A once-wealthy Buenos Aires socialite who has fallen on hard times finds the roles between herself and her longtime live-in maid suddenly reversed in director Jorge Gaggero's class-conscious drama. Mrs. Beba is a 58-year-old woman whose days as a well-to-do socialite have long since passed, and Dora is the 51-year-old housekeeper who has been Mrs. Beba's live-in housekeeper for 35 years. As a successive cycle of personal and financial crises force Mrs. Beba to sell door-to-door beauty products
as a way of making ends meet, she finds it increasingly difficult to pay her employee in a timely manner. Since Dora has been using her money to construct a house in a shantytown on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, this naturally poses something of a problem. It's been six months since Dora has received her last paycheck, and her patience has finally run out. Yet, despite the fact that class differences continually come into play between the pair, there is no denying the bond that has formed between them over the course of their three decades together. When Mrs. Beba finally produces enough money to pay Dora's debt and offer a six-month salary advancement, Dora decides to finally strike out on her own despite her employer's objections. Later, after Dora moves into her new home with her weekend boyfriend, Miguel, Mrs. Beba's energy and telephone services are turned off for lack of payment. By the time summer arrives, Mrs. Beba must sell off her apartment just to stay out of debt. Remembering that her old employee has a new home, the now-homeless Mrs. Beba kindly offers to give her furniture to Dora. But Dora can't turn away an old friend in need, and before they know it, Dora and Mrs. Beba are living together once again. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
A vivid portrait of a society in the midst of wrenching change, but it transcends its immediate context to become a thoughtful, even unforgettable, chamber piece, performed with exquisite subtlety by two fine actresses.
From the rooms and spaces which house the two women to the slow unraveling of their history together, Live In Maid is a wonder of economic storytelling.
If you care about the art of movie acting, run to the Charles to see Norma Aleandro bring tragicomic stature to the role of a haute bourgeois Buenos Aires woman fallen on hard times in Live-In Maid.
Gaggero not only draws out such nuances from the two women but illustrates the complexities of their friendship with carefully constructed cinematography.
Gaggero keeps his focus on the two women who, in order to survive, discover they must drop the facade of class and act upon their 30-year relationship.
Poignant and masterful, Live-In Maid is an involving unorthodox presentation of the averse relationship, more appropriately, friendship, of an imperious bourgeois and a taciturn domestic attendant. Emotionally complex and ambiguous, Live-In Maid is transcendental of social class, precisely aware of the situation and
disposition of the bourgeoisie in the times of economic recession and profoundly acquainted with the vicissitudes and realities of life. Emphatic.
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