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Melodrama and Class Performance in
Cama adentro by Jorge Gaggero
Maria B. Clark
Abstract The analysis of the Argen2ne film Cama adentro ( 2004 ) focuses on melodrama2c elements and cinematographic strategies for the drama2za2on of class performance. The drama unfolds in the context of the country’s economic crisis that reaches its climax in 2001 when the bourgeois world of the businesswoman Beba crashes down with her realiza2on that she is not beEer off than her maid who has not been paid by her for months. By applying Judith Butler’s concept of gender-a construct dependent on the habitual repe22on of performa2ve acts-to the concept of social class, it is possible to examine the melodrama2c aspects of the film as a vehicle for the performance of class by both characters, Beba and Dora, the maid. The film’s mise-en-scène and the edi2ng strategies of the split screen, cross-cuMng and match cuts engage the viewer in the parallel lives of Beba and Dora and the different pressures they experience while maintaining appearances and explore their long-established alliance beyond the social conven2ons of their respec2ve class and its outdated norms and patriarchal values. Key words : Gaggero, Class performance, Middle class destabiliza2on, Melodrama, Film studies, Argen2ne films
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Carson-Newman University
1. While historical events give context to Señora Beba’s personal financial crisis, there is another story intrinsic to this film. As Gilles Deleuze remarks: “The cinema as art itself lives in a direct relaHon with a permanent plot [complot], an internaHonal conspiracy which condiHons it from within, as the most inHmate and most indispensable enemy. This conspiracy is that of money;.. .” ( Cinema 2 77 ). As a metaphor for ArgenHna’s surrender into economic chaos due to neo-liberal policies and globalizaHon, the film thus also tells the story of the ArgenHne film industry and this film’s moderate but nevertheless noteworthy financial success due to its co-producHon with Spain and the use of elements from genre film. The 2004 ArgenHne film Cama adentro ( Live-in Maid ) is set in 2001 when the naHonal debt and capital flight reached its climax and the country’s poverty index equaled or even surpassed that of its LaHn American neighbors (Caetano 96 ). The ‘corralito,’ or freezing of bank accounts to prevent further mass withdrawals, provoked endless protests with banging on pots, known as ‘cacerolazos’, as well as looHngs and violence by protesters and police, resulHng in the deaths of ciHzens and finally the resignaHon of the president, Alfonso De La Rúa (Kraus). Jorge Gaggero’s film starring Norma Aleandro, the country’s most renowned actress, does not focus on these tumultuous incidents but rather on the inHmate drama of an upper-middle class divorced business woman who, so far sheltered from realiHes of day-to-day survival, realizes that she is not beaer off than her live-in maid whom she has not been able to pay for months. The acHng collaboraHon of Aleandro, a naHonal icon, with Norma ArgenHna, who began her acHng career with her role as the maid in this film, produced an inspired portrait of two women from different social classes at a turning point in their lives when each has to tap her individual resourcefulness in order to deal with the dire economic circumstances. Cama adentro not only performed well at a series of internaHonal film fesHvals but also at the box-office thanks to the creaHve alliances between countries, actors, and genres. A co-producHon of Fondo Raíces de Cine (The Roots of Cinema Fund), the film received support from the ArgenHne NaHonal InsHtute for Film and cultural enHHes in Galicia and Catalonia (Falicov 140 ).^1 Gaggero’s direcHon, in turn, mobilized the creaHve possibiliHes of camera work, plot structure and spaHal segng to complement a character study that foregrounds the excellence in the acHng of Aleandro and ArgenHna. Taking elements from melodrama, woman’s films, and chamber drama, the movie’s hybrid character reaches a mainstream audience that typically prefers the American imports to the art films of the country’s independent filmmakers such as Gaggero. This director not only successfully matched the acHng talents of a novice actress with the Grande Dame of ArgenHne cinema, but also wrote the screenplay of the film for an exploraHon of a relaHonship between two middle-aged women of unequal status with limited opHons at this point in their lives. With a minimal plot, the acHon focuses on laying bare the behavioral codes and power relaHons which Beba Pujol and her maid Dora have established over three decades. An important element in the plot structure is the apartment building that signifies a lifestyle that the former businesswoman can no longer afford ajer her divorce. She is slow in confronHng this fact and it will take Dora’s decisive acHon of leaving her posiHon and thus