ive watched the first half hour of the santa evita series now. its really well done on a technical level, im especially happy with the costume and makeup. the music is sort of horrid and it brings down the gravest moments so far.

what sticks out the most to me is how deeply unsettling this is. obviously its par for the course but. some shots of oreiros body as eva look a lot like stan brakhages the act of seeing with ones own eyes, this way of treating the dead body as it is -an object, not a person anymore. at the same time, the way she is framed, lying still, with other men standing above her, or the way julio kept her lock of hair and the journalist strokes it -its so uncomfortable in a very specific, creepy way. of course there can be no neutrality in the corpse of a woman like evita, but there is still this lingering feeling of something being fundamentally invasive -not necessarily the embalming, i think, as much as the weight of her fame and reputation as the body is taken away and bargained with. her mother probably did have a point, beyond the religious, with cursing the doctor.