''Macu, The Policeman's Woman'' (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''Macu, la mujer del policía'') is a 1987 Venezuelan film directed by the Swedish-Venezuelan filmmaker Solveig Hoogesteijn. It is also known as simply ''Macu'' and as ''Macu, the Policeman's Wife''. It is a

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

, and based on a real story; it is also identified as the popular Venezuelan genre known as 'common crime'. It tells the story of a woman who must testify against her criminal policeman husband for murdering her lover, starring

Daniel Alvarado Daniel Alvarado (12 August 1949 – 8 July 2020) was a Venezuelan actor. Personal life He was married three times. He had two sons, Daniel and Luis, from his first marriage. From second marriage with Carmen Julia Álvarez (1978–1994), he ha ...

, María Luisa Mosquera and

Frank Hernández Frank, FRANK, or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a Germanic people in late Roman times * Franks, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusa ...

. In analysis, the film has been related both to the story of

Oedipus Oedipus (, ; "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. ...

and to the

Oedipus complex In classical psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex is a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and concomitant hostility toward his father, first formed during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. A daughter's attitude of desire ...

in Freudian theory.

Synopsis

The murder of three young men is announced, including Simón (

), who was the lover of Macu (María Luisa Mosquera). A police investigation is opened, and Macu's husband, the police officer Ismael (

) is suspected. Scenes of the investigation are cut with flashbacks to Macu's relationships developing, with both Ismael and Simón. Ismael had been the lover of Macu's mother ( Ana Castell) and groomed her as a young girl. At the end, Macu testifies against Ismael.

Cast

As included by the

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, d ...

: *

- Ismael * María Luisa Mosquera - Macu *

- Simón * Tito Aponte * Ana Castell * Carmen Palma * Iván Feo * Ana María Paredes * Angélica Bravo * Ángel Gutierrez * Móncia Juárez * Douglas Reyes * María Fernanda Urgelles * Hugo Vargas *

Daniela Alvarado Daniela del Carmen Alvarado Álvarez (; born 23 October 1981 in Caracas) is a Venezuelan television, theatre and film actress. She is the daughter of actor Daniel Alvarado and actress Carmen Julia Álvarez and has 6 brothers. She broke into int ...

- Teresita

Production and release

The film is based on the story of the 'Monster of Mamera', police officer Argenis Rafael Ledezma; he was jailed for 30 years in 1980. It is one of Venezuela's most successful films, having received 1,180,621 spectators. Until 2013 it was the second biggest box office hit in Venezuela. It took in more at the Venezuelan box office than films like ''

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

'' and ''

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (or simply ''E.T.'') is a 1982 American science fiction film, science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott Taylor, Elliott, a boy w ...

''. The 4-year-old daughter of star Alvarado,

, had a small role in the film., along with her brother, Carlos Daniel Alvarado.

Analysis

Diana Robin and Ira Jaffe compare the film to ''

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' (, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles. While some scholars have argued that the play was first performed , this is highly uncertain. Originally, to ...

'', both in its initial murder mystery and in its

psychoanalytic PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk the ...

content, as it is based in triadic relationships throughout. Karen Schwartzman, cited in Robin & Jaffe, "sees ''Macu'' as a powerful feminist statement". Schwartzman notes that while adulterous wives is a common story in Latin American cinema, ''Macu'' shows the woman prevailing as the hero. It is seen as a film of the New Latin American Cinema, by its subversion of culture and convention both in its nation and its genre: common crime films are typically based in

machismo Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1940s and 1950s and its use more wi ...

, but ''Macu'' is based in female subjectivity. Schwartzman argues that centering the narrative on the woman, and particularly doing this to reinvent the gender dynamics within a popular genre, turned the film into a "feminist project". Schwartzman also uses other forms of analyzing the film; she notes that it uses ''

chora Chora may refer to: Places Greece * Chora, old capital of the island of Alonnisos * Chora, village on the island of Folegandros * Chora, Ios, capital of the island of Ios * Chora, Messenia, a small town in Messenia in the Peloponnese * Chora, p ...

'' (as in Kristeva) to structure the film. The ''chora'' is a space outside the familiar, which Schwartzman related, in terms of ''Macu'', to the

pre-Oedipal In classical psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex is a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and concomitant hostility toward his father, first formed during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. A daughter's attitude of desire f ...

experience of infancy (as in

Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in t ...

). To progress the narrative by using the ''chora'', the film is structured around flashbacks and sound effects that recur (some of the sound effects listed in Robin & Jaffe are "drumbeats, flute tones, colors, creaking doors, fluttering wings, metallic tinkling, and silences"). A scene identified to represent the ''chora'' and the Oedpial psychoanalysis is one in which Macu chooses to return to her childhood apartment after discovering her husband is the murderer. While there, she re-lives the three defining moments in her

psychosexual development In psychoanalysis, psychosexual development is a central element of the sexual drive theory. According to Freud, personality develops through a series of childhood stages in which pleasure-seeking energies from the child become focused on certa ...

: seeing her mother orgasm during sex with Ismael; rejecting the fact of her symbolic castration by refusing to take toilet paper when offered by Ismael; and being raped by Ismael before being given to him as a child bride. In this scene, Macu comes to terms with her past, and reinforces her relationship with her own children while shedding that she had with her mother. Schwartzman also notes that the scene gives the power of looking to Macu, as she

breaks the fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th centu ...

to level "a challenging gaze" on the Venezuelan audience, telling them that the narrative in the film reflected the society selling out its future.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0093464 1987 films 1987 crime drama films 1980s serial killer films Biographical films about criminals Crime drama films based on actual events Films about criminals Films about honor killing Films about mass murder Films about murder Films about murderers Films about police officers Films about rape Films set in Venezuela Spanish-language crime drama films 1980s Spanish-language films Venezuelan crime drama films