her sustaining presence in the apartment to reveal Beba’s dependence to the fullest. It is not so much the lack of chores that her maid used to complete faithfully or the meals she prepared, but rather her sudden absence that brings Beba to the realizaHon that she is failing in her aaempts to survive by pawning family heirlooms and selling cosmeHcs door to door. Dora’s return to her modest house in the outskirts of the city, on the other hand, provides her with the opportunity to redefine her relaHonship with her former employer as well as her live-in-boyfriend. Her steady steps towards self-realizaHon and independence pave the way for a surprise ending which, improvised by Beba, does not seem sustainable yet celebrates the human bond between the two women. As Beba sheds the pretenHons of her bourgeois status, Dora gives in to her protecHve heart. In her essay on melodrama and woman’s films, Susan Hayward outlines the major points of intersecHon between the development of these genres and a growing consumer culture for film that included and increasingly addressed women, presenHng the female spectator with a “mise-en-scène of her own experience” ( 237 ). Similar to the purpose of countering anxieHes and “exposing alienaHon under capitalism and technological depersonalizaHon” that Hayward idenHfies as a purpose of melodrama during modernism, the melodramaHc elements in Cama adentro
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bourgeois appearance of the apartment and give it an aspect of bygone days and the diminished value of once precious objects. Arguing that social class, like gender difference and division, is a construct and product of a habitual repe==on of performa=ve acts, this analysis focuses on the melodrama=c aspects of the film as a vehicle for the performance of class during an economic crisis and the disintegra=on of the tradi=onal family structure exemplified in the film. The absence of the so-called “man of the house” in their individual lives, such as Beba’s status as a divorcee, and Dora’s rela=ve independence from her boyfriend, opens a space for the women to probe opportuni=es for self-realiza=on and livelihood that are not restricted to their prescribed roles. However, analyzing their ac=ons and resul=ng situa=ons through the lens of class as performance allows a beJer understanding of the complexity of social norms and prescrip=ve behavior, not because they are inherent to iden=ty, but rather because they are presumed to be. Speaking about gender, Judith Butler points out that “it cons=tutes the iden=ty it is purported to be” and therefore “is always a doing though not a doing by a subject who might be said to preexist the deed” ( 25 ). The argument that gender iden=ty is “performa=vely cons=tuted” offers a way to address issues of class iden=ty and gender that con=nue to inform social transac=ons between presumably equal par=cipants ( 25 ). Thus, while class, in contrast to common-sense no=ons of gender, is not considered to be an intrinsic aJribute of iden=ty, both concepts are destabilized when they become visible as constructs. Cama adentro connects screen space, movement and performance to probe the possibility of a resignifica=on of class roles in the context of an economic crisis that affects the middle class at its core. Beba and Dora perform their respec=ve roles, ac=ons, and speech acts as Señora and maid but, due to the scarcity of money, they are forced to test the boundaries of their class difference. The screen text of Cama adentro frames the dialogic structure of class difference with a demarca=on of the social space for each character in the apartment they inhabit, and the respec=ve ac=vi=es associated with class. In order to appreciate the possibili=es of film as a medium for destabilizing social class constructs, it is important to analyze the cinematographic strategies that present these class specific opera=ons visually. As the =tle of the film implies, Dora has a room in her employer’s apartment which she occupies during the week but leaves for her own house in the rural outskirts of the capital in the weekend. The floor plan of the apartment provides the scenario for the nego=a=ons of class performance with a long hallway allowing for appearances and withdrawals, as well as the occasional interac=on of the women in one area. Mostly they shout their commentaries at each other, their voices traveling over the boundaries of their assigned areas, though Dora, due to her work, moves around more frequently and freely. Standing upright while Beba is seated, the maid commands the scenes in which she threatens to resign her posi=on. She is adamant though to re=re to the privacy of her small room at the end of the day, or when conversa=ons turn into arguments. When at one point, Beba suggests she move into the vacant room of her daughter, Dora refuses. The offer is remarkable because Beba hopes that her daughter will at some =me return from Spain, at least for a