her country to begin with, I don't even live there, but I know my country has some great people in it and I wish they showed that to the world, instead of showing our dark spots. (again I say Son of the Bride is the kind of movie I want to see more often)

When I saw La Cienaga I actually told my husband "see? that kind of people exists in Argentina, I'm not proud of them, but they exist". When I saw La Niña Santa I told my husband "well, now it seems like this director doesn't know anything BUT this kind of people, well, that's not ALL there is".
See? I'm not denying the existance of white trash in Argentina, I'm just saying "show the world there is more to our country than that".

Lastly, maybe you don't have to explain to others what the real Argentina is because you ARE IN ARGENTINA! Me? I'm not, and my husband isn't Argentine, and we're planning on moving to Argentina so I'm trying to explain to him what our society is like (he's only been there a month, that wasn't anywhere near enough time to understand us) and I use every Argentine movie I encounter to show him and explain to him something about my country, and this one really didn't serve the purpose. So yeah, you might be lucky enough to be surrounded by Argentines, I'm surrounded by Americans who, more often than not, confuse Argentina with Brazil and think we speak Portuguese.



"The weak will seek the weak until they've broken them..."

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I am sorry to dissapoint you once again, but I do NOT live in Argentina. In fact I've been living in the US for the last 10 years, and around the planet before that.
Does your husband show you Hollywood movies to "explain" American society? I doubt it.... My point is let the director tell his/her story, if you don't like it, don't listen.
I enjoyed 9 reinas, it was entertaining. I didn't like La niña santa, it was depressing, and only depressing.

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I don't know if La Nina Santa represents Argentine society, and I wonder if it I should care, because I don't always go to the cinema to see a society; I go to be moved, challenged, stimulated, made to wonder...sometimes this involves insight to a society, a nation, but more often it takes me into a character or characters, a situation. I'm remind of Borges' comment in his 'The Argentine Writer and Tradition', his essay in defence of artistic universalism: "Anything we Argentine writers can do successfully will become part of our Argentine tradition, in the same way that the treatment of Italian themes belongs to the tradition of England through the efforts of Chaucer and Shakespeare...either being Argentine is an inescapable act of fate - and in that case we shall be so in all events - or being Argentine is a mere affectation, a mask."
I know, from some Argentine colleagues that Borges' reputation differs markedly inside and outside of Argentina; but to me as a Canadian, the 'nationalist' problematic is practically the same. And so I would like to declare La Nina Santa a Canadian film.

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I don't think that anyone in the movie was portrayed as being white trash. I've never been to South America, but everyone in this movie seemed rich and well educated, the only thing was juny was the hotel.

la vita e bella

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I think the director is trying to make a point by making everything so gritty and sureal. I enjoyed the movie.

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Remember that the director is trying to reconstruct the same hotel she remembered as a teenager, so I assume the time setting was the 70's.

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qué tiene que ver?
Acaso todas las peliculas tienen que representar a su país?
Por favor... en el caso de la niña santa sería demagogia.
No molestes

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No molestes???
Vos si que molestas...! No sos duenho/a de este thread.

To the original poster:
Lucrecia Martel is well financed and overrated.
She tinkers with people's emotion in a crude way that disgusts me.
No, it is not "typical Argentinean" although it does ring Argentinean
at some level.

Don't give it too much thought or energy.
Lucrecia Martel is a a tease, not even a provocateur.
She just got lucky and did her marketing well.
She also goes well with the "progres" in the arts these days in Argentina.
Other Argentineans in the film industry have more talent but
do not "align" as well as her style in the hypocresy of
the progress these days. I am disappointed Redford and the
Sundance Institute vouched La Cienaga.
Her imaging is OK but nothing WOW.
Her themes are unconfortable and I am simply not up for it.
Thank you. I'll pass.


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Estoy de acuerdo, las peliculas no tienen que representar la realidad de nadie ni de ningun pais. Lucrecia Martel, antes que directora, es una narradora y si ella ve asi a la sociedad argentina, pues ese es su punto de vista como artista y se tiene que respetar. Ella nunca ha dicho que sus peliculas son documentales ni nada por el estilo.

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[deleted]

"I mean, hell, they didn't even drink mate! What kind of Argentine doesn't drink mate?"

JA JA JA

Si loco los 40.000.000 de argentinos nos pasamos el dia tomando mate, bailando tango y jugando al futbol...

Ademas, que es la sociedad argentina? que nos tiene que representar? vos realmente te crees que hay una unica y universal identidad argentina? somos demasiado heterogeneos para eso, supongo que gente como vos nunca paso de la general paz. Y si lo hizo, miro todo con ojos de porteño centralista, viendo al interior como algo lejano, atrasado, rural y demas...

y escriban en español...

P.D: aclaro, estoy escribiendo esto tomando unos amargos...

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