• Nico Soto/Guazu Media
  • Daniela Speranza on the set of Rambleras

In the first part of my conversation with Daniela Speranza, the Uruguayan writer-director explained that it took ten years to complete her recent feature Rambleras (which had its local premiere last weekend at the Chicago Latino Film Festival). Speranza’s perseverance is admirable in itself, yet it also accounts for the innumerable little pleasures of the finished film. Speranza refined the script as the years went on, making the characterizations more lifelike and evenhanded. A similar refinement took place during the shoot, as Speranza and her art director honed in on each visual detail. Rambleras feels handmade but hardly unprofessional—as we discuss below, the film often resembles golden-era Hollywood productions. In this part of our conversation, Speranza reflects on her filmmaking influences and how visual style can shape how viewers regard a movie’s characters.

For me, how a director looks at the characters defines whether I like or don’t like a film.

I set the story in spring, so there’d be this subtle sense that summer’s coming, but it’s not here yet. You know, Jacqueline might be going to work somewhere else for the summer. Nelly tells Patricia, “Maybe in three months, you’ll save enough money to live on your own again.” So, things are changing, but slowly—in Uruguay, everything changes slowly.

  • Rambleras

How many coproducers did you need for Rambleras?

I don’t really know. I guess the idea is spreading that filmmaking is not just a man’s job. In Uruguay, there are many women working in film—and as directors, not just as producers or art directors. For example, there’s Beatriz Flores Silva, who released a film [known in the U.S. as In This Tricky Life] around the same time that Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll [who directed Whisky] made their first film, 25 Watts. It was very successful in Uruguay, and I think it had some influence on what came after. She was also the first director of our national film school. There are many women making documentaries too.

  • In This Tricky Life

When filmmakers don’t have the time to arrange many camera setups, it’s common for them to employ longer takes. This can yield a sense of concentration in the other sense of the word—you end up cramming more ideas into individual shots.