visit. The prospect of Dora’s leaving, however, prompts her to nego=ate the spa=al boundaries of class difference, or as Clara Gavarelli fitly remarks: “Her daughter’s room comes to represent for Beba a symbolic upgrading of Dora to her own level and a recogni=on of the thin line that separates them, with an implied sugges=on that it will be a moving of places in exchange for ‘moving away’ from the money owed” ( 42 ). Dora’s rejec=on upholds a clear defini=on of the exis=ng spa=al arrangements that ensure her theore=cal status as a paid employee rather than a family member, while Beba tries to nego=ate a rela=onship that emphasizes the =es between them formed over decades of Dora’s employment in her household. The scene, leaving aside considera=ons of how to pay her maid, is indica=ve of Beba’s willingness
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to override the spa.al se0ng of class division in her apartment, thus preparing herself for the resolu.on of her dilemma at the end of the film. In addi.on, both women transgress the boundaries that define their culturally assigned space and rela.onship in order to eaves-drop out of curiosity or concern for the other. The hallway then becomes an area for the blurring of their spheres of ac.vity, which a@er conten.ous or emo.onal moments return to normality. Camera angles and framing play with the borders. Living room screens and door frames facilitate the interac.on and juxtaposi.on of the two women inhabi.ng the space of their respec.ve social roles which, due to the dynamics of the economic crisis, have become porous and extremely challenging to uphold. Importantly, while the spa.al visualiza.on of class difference lends itself to explore the “doing” of class performance, close-ups, especially of Dora’s reflec.ve face, paint the inner turmoil the prospect of leaving Beba causes her, and the strength required for carrying out her decision. It is during the moments that reveal Dora’s need for privacy as she retreats to her small room, that the complexity of her character emerges as the driving force of the narra.ve. The self-affirma.on that Dora finds in her work becomes comprehensible for the spectator through the emphasis on the ‘doing’ of her chores. The ini.al shots during the opening credits first introduce her as she performs a series of gestures pertaining to her work that become symbolic for her professional iden.ty. She sprays furniture polish on the shining surface of a piano. The care she bestows on the objects in the living room demonstrates the seriousness with which she executes her du.es and upholds the appearance of an upper-middle class home reflec.ng economic and family stability. She dusts family heirlooms and the portrait of the absent daughter, whom she has helped to raise, and who, according to the young woman’s father, does not have any inten.ons to return and get married in Argen.na, except perhaps to another woman. The sen.mental possessions and objects of Beba’s bourgeois lifestyle, carefully handled by Dora, have become reminders of a family that has not survived the trends of modernity and globaliza.on. Her own divorce and her daughter’s choice to live in Spain have le@ Beba deprived of family support. Similarly, her financial situa.on reflects that of the country. The ac.on of the film is set in the context of Argen.na’s transi.on to the new millennium and the challenges for moderniza.on and increased compe..on with other La.n American and global markets. The priva.za.on of state ins.tu.ons, including Social Security—a measure taken by President Menem in the 90 s in order to aYract foreign capital—only increased the mistrust of a middle class aware of corrup.on and the over-extension of presiden.al powers. By 2001 , ongoing tax evasions and flight of capital had further depleted the government’s resources for basic opera.ons. However, when Argen.na, due to stricter guidelines officially defaulted its payments to the Interna.onal Monetary Fund in November and was denied further credit, the shock to the popula.on was unprecedented. Measures to restrict access to bank accounts, the “corralito”, led to mass protests in Buenos Aires and other major ci.es with par.cipa.on from all sectors, including the middle class. The realiza.on that the state had violated the elemental rights of its ci.zens, the access to private savings, forced President de la Rúa out of office (Ugrín 9 - 11 ). In sharp contrast to the preceding decades, including the years of terror during military rule and the Dirty War ( 1976 - 83 ), the oligarchy and wealthy upper middle class was no longer protected by economic policies that had worked into their favor and affluent women – nicknamed “I’ll take two” – enjoyed the pleasures of shopping-trips abroad as well as in the luxury shopping malls of the capital (Kaiser 1 ). It becomes apparent from shared recollec.ons with her former husband that Beba’s income, even during past .mes of financial bonanza for the upper class, was not always secure. The couple embarked on many failing business enterprises, mirroring the country’s path during years of changing policies and infla.on. Beba’s con.nuous efforts to keep up with her friends, at least in appearances, require her maid’s presence as she pretends that her comforts of a sheltered life have not changed. All the same, the
