Perhaps one of the most soothing examples of sound design I've ever heard in a film? Mecha shaking ice in her wine glass, the near-constant hum of nature surrounding the estate, the distant gunshots....there's hardly any music but this is a NOISY film.

This was my biggest takeaway from La ciénaga; I chould chat about contrast between the daily lives of Mecha's family and her cousin Tali's family, the racial and class tensions between Mecha and her servants, or the brief glimpses of young Momi's queer desire for one of her maids. Outside of the relationship between Mecha and Isabel (living in that hovel and having the gall to boss around your employees the way Mecha does?? Rich people really are something!) and baby Luciano's fear of the dog-rat next door, I was rather unmoved by most of what the story had to offer. But the movie is absolutely FULL of atmosphere, including the aforementioned sound design. I could feel the humidity in the air, I could smell the sweat and body odor reeking out of everyone's pores as they struggled through the heat, and I absolutely felt the drunken haze that Mecha and her husband were in for a big chunk of the movie 😅