Cama adentro (2004)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Jorge Gaggero

Writer:

Jorge Gaggero (writer)

Release Date:

26 May 2005 (Argentina)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A wealthy woman and her live-in housekeeper must adjust their entrenched routine and relationship when Buenos Aires is plunged into economic crisis.,

Plot Keywords:

Economics | Buenos Aires | Housekeeper | Maid | Servant

Awards:

7 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Norma Aleandro	...	Beba Pujol
Norma Argentina	...	Dora
Marcos Mundstock	...	Víctor
Claudia Lapacó	...	Perla
Elsa Berenguer	...	Sara
Monica Gonzaga	...	Irma
Hilda Bernard
Susana Lanteri	...	Memé
Marina Wollman	...	Anfitriona del Country
Harry Havilio
Raul Panguinao	...	Miguel
Eduardo Rodriguez	...	Luisito
Arturo Goetz	...	Invitado en el Country
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nelly Prince

Directed by
Jorge Gaggero

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jorge Gaggero		writer

Produced by
Verónica Cura	....	executive producer
Diego Mas Trelles	....	executive producer
Natalia Nuñez	....	assistant producer
Marina Zeising	....	assistant producer

Cinematography by
Javier Julia

Film Editing by
Guillermo Represa

Art Direction by
Marcela Bazzano

Costume Design by
Marisa Urruti

Production Management
Axel Linari	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Natalia Hernández	....	second assistant director
Natalia Smirnoff	....	assistant director

Sound Department
José Caldararo	....	boom operator
Martin Cugnoni	....	sound editor: international version
Vicente D'Elia	....	sound
Leandro de Loredo	....	foley recordist
Leandro de Loredo	....	sound editor
Esteban Golubicki	....	sound editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Ignacio Gaggero	....	second assistant camera
Marcelo Sanchez	....	grip
Marcelo Sanchez	....	second camera operator
Laura Vidal	....	assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Soledad Cancela	....	assistant costume designer
Maria Teresa Rivera	....	costume assistant

Other crew
Federico D'Auria	....	continuity
Javier Hernanz Zajara	....	engineer: Technicolor
Xosé Morais	....	screenplay consultant

Production Companies

• Aquafilms
• Filmanova
• Libido Cine
• San Luis Cine

Distributors

• Koch Lorber Films (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• David Distribucion (2007) (Mexico) (all media)
• Distribution Company (2005) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Film Sales Company, The (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Film Sales Company, The (2007) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Notro Films (2005) (non-USA) (all media)

Also Known As:

Live-In Maid (International: English title) (USA) (DVD title)

Runtime:

83 min | Argentina:85 min

Country:

Argentina | Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Spain:T | USA:Unrated | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company:

Aquafilms

Movie Connections:

Remade as Untitled Live-In Maid Remake (2009)

Dignity under duress

This slow but involving human drama takes Argentina's recent economic meltdown as its prompt. Cama Adentro means 'live-in maid': Jorge Gaggero's sensitive film pursues the deep but uneasy relationship between the genteel, newly-impoverished Beba (Norma Aleandro) and Dora (Norma Argentina), the servant with whom she's shared her Buenos Aires apartment for almost 30 years.

Sudden lack of money has flipped the pair's dependency. Unable to pay her maid for several months, lonely, prideful Beba stands to lose the only reliable company she's known (her daughter, like her husband, has previously departed - alienated, we're left to assume, by Beba's haughtiness). Dora, meanwhile, must decide whether to stay and assist her unravelling employer, or take her chances in an economy with fewer and fewer jobs.

What could have become gooey and trite in the hands of a lesser director is instead rendered plausibly complex: the women struggle to preserve their dignity in straitened circumstances, and to forge a new accord based on mutuality rather than compulsion. Both Beba and Dora are endearingly flawed - the former supercilious and unyielding, the latter torn between contempt and sympathy for her former boss. Argentina is gruffly impressive as the emotionally-contained maid, while Aleandro's monstrous but piteous snob is an equally sharp portrayal. In Gaggero's measured telling, the pair's not-quite-friendship rings all the more true for being revealed with unsentimental compassion.