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producing “emo/onal cross purposes” that undermine sen/mentality in the face of social truth (Gledhill xxxiv). One shot, which tends to appear on the cover jacket for the film DVD, shows Beba and Dora side by side under dryers in a hair salon. In prepara/on for the bridge party, each having chosen her desired style from a magazine, they enjoy equal treatment in return for Beba’s beauty products. The image communicates camaraderie between the two women, and a moment of shared pleasure as they get ready for the important event. Another image aNer the party captures Dora’s coiffure destroyed by a downpour as she escorts the depar/ng guests to the taxi and protects their hair with an umbrella not big enough to stay dry herself. The image is a powerful reminder of class difference and although Dora’s face does not betray anything but stoicism, the spectator has access to the inside of the situa/on and a possible reac/on to come. Focusing on Dora’s character, it is possible to appreciate the extent to which the film, by intersec/ng genres such as melodrama, chamber drama, and comedy, can provide drama/c depth of a situa/on with great economy and, similar to Gledhill’s descrip/on of melodrama’s genericity, “make movements in structures of feelings and cultural imagining accessible” (xxxiv). Alternately, Beba’s role allows for moments of surprise and comic relief as her hair, costume, and gestures become performa/ve elements and a shield for her social degrada/on. Her elegant designer ouRits hail back to beSer days and a social life with her former husband who now has become her last resort for the big financial boost she needs. Unable or unwilling to help her, he invites her to the occasional lunch, at one point to reminisce about their joined and oNen failed business enterprises. While he seems to operate on safer ground now, her career has stalled, signaling the effects of gender difference in an economy that requires connec/ons she seems to have lost with her divorce. On the symbolic level, her customary gesture of swirling the ice around in her whisky glass becomes an empty gesture of class performance once the electricity has been cut off in the apartment and she rotates her glass but the usual sound of clicking ice is missing. By the /me Dora leaves Beba’s household, her role in the joint project of performing class for Beba has slightly changed. She has become more of a caretaker for somebody on a physical and emo/onal downward spiral and the painful separa/on appears on a split screen that shows the coordinated mo/ons of Dora’s leaving and Beba’s realiza/on of it. With a mirroring of the two characters’ simultaneous movement through /me and the divided space of the apartment, contras/ng Beba’s awakening from stupor with Dora’s decisiveness, Beba’s reac/on associates with belatedness and Dora’s with taking control of her future. The simultaneity of the two ongoing sequences on the split screen creates intense suspense and double iden/fica/on with the characters as /me pushes the narra/ve and releases Dora from a cycle of repe//on while it awakens Beba from lethargy to an unknown future. In her compara/ve analysis of Cama adentro with Gaggero’s documentary Vida en Falcón ( 2004 ), Garavelli outlines the dire circumstances brought on by financial hardship during the economic crisis that for the first /me also involved the middle-class: “The space called ‘home’ is thus restructured and delocalized. Whilst in /mes of economic stability the middle class associated the ideas of ”home” with four walls within which the tradi/onal family could live and grow, at /mes of crisis the physical infrastructure ceased to have that evoca/ve power” ( 39 ). Garavelli proceeds to present the concepts of nomadism and sedentarism, coined by Gonzalo Aguilar who explains: (…) el nomadismo es la ausencia de hogar, la falta de lazos de pertenencia poderosos (restric/vos o norma/vos) y una movilidad permanente e impredecible; el sedentarismo muestra la descomposición de los hogares y las familias, la ineficacia de los lazos de asociación tradicionales y modernos y la parálisis de quienes insisten en perpetuar ese orden. (quoted in Garavelli 39 )
