Mothers of film: romantization, disruptive characters and the impact of "the dark daughter"

Madre hay una sola, dice el refrán más inexacto del planeta. Y su reflejo en el mundo del cine global –que suele caracterizarse por ser conservador y/o normalizar estereotipos– podría ser así: “Madre hay una sola, según la tendencia en boga de época”. Entonces, así son retratadas en pantalla. Para bien (demasiado a veces) y para mal (que implica un lado B condenatorio), pero también con las esquirlas de todo eso que hay de por medio, en forma de variopintos matices de estos polos opuestos.

One of the paradigmatic films about the mother-son relationship is Russian, 1926.His name is the mother (Mat), he was directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin and is based on the homonymous novel by Máximo Gorki, exponent of socialist realism.He tells a woman's fight against the Tsarist regime when her son is on the opposite side during a workers' strike.But the future of mainstream cinema was finished by the other side of ideologies.So when thinking about audiovisual history from the United States, where at the beginning of television, for example, it was considered immoral to show a pregnancy in the camera, there was a long way until this current one returns to that Soviet starting point.

The dark daughter, one of the last great successes on the subject, actually - both in the homonymous novel by Elena Ferrante, such as the film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal - puts another matter as important as the raw vision on the maternal.There is something there, and it is generated around the annoyance, discomfort, violence (of other characters, but also of the public) that occur before a woman who decides and chooses being alone.However, what highlights and takes as the heart of the matter is maternal, in its crack, in the rupture of the stereotype.

It is not the first or the only film that works in the current adjustment on the genre that could be called "Mother movies", which is that which eludes the mandate of perfection and shows the broken, desperate part, sometimes oppressed, of therole.Even if you do not think about that record, a classic on the subject, with a fineThe human, when traveling the route between the love and the horror that ends up accepting in one act.

Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014), shot for 39 days distributed in 12 years (from 2002 to 2013), is a coming-of-August who follows the life of a boy between his childhood and exit of adolescence that, in reality,He has another background theme: his mother's future, which Patricia Arquette plays, on a parallel growth trip that could make the film called Mothehood.Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017) also seems the story of a daughter, but therefore she is her mother, and ultimately she is of that link that always thin.

Other stories

20th century women (Mike Mills, 2015) is a small great mail that counts, from the history of the teenage son, that of his mother (Annette Bening) who, far from being selfless, fails.The family ends up assembling with other women from different generations (Elle Fanning and Greta Gerwig) who help her, collaterally to show the world to that man of the future who is raising.Tully (directed by Jason reitman with Diablo Cody script, 2018) also originally transits the premise of showing the not -so heroic face of motherhood, with Marlo (Charlize Theron) overflowed by their professional obligations, the raising of two children and a pregnancyunexpected.The same creative pair had already visited the theme in Juno (2007), where the possibility of seeing a protagonist who chooses not being a mother, even if he cures pregnancy and the baby for adoption, from a happy and not suffered place.

My mother is a siren, with Cher, Winona Ryder and Cristina Ricci's film debut, in 1990, is the story, from the daughter's point of view, a mother who is not putting the table and delivering everything for herprogeny.And why not put Mom on a murder at risk.

The women's movement advances, along with the feminisms that move it, and the cultural offer changes, adapts.I even devour, digest and banalize what in principle was disruptive.Maternal today is almost a genre of cinema.So a while ago he is naturalized and beating in the center of the mainstream the subgenre "non -perfect mothers".The arch goes from musicals based on songs by Abba Mammá Mia!(2008, with Meryl Streep) and Mamma Mia!Here We Go Again (from 2018) to Pochocleras Comedies such as the Club de las Rebeldos (2016, with Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell) and its sequel to 2017 until the day of yes (from 2021, with Jennifer Garner) or morethat mothers (2019, Conpatricia Arquette, Angela Bassett, Felicity Huffman).

Ferpectas

Immaculate, delivered, unconditional, even heroic, always focused on their children more than themselves.That was for a long time the romantized figure in the cinema with respect to the maternal.In the beginning was Stella Dallas, a 1937 melodrama directed by King Vidor, starring Barbara Stanwyck, which is a classic in the subgenre "abnegated mothers".That path traced, they toured it, better and worse, movies of all kinds.

This maternal perfection is also represented from the deepest, real drama, which tells Sophie's decision (Alan J.Pakula, 1983), where the protagonist (Meryl Streep) lives the most tremendous nightmare: choosing which of her children dies and which saves.Same actress, another condemnation, is Kramer vs..Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979), where history focuses on a young father who is left alone with his boy because his wife needed to go to find herself, but finally look for her child again, because she can't give upHis maternal role.

