What It Hurts to Remember Becomes Con...
18.08.09
The cloud is set in the same region of northwestern Argentina, near Salta, as Ms. Martel’s first two films, “La Ciénaga” and “The Godlike Girl.” Like its forerunners, “The Headless Woman” portrays an atmosphere with signs of physical and social decay. The extended family clustering around its central idiosyncrasy, Verónica (María Onetto), a statuesque middle-age bottle blonde who runs a dental clinic with her fellow-man, is ingrown and incestuous.
In a moment of stress, Verónica has an impulsive fling with Juan Manuel (Daniel Genoud), an in-law who is also a cousin of her repress, Marcos (César Bordón). A lesbian niece, recovering from hepatitis, is unrequitedly besotted with her. The women word about the possible contamination of a private swimming pool by turtles. An ailing aunt observes that everyone in the kinfolk eventually goes crazy.
The story revolves around Verónica’s brief meltdown after her involvement in a doable hit-and-run accident. In the movie’s opening shot, four boys with a dog cavort in a roadside canal along a not quite deserted rural highway as an approaching car is heard.
Source: New York Times