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Although both terms may be realized in Gaggero’s documentary, and sedentarism aptly describes the hollowing out of Beba’s fundamental middle-class values and hopes, Dora’s path from live-in maid to the rural community she also calls home, by-passes the paralyzing defea@sm of sedentarism as well as the errant wandering of nomadism. The performa@ve symbolism of her use of plas@c shoe covers illuminates the range of meanings that “nomadism” takes on in her character. When Miguel picks her up from the train sta@on on one of the weekends early in the story, she slips the covers on to avoid the mud on the country road. While this habit may be related to seasonal weather, it is also demonstra@ve of an internaliza@on of middleclass values that further become manifest in a quickly following sequence as she s@cks to her preference for higher prized @les that she wants to purchase whereas Miguel assumes that the cheaper ones are good enough for them. In contrast to signaling sedentarism or nomadism, Dora’s performa@ve gestures show a sense of nego@a@ng the two spheres, middle and lower class successfully as she proceeds to up-grade her house in the country. Dora’s full-@me return to her rural home where the urban upheaval and “cacerolazos” only appear on the TV screen in the local pub, may first suggest a “coming home” to her life with Miguel. The episodic insights into their rela@onship clarify however that his live-in status in her house has turned into more of an economic than a roman@c arrangement. As she provides money with her savings and he offers his services in renova@ng the kitchen floor, the alliance sours when Dora discovers that he shares his skills and companionship with another woman in the neighborhood. He loses her trust and perhaps his home while Dora shiOs her energy towards securing a new posi@on. In an interview at the labor department she states her preference for work that does not require her to live in the household of the employer and it is interes@ng to observe how her domes@city expressed through performa@vity takes on a different purpose once she has more @me to spend in her own house. A scene with the spray boQle shows the same aQen@on to the chore but now in her own service, so to speak, and as part of an iden@ty reconstruc@on while also reinforcing the no@on of class performance as an internalized repe@@on of gestures that shape iden@ty. In her search for work, she shows authority and determina@on as a professional. Reluctantly she concedes to look aOer a toddler for an aOernoon as the mother asks for her help, but during a temporary appointment as a server for a party at a wealthy household, she proudly teaches the young and inexperienced staff the correct e@queQe in the prepara@on and serving of appe@zers, not without men@oning that her former employer, a business woman, taught her these things. During a visit to Beba’s now neglected household, in order to surprise her with a birthday cake, she takes the first opportunity to straighten up the kitchen, slipping back into her role it seems, but maybe also that of a homemaker. As if resis@ng the commodifica@on of her work, she gives it freely when she desires so. In this instance, Dora is also dismayed to find that Beba has draped her furniture and seems to no longer use her living room, just as in a moment of anger for not receiving her wages, she had suggested to her. This sign of sedentarism and dismantling of Beba’s middleclass life stands in contrast to Dora’s determina@on to take control of her own des@ny. Always her nurturer, Dora giOs Beba for her birthday with a home-made cake and a pair of stockings. And as Dora s@ll proudly wears the preQy ouTits Beba has handed down to her, she is now in a posi@on to reciprocate on equal terms with the giO of an in@mate ar@cle of a lady’s clothing. The present also refers back to the earlier scene in which Beba cut her foot and stocking due to Dora’s exaspera@on. In a series of scenes that create powerful emo@onal moments and open the melodrama@c dimension of the film, the birthday sequence reaffirms Dora as the agent rather than the recipient of favors in the rela@onship. While a popular s@ll on posters and DVD covers depicts a playful reversal of class performance as Beba treats Dora to a facial with a sample of her beauty mud to soothe her temper aOer a spat, the second half of the film, aOer she has leO Beba,
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unstructured.. .?” (Parr). Framing Gaggero’s film in the context of this ques?on, invites comparisons with other La?n American films that address the complex rela?onship between the maid and the family that employs her. It is especially due to Alfonso Cuarón’s semi-biographical drama Roma ( 2018 ), that the character of the maid in La?n American films has gained more cri?cal aOen?on and entered public discussion in the media. The interna?onally acclaimed filmmaker focuses in this memory piece on his childhood in the middleclass neighborhood of the Colonia Roma in Mexico City. Set in 1971 , a year of poli?cal upheaval and student protests and their violent repression by specially trained forces, the family also experiences a marital crisis when the father leaves for a medical conference and ends up deser?ng his wife and children. The centerpiece of the film