The Conquest of the Uncomfortable: An Interview with Lucrecia Martel

On 20 March 2021, Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha (in Hastings, UK), Julia Kratje (in Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Paul R. Merchant (in Bristol, UK) spoke with Lucrecia Martel (in Salta, Argentina) about her career, some underexplored connections between her films (like humour, or the traits which imbue her films with a certain air of comedy, or musical collaborations, such as those with Juana Molina, Björk, and Julieta Laso, that have not been considered as closely by the audience or by the critics), and her plans for the future, including reflections on the Covid-19 pandemic. Martel says: “I think no one (at least among the people who enjoy my movies) cares about what the film is about. (…) As regards what making a movie means, ‘what the movie is about’ is something very superficial, which enables you to organise time and a series of things, but ‘what the movie is about’ lies in the experience of the film. It isn’t something you can include in the synopsis, or a logline”. In this sense, this chapter invites the reader to participate in a conversation that cannot be summed up in a few lines.