de nuevo otra vez (w&d romina paula)

Romina Paula is something of a pin-up of Porteño letters. The neurasthenic characters of her plays have found a ready audience, as have her novels and short stories. They represent a kind of alt-Buenos Aires: highly educated, articulate, probably either in therapy or contemplating it. De Nuevo Otra Vez is her first film, which she has written, directed and starred in, as a character called none other than Romina Paula, who appears alongside her (actual) mother and her (actual) young son. The film describes a character on the edge of a low-key midlife crisis. With her marriage on the brink, Romina has fled Cordoba, with her son, Ramon, to stay with her mother in Buenos Aires. There she undergoes a series of reunions with old friends, dabbles in a same-sex flirtation, has vague thoughts of seducing her German language student, an idea which goes nowhere, and generally muddles by with the help of her German speaking mother. Her problems don’t seem very serious, and she never seems to take them all that seriously. It wouldn’t be hard to dismiss De Nuevo Otra Vez as middle class whimsy (perhaps with reference to Joanna Hogg). Yet, this remains an engaging, discursive film, which always feels as though it’s talking about something, even if that something isn’t always easy to pin down. It articulates with understatement a decidedly feminine take on the issues which afflict anyone entering middle age: how to continue one’s development as a human being, in spite of the fact the path seems to be laid out, how to avoid the trap of stagnating, now that the battles of youth have been fought. All of this is done with a tender, Rohmeresque vibe, which means that, in spite of the fact Paula’s film is self-consciously contemplating its navel (mirando el ombligo), it also feels as though it’s gently challenging both its own and its audience’s navels. This is a film where, as the creator herself said in the post-show chat, nothing really happens, but one which all the same creates a space to articulate the everyday concerns which anyone approaching the midway stage of their lives is going to have to face; an issue which deserves its own cinematic space.