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The heiresses
Director: Marcelo Martinez
Writers: Marcelo Martinez
Starring: ana brun / margarita irún / ana ivanova
Genre: Drama
Country/Region of Production: Paraguay
Language: Spanish
Runtime: 95 minutes
Text | aiyang zou
| Ninon III
the heiresses / las herederas：
An opportunity to escape the status quo
They embrace all kinds of things that are difficult to be outsiders, preferring to hide in a safe protective shell and live in silence and cringe. The walls of a tired life have become cages, dragged down by their own secrets, knocked down by financial pressures, bound by each other's love, hate and boredom. The seemingly dazzling title of "heir" is nothing more than a prisoner's name.
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The heiresses, which was selected for the main competition section of the 68th Berlin Film Festival, is paraguayan director Marcelo Martinessi's feature film debut. The film focuses on a middle-aged lesbian couple after the accident, one of the parties and the surrounding world gradually close relationship, in the face of the bottom of the torrent of life in the bottom of the surging waves in the bottom of the heart, should she choose to return to the shell of self-protection, or should she make up her mind to escape the shackles of the past?
The first hidden shot of "Heiress" is to satisfy the audience's voyeuristic desire to see, following the gaze of the heroine Chela, the buyer's critical eyes sweep over the set of gorgeous tableware in the living room, the mottled marks on the walls faintly reveal the glory of the paintings of the past, and the flowers still bloom brilliantly in the center of the table, they seem to be the portrayal of these two heiresses - having to sell their inheritance to make a living, although the face is still kept strict, but it is already a little beautiful.
Chela and Chiquita, a same-sex couple represent the Paraguayan upper class, and the director uses them to show a whole group caught between the obscure era and the stagnant society: the prosperity of the previous generation has long since ended, and they embrace all kinds of inhumane things, preferring to hide in a safe protective shell, living in silence and cowering. The walls of a tired life have become cages, dragged down by their own secrets, overwhelmed by financial pressures, bound by each other's love and hate and boredom. The seemingly dazzling title of "heir" is nothing more than a prisoner's name.
The concept of "captivity" has multiple levels of reference in the film. After decades of military dictatorship in Paraguay, political upheaval, bureaucratic corruption and protracted economic problems have spread like a plague. The oppression of society as a whole is the same as the daily suffocation that the director portrays in the film. The two sides looked at each other from a distance in the era of fading privileges, the superficial brilliance being the only driftwood in the irresistible flood of change, and they clung to the fear of loss and refused to let go, and finally became cocooned, and the meaning of the individual self was completely lost in the collective delusion of the upper class.
An interesting set of contrasts occurs shortly after the opening chapter: Chiquita's imprisonment somehow frees her from the cage; on the contrary, since her partner's imprisonment, Chela's otherwise imperfect but balanced life has been completely broken, and she has to struggle between the fear of the outside world and the need to live, and the shackles she carries are getting heavier and heavier.
By chance, Chela became the driver of the old man's card game, and the decision to sell the luxury car (also a symbol of privileged class) was delayed by a new relationship. As time passed, the furniture sold out less and less, and the number of pick-ups increased. Until Angy, who attracted Chela's attention when she first appeared, asked her to take her mother to other towns for weekly treatment, the calm that the heroine was accustomed to began to gradually lose control.
Gossip is the bond that connects the women around Chela. She herself is troubled by the casual transmission of her gay identity by her friends, Chiquita talks about other people's privacy in prison, and the old woman who picks up and drops off even the husband of her friend has to gossip and gossip. But Angie is different: she talks only about herself – her own feelings, her own needs, the men she's been through. She was straightforward and crisp, and her desire for the pleasures of the flesh was undisguised. She carries in her the factors that break the inertia of everyday life.
Chela, on the other hand, may not have thought about "what exactly is the self?" in decades of her life. "This question. And the awakening of identity awareness has made her interest in anangy, accustomed to self-protection, accustomed to saying no, and accustomed to refusing to take risks, growing day by day. This fascinating presence, which combines brilliance and danger, not only opens the floodgates of her interest in the outside world, but even makes her look directly at the germination of desire in her heart: not only the desire for anyang, but also the longing for another way of life. However, with novelty comes the unavoidable risk of loss and the probability of suffering occurring in tandem. Choosing fearlessness means opening yourself up to the softest and most vulnerable places in the sun. So when Angy left with the man for no reason to ask Chela to go back on her own, she couldn't hide her disappointment and sat on the edge of the bed in a daze, and even the maid could see "something must have happened".