Against all forecast, around the second decade of this century came a kind of millennial revaluation about attachment, with castlecancies and the search for a liberating scenario in reunitting with the maternal role from another side.The cinema accompanied this with many variants.From the deepest cliché, an example can be a possible dream of 2009, based on real events, where Sandra Bullock's character delivers body and soul to adopt the young 17 -year -old athlete who lives in marginality, to the intelligentThe boys are fine (Lisa Cholodenko, 2010), a family drama in which a couple of two mothers (Julianne Moore and Annette Bening) sees how her idyllic life disorders when her children decide to meet the donor of anonymous sperm, that is, herBiological Father (Mark Ruffalo).

Another form of the exaltation of virtue without resonating mandate came from the hand of action cinema.From the beginning with Sarah Connor in the Terminator saga, especially in 2.The story does not stop revolving around the force of a mother and everything he can do for a child, even if he was not yet born, until he started a whole heroic subgenre and the shots, which includes the strong lieutenant Ellen RipleyIn Alien: The Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997).To that premise of a love that can do everything, and goes beyond reason, new points were added to explore the maternal from the most intense, or even the sinister.Already in the horror genre, there is the excellent mother (2013), by the international Argentine Andy Muschietti, or Hereditary (2018), first and diabolically dark Ari Aste movie.

Throughout the history of the seventh art, various trends can be found on how to show the maternal.Of the fashion of romantizing that of detracting that exaltation.From the self -nose to the real in crisis.In favor or oppossing.For better or worse.Saving or traumatic.But as a victory or conflict, the maternal is always present in stories with female characters.Even if they don't have children, when that fault is always pointed out.Maybe it's time, 127 years after the birth of cinema, to plan the next step.A space in which women are thought and show not only as a mother or non-mother.What greater relief would imply."

In Argentina and Spain

Without a doubt, one of the directors who most and better think about the mother's figure in her stories is the Spanish Pedro Almodóvar.But it does not do it its main theme, nor does it put pesos or expectations regarding the subject for women, which masterfully portrays in their work, always, in varied nuances.It can be the main character, or the countercara of the protagonist, a secondary and even in the figure of her own real mother, as an autobiographical reference.A sample button could be the winner of the Oscar all over my mother (1999), who recounts the tragedy of a woman who loses her son, but it is much more than that.

Norma Aleandro is two paradigmatic mothers in Argentine cinema.First of all, it is the appropriate in the Oscarized the official history (Luis Puenzo, 1985).Closer in time, the mother of the protagonist of the son of the bride (Juan José Campanella, 2001), armed for tears.Although it is not the center of the plot, La Ciénaga (2001), by Lucrecia Martel, has a mother completely run from the obvious, which Graciela Borges performed.In Leonera (Pablo Trapero, 2008), a woman struggles to raise her baby, who was born when she was imprisoned.And if there is a local mother on a big screen that is myth, that is Mom Cora - interpreted by a man, Antonio Gasalla - in the great comedy of Alejandro Doria waiting for the float (1985).

Ten recommended, beyond the clichés - parallel madres (Spain, 2021).Pedro Almodóvar's new one, with Penelope Cruz, Milena Smit, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Rossy de Palma.Premieres in Netflix on February 18.

- Far covers (Spain, 1991).A classic, also from Almodóvar, with Victoria Abril, Marisa Paredes and Miguel Bosé.In Amazon Prime Video.

–Crimo Profundo (Mexico, 1996).Based on the real history of a pair of serial murderers of the 40s.By Arturo Ripstein.In Amazon Prime Video.

- Rescue edistance (Chile, Spain and the USA, 2021).Based on the homonym novel by Argentina Samanta Schweblin.In Netflix.

–They ads for a crime (USA, 2017).Inspired by a real case of a mother seeking justice for the violation and murder of her daughter.By Martin McDonagh.In Amazon Prime Video.

–Malamadre (Argentina, 2019).Documentary that demystifies the romantic idea of motherhood.At the cinema.ar.

–I AM Mother (Australia-EE UU, 2019).Dystopian thriller, with a girl raised by artificial intelligence.Of Grant Sputetore.In Netflix.

–The Lodge (Great Britain, 2019).Dark piece of psychological terror, directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala.In Amazon Prime Video.

–Baby Cobra (USA, 2016).Comedy special by Ali Wong, with an eight -month -old belly.In Netflix.

–The best place in the world (USA, 2009).The optimistic hiring of Revolutionary Road.In Amazon Prime Video.