ARTISANAL FILMMAKING AS PRETENSE OF CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION!
My Momma and her clients state that I am a tender, cute, stylish, and fashionable artist! (2026).
Directed by: Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt39297397/
"This vicarious consumption practiced by the house-hold of the middle and lower classes can not be counted as a direct expression of the leisure-class scheme of life, since the household of this pecuniary grade does not belong within the leisure class. It is rather that the leisure-class scheme of life here comes to an expression at the second remove. The leisure class stands at the head of the social structure in point of reputability; and its manner of life and its standards of worth therefore afford the norm of reputability for the community. The observance of these standards, in some degree of approximation, becomes incumbent upon all classes in the scale."
Thorstein Veblen
Page 84. The Theory of the Leisure Class. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1899.
All movies are watched from a concrete habitus (or socialized subjetivity.) This means that particular schemes of perception and particular schemes of judgment are applied. The habitus of this spectator (Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato's Left Brain Lobe) is such that intends to situate the particular movie within a general social model. "Conspicuous consumption" is what comes to mind after watching My Momma and her clients state that I am a tender, cute, stylish, and fashionable artist! (2026). Thorstein Veblen wrote in The Theory of the Leisure Class, published in 1999:
"In modern civilized communities the lines of demarcation between social classes have grown vague and transient, and wherever this happens the norm of reputability imposed by the upper class ex¬ tends its coercive influence with but slight hindrance down through the social structure to the lowest strata. The result is that the members of each stratum accept as their ideal of decency the scheme of life in vogue in the next higher stratum, and bend their energies to live up to that ideal. On pain of forfeiting their good name and their self-respect in case of failure, they must con¬ form to the accepted code, at least in appearance.
The basis on which good repute in any highly organised industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength ; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good name, are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods."
Page 84. The Theory of the Leisure Class. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1899.
My habitus understands that Veblen is describing a caste society, even though it has not been established like that officially. It is similar to the model developed by Pierre Bourdieu: there is a field of producers and there is a field of consumers. The consumers and the producers who occupy similar relative positions within their fields identify with each other, so the consumers acquire what the producers make. This is another way of describing a caste society in which in the hierarchy of global capital, those social agents who occupy positions at the same height share common characteristics.
Veblen mentions "workmanship" (page 93) and "indecorous usefulness" (page 94). The point would be that (page 85):
"From the foregoing survey of the growth of conspicuous leisure and consumption, it appears that the utility of both alike for the purposes of reputability lies in the element of waste that is common to both."
Well, then, it seems that Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato's right brain lobe intends to waste material and his time with artisanal movie productions, imitating the leisure class, that does the same with much more resources. A problem would be that even when he may not want to be entertaining or show any workmanship, his most recent production has traces of it. The first half hour is almost enjoyable. He returns to this previous style during the second part but with less intensity due to the musical background in every scene. He might have lost his instincts and, against his best judgment, he is finding ways to create a more pleasing product in comparisson with the previous ones.
Releasing his new feature film on January the first, 2026, is a fascinating statement. The same way a movie is a "box office hit" and a "commercial success" if it sold tickets, independently of facts as pleasing the audience, or being actually watched by someone, it does not matter if someone watches My Momma and her clients state that I am a tender, cute, stylish, and fashionable artist! (2026). What matters is that it is offered the first day of the year, gaining some sort of prominence among those fanatics that pay attention to little promoted films.
What is it about? Well, it is about a designer who sells his artwork. What is art? What he decides it is art. Giorgiorgio, the main character, truly feels confident and exerts his business skills most of the movie by mentioning prices without blinking and asserting that he is making a favor to the potential buyers.
The style in his movie is somewhat audiovisual: the same way that Alfred Hitchcock in Psycho (1960) (1960) or Nora Ephron in Sleepless in Seattle (1993) transform a static shot in something to remember by THE USE OF THRILLING MUSIC, Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato's right brain lobe applies music to shots that by themselves may not be of a greater impact. So, what was lost before, the "audio" aspect in the audiovisual product has returned, and now watching his movie a less demanding shore, at less for me, because I may pay attention to something less boring than his words and discourse.
Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato's
Left Brain Lobe
My Momma and her clients state that I am a tender, cute, stylish, and fashionable artist! (2026).
Directed by: Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato
Full movie: https://www.imdb.com/video/
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