“First-time filmmaker Jorge Gaggero manages to distill a remarkable quantity
of poetic gold and psychological truth. What a lovely film this is.”
– Jan Stuart, Newsday
"(A) subtle and pitch-perfect social comedy. Norma Aleandro, (Argentina's) greatest living actress, gives a delicate performance as the noble if not entirely likable Beba, a middle-class Buenos Aires divorcée who's totally broke but can't quite readjust her expectations. Both actresses do their work with body language more than words; they couldn't be more different and they're both amazing... Not a shot or a sentence or a line is wasted. It's exquisite, diamond-tipped filmmaking, further evidence of the fine work Argentina's artists are producing under extreme circumstances."
– Andrew O'Hehir, Salon
“Remarkably assured. Mr. Gaggero, whose precision as a writer is matched by a keen eye for telling nuances of behavior, takes a small story and fills it with well-observed, delicate emotions. But the exquisiteness of LIVE-IN MAID owes at least as much to the work of the two Normas. Ms. Aleandro, one of Argentina’s greatest movie stars, is effortlessly glamorous… Ms. Argentina… is a quieter, more stolid presence, but no less adept as conveying half-buried veins of intense feeling. Performed and edited in perfect counterpoint.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“(This) impressive debut delicately dissects class conflict and friendship. While Gaggero’s spare aesthetic precludes melodrama, the touchstone here is Douglas Sirk’s IMITATION OF LIFE. The push-pull between mistress and maid – all the more enhanced by the outstanding performances of veteran Aleandro and newcomer Argentina (who worked as a traffic cop and housekeeper for 20 years) – recalls that between Lana Turner and Juanita Moore in the 1959 weepie.”
– Melissa Anderson, Time Out NY
“A terrifically understated, magnificently well-acted drama of class and social collapse.”
– New York magazine
“An extensive – and funny – passive-aggressive sparring match. (Ms.) Argentina stands out as the glum, intelligent proletarian who, after decades of caring for an utterly self-absorbed woman, is not bitter but forgiving and wise.”
– Shauna Lyon, The New Yorker
“A film of startling insight and grace. Aleandro, a star in Argentina, is a marvel of a ditz, and Argentina,
a first-time actress, draws on a lifetime of experience as a maid for her portrait of Dora.”
– Julia Wallace, Village Voice
“Powered by two first-rate performances, Jorge Gaggero's debut feature is full of psychological nuance and keen social observation. Visually striking... has the feel of Italian neo-realist cinema and the naturalness of the French new wave.”
– James Greenberg, The Hollywood Reporter
Norma Aleandro, the grande dame of Argentine cinema (think Meryl Streep crossed with Penelope Cruz), plays Beba, a still-elegant haute-bourgeois divorcee, living in a fashionable Buenos Aires apartment, surrounded by a lifetime of consumer goods, but with too little cash to stay afloat. Dora, Beba’s
maid for 30 years, massages her feet, freshen her drinks and listens to her complain. When Dora makes moves to abandon this sinking ship, the two begin “their tango of class resentment and unacknowledged dependency with consummate subtlety and grace. Those words also apply to Mr. Gaggero’s
direction, which is breathtakingly understated...The rooms and hallways of Beba’s apartment...seem to resonate with unspoken emotions – love, loyalty, regret, spite – that achieve a poignant, comical clarity precisely because they are never expressed... (The movie is) modest in scope but large in spirit and
ambition, and very nearly perfect in execution.” – A. O. Scott, The New York Times
Argentina/Spain • 2005 • 83 minutes • In Spanish with English subtitles • The Film Sales Company
DVD Available at Amazon:
LIVE-IN MAID
a film by Jorge Gaggero
starring Academy Award nominee Norma Alejandro
 Listen to our podcast:
Q & A with LIVE IN MAID director Jorge Gaggero
(recorded July 18, 2007)
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