however is the psychological and physical trauma of Cleo, the maid, an indigenous woman played by ac?ng newcomer Yalitza Aparisio, whose performance galvanized Mexican audiences into the discussion of race and class to an unprecedented degree. The film’s ending offers a vision of solidarity between the female members of two different social classes as the liberal and educated woman of the house takes Cleo in her reassuring care. However, as a scien?st, her professional career depends on Cleo to bring up her children and, consequently, there is no hint of a plan for the maid to grow beyond her class determined role in society. It is however important that within the frame of the film as a return to the director’s childhood, the issue of class disparity within the Mexican middleclass family provides an important directorial gesture and tes?monial to the woman who partly, if not mostly, raised him. Motherhood, or the preven?on of it due to professional pressures, is a reality that structures mistress and maid rela?onships and deserves closer analysis as to where most of the pressure falls and to what degree mutual support among women allows for individual self-determina?on. Thus, Cleo receives plenty of support to bear her child and raise it in the family of her employers. Sofia makes sure she receives medical care and instruc?on while the grandmother in the household takes her shopping for a crib. That Cleo loses her child due to trauma?c experiences is not the result of neglect or pressures from the family. In comparison, Cama adentro raises the issue of an abor?on paid by Beba for Dora, and although the circumstances are not clear, Beba’s women friends, who bring it up during a conversa?on, assume that this was a way of helping her young maid, rather than denying her motherhood. Both films tes?fy to the in?macy and strong bond between the maids and the children they raised, perhaps as a subs?tute for the children they might have had, and definitely in order to facilitate the freedom or professional advancement of their mistresses. The example of a Brazilian film, Que horas ela volta? ( The Second Mother ), from 2015 and about a maid at the age of Dora, introduces genera?onal conflict in the context of class division. Similar to Gaggero, the director Anna Muylaert uses space for the demarca?on and deconstruc?on of social roles, much to the exaspera?on and anxiety of Val (Regina Casé), who wants her visi?ng daughter to respect the arrangements and postures of being a servant. Val lea Jessica to be raised by rela?ves in the country, and with her financial support for schooling from her many years of service, her daughter is an emancipated modern woman headed for the university, much in contrast to the immature son of the family brought up by Val. Jessica is readily accepted in her own right by Val’s employers, and the humor of the ac?on arises around the seemingly outdated and ludicrous rules enforced by Val. She insists that her daughter share the ?ny maid’s room with her and that she cannot enter the pool, which Jessica gleefully disobeys. While the ac?on focuses on the barriers maintained by the maid through seemingly outmoded codes of performa?vity, there is room for glimpses of disrespect for her, especially from aspiring professional women whose self-worth seems to depend on demonstra?ons of authority.
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Considering the time difference between the making of each film, it is important to note that the more recent films have successfully elevated the character of the maid to the role of protagonist that is carrying the action. In contrast, Cama adentro , more than a decade earlier, is pioneering the character of the maid side by side with that of her employer, with equal attention to their performative roles of class difference as social constructs. In this sense, Cama adentro stands out in a group of Latin American films that explore the dramatic potential of the maid but often leave the mistress of the house in a safe place, unwilling or unaware of the potential for breaking the rules of social divisions and conformist mandates. Thus, in comparison with the other films, Dora emerges as the only maid that probes her ability for self-determination in a system of commodification and codes for class difference.
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WORKS CITED
Kaiser, Susana. Postmemories of Terror: A New Generation Copes with the Legacy of the “Dirty War”. Palgrave, 2005. Kraus, Clifford. “Reeling from Riots, Argentina Declares a State of Siege.” The New York Times 20 December 2001, pp 1, 3. Accessed on July 24, 2019. Muylaert, Anna. Dir. Que horas ela volta? ( The Second Mother ) 2015 Pandora Filmes, Brazil. Parr, Adrian. “What is Becoming of Deleuze?” November 8, 2015. Los Angeles Review of Books. Accessed on July 24, 2019. https:// lareviewofbooks.org/article/what-is-becoming-of-deleuze/#!
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