The maid is another unusual character in the film, a person who knows from beginning to end. She looks at Chela's daily routine from a third-party perspective: every slight change in the long time of her partner's absence. The maid represents the underclass who is in stark contrast to the protagonist, and the silent observer setting that does not interfere makes the alienation between classes immediately and silently stand out.
On some level, Chela was equally content with watching an angli, whether it was staring at the listening or sneaking a peek behind the door. She indulges in a sense of happiness that can still be controlled, and does not let herself fall into a situation where she cannot turn back, but still at the moment when angy turns her head and raises her eyes, her self-protection collapses in an instant. The strong emotional fluctuations overwhelmed her senses with fear, and she turned around and ran back to the bathroom, using the door as the last embankment to resist the reverse current of her heart. "Is this what you want?" Isn't it? Unfortunately, the person who made her heart flutter was lost when she was determined to get out of the self-isolation. Abandoned, she wandered through the neon-lit night, drunk one after another until she did not know the end of the day.
The door is one of the most important metaphors in the film: it is both a hidden tool behind it, hiding behind it, hiding the shame of having to sell and the fear of her own desires; at the same time, it acts as a barrier, the physical border of chela's life cage, and the gap that she must cross to know herself and establish relationships different from the old days. The film constructs metaphors in an almost monolithic way, with objects often centered in the composition. Chela's drink tray, for example, seems to be the embodiment of her daily trajectory and obsession, symbolizing a familiar environment and values. The central contradiction in Chela's personality is the dilemma between choosing the safety of confined to his comfort zone and taking the steps of adventure to master life. With chiquita's return, the relationship between the two seems to be business as usual, but Chela's heart is only left with the scorched earth that can no longer return to the original state after the storm is swept away, and the unspeakable burning pain that no one knows makes her unbearable. At this moment, the tray suddenly fell as if in line with her state of mind, and the scattered cup fragments were just like Chela's understanding of the end of the relationship between the two: instead of walking into another prison, it was better to break through and start over.
The relationship between the characters in the film and balancing each other within the camera is fascinating, like a ritual that constantly changes the perspective of the wait. Emotionally in general, the viewer always stands behind Chela to examine others, but the narrative is not entirely first-person, so she still retains the object identity of the viewer, forming a mirror-like three-dimensional sense with the camera itself. At the same time, a large number of close-ups and close-ups inject an intimate atmosphere into the character portrayal, and at most two people appear in non-explanatory shots, they may walk into the picture and leave, even if there are more compelling events in the background (such as the quarrel behind Chela's visit to the prison), the focus of the camera will not be removed from the two silent characters in the foreground, and the clearly visible discrete design emphasizes the impossibility of mutual understanding.
At the same time, the presentation of the cold environment throughout the whole process also tries to fit the flow of emotions, which is quite exquisite. The lens in the heroine's home is always extremely low, making the viewer feel like he is in a hermit cave, which is not only a representation of the trapped and repressed material world, but also a reflection of the heroine's inner depression. The plot at the beginning of the film unfolds almost entirely indoors/in the car, and as Chiquita goes to prison, Chela gradually begins to develop a deeper connection with the outside world, different from another reality she knows and using increased brightness to deal with, echoing her hopes and desires. And the slight time dislocation that occurs from time to time in the sound effects—the delay of the sound of the previous shot or the advance of the sound of the next shot—allows the lingering uneasiness and lack of concentration to unfold inadvertently between the scenes, externalizing Chela's inner confusion and uneasiness.
Near the end of the film, The sleepless Chela walked up to the roof, her face hidden in the darkness under the strong light behind her, and she could not see any expression, only the undulating chest cavity leaked out the surging confusion and confusion. In such a moment, even if the maid is an eyewitness to the truth of her life, all she can give is a gentle but futile hug. The open-ended ending, which comes immediately after the emotional peak, takes the shock to another high point, giving everyone the opportunity to set off again – to break free of the cage and seek themselves, which may also be the director's expectation of Paraguay's future.
Yin Xiang
4.5/5
★★★★☆
9 minutes, feel at least from the beginning of the film, teddy bears are popular, golden bears are not too much ah (not to mention it is funded by the Berlin Fund)! Paraguayan elderly lesbian themes are simply flying! Even if they do not occupy lesbians, the bitterness and desire of the elderly are written in detail, not to mention the prison drama. The first-person immersive audio-visual processing, the essence of photography, is definitely a masterpiece of this year.
lycidas
4/5
★★★★
Like a dark and somber gaze, across Paraguay's long-standing identity confusion and class differentiation, gaze at the life trajectory of a middle-aged woman - her hesitation and temptation of life, her own desires and emotions. The regret of love and the desire for freedom are presented in a precise and precise cold shot.