La quietud (2018)

Directed by: Pablo Trapero | 111 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Martina Gusman, Bérénice Bejo, Graciela Borges, Isidoro Tolcachir, Alejandro Viola, Noemí Sayago, Joaquín Furriel, Marcos Pitrau, María Cristina Piovesan, Carlos Rivkin, Edgar Ramírez

Thunder, lightning and masturbating pretty girls in the family atmosphere, what more could you want? Not much, dear readers. On the family estate of La Quietud near Buenos Aires, two sisters reunite with their mother because Dad has fallen into a coma. Mother is larmoyant and stately, a drama queen who has two almost identical-looking daughters who more than tolerate her, a bit too much for our taste.

The film develops in brisk dialogues around the theme of ‘family ties’, es claro no. There is no question of being sidetracked, however, because the comatose father controls the mood in the background. As always, emotions really get to the point of life and death, and the masks fall off.

‘La quietud’ has brought some of those moments, with a sense of detail. Such as (spoiler alert) the death of father with mother as a witness. The woman in question (Graciela Borges) portrays that perfectly, as if she were dying herself. Immediately the Terms of Endearment atmosphere of the whole is repackaged, with sultry jazz and silent mourning. It’s too stylized for death, which is bare and absolute.

Death also has survivors, of course, and there is too much gloss, fast editing and swelling music in this spectrum. Typical of the short-term emotions of our time, with Insta snapshots of sadness, and at the same time unnecessary. While mother is in bed grieving, we hear hard sex in the background. Then you have to omit images.

The undersigned had to think of Adriaan van Dis, who was surprised in DWDD about sharing private grief on the socials. ‘Writers have been doing this for centuries, but you close a book’, said the eminence grise of Dutch literature. We don’t have such a figure in film, but Paul Verhoeven would add a cynical extra in this film, with fewer tears.