Cinema history in Argentina

Cinema arrived in Argentina soon after being launched in Paris and, in a short time, the first national productions started to be shot. Among other attractions, there were world-class pioneers in scientific and animation movies. But the true industry started only in 1933, with the establishment of sound film. The good times, when the Argentine movies were watched all over Hispanic-America, lasted until the early 1950s. Afterwards, the gradual closure of the big studios, the growth of television, the stagnation of popular cinema and the isolation of auteur cinema imposed other rules. On the basis of these new rules, present-day Argentina cinema has been reduced as to quantity and market, but it retains a special quality, which has been acknowledged worldwide. The first filmic exhibition, with a picture of the Lumiére's, took place on July, 18, 1896.

In 1894 the kinetoscope had already made its arrival and, by early 1896, a kinetoscope concessionaire had tried public projections with a device of his own invention. In 1897, the import of French cameras started, and a Frenchman living in Argentina, Eugene Py, became the first filmmaker and cameraman with La bandera argentina (The Argentine Flag), a short movie. In 1898, Dr. Alejandro Posadas initiated surgical cinema by shooting his own surgeries. In 1900, the first theaters specially intended for movie projections and the first filmed news reports appeared. After that, it is worth mentioning the essays of sound film in 1907; the first fiction movie with professional actors, La revolución de mayo (May Revolution), in 1910; the first feature-length film, Amalia, in 1914; the first big success, Nobleza Gaucha (Gaucho Nobleness; with a cost of 25,000 pesos and box-office collections for half a million in six months, aside from bootleg copies) in 1915; the first animation feature-length movie in the world, El apóstol (The Apostle), in 1917; and the first woman director in Latin America, also in 1917. Including melodramas, thrillers, comedies and movies with countryside subjects, during the silent film period over 200 movies were shot, the most outstanding ones being those with a tango climate by Agustín Ferreyra. However, a true industry was never organized and the films were never properly preserved.

The true industrial arose with sound films in 1933. Virtually at the same time, Argentina Sono Film was born, with Tango (where Libertad Lamarque, Tita Merello and Luis Sandrini made their debut); and Lumiton, with Los tres berretines (The Three Whims). Soon, these and other companies produced 30 films per year which they exported to Latin America; especially, Libertad Lamarque's melodramas, Sandrini's comic films and later, also Niní Marshall's. In 1938 there were already 29 filming galleries, although with a still precarious equipment. The main filmmakers were the prolific Moglia Barth. The more promising and skillful Manuel Romero with: La vida es un tango (Life is a Tango); La muchacha del circo (The Circus Girl) and Fuera de la ley (Outlaw), thriller forbidden in New York; among others).

The rigorous Mario Soffici, the script-writer of Prisioneros de la tierra (Prisoners of the Land) -according to surveys, the best Argentine movie-, of other social dramas and also some comedies; the suburban poet Leopoldo Torres Ríos author of La vuelta al nido (Back to the Nest), Pelota de trapo (Cloth Ball) and Aquello que amamos (What we love); the rhetoric but effective Luis César Amadori filmmaker of Dios se lo pague (God Reward You) and Almafuerte; and the creator of bourgeois comedies, Francisco Mugica in Así es la vida (Such is Life), Los martes, orquídeas (Tuesdays, Orchids). Also the more refined Daniel Tinayre, Luis Saslavsky, de Savalía and Borcosque. Shortly afterwards, Carlos Hugo Christensen with dramas and erotic comedies with: Safo and El ángel desnudo (The Naked Angel), the comedy directors Bayón Herrera and Schlieper, and the epic cinema director Lucas Demare with: La guerra gaucha (The Gaucho War) and Su mejor alumno (His Best Pupil) also made their appearances. Three key events in the 1940s were the formation of the Associated Argentine Artists cooperative, with a large part of the "intelligentzia" of the period; secondly, the crisis for the lack of virgin film (as a consequence of Argentine neutrality during the Second World War) and since 1944, the increasing state intervention. Eventually, this would lead to forms of censorship, blacklists, discretionary distribution of virgin film and favorable credits which only benefited occasional businessmen. However, the quality of the singer, actor and filmmaker Hugo del Carril in Las aguas bajan turbias (Turbid Waters coming down), La Quintrala, Más allá del olvido (Beyond Oblivion) stood out. In 1957 the Cinema Act was passed and the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía (INC, National Cinema Institute) was created. Since then, this organization decides on credits, diffusion… or bureaucratic hindrances, according to the time involved.

Its early support affirmed the controversial Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, who soon reached international fame La casa del ángel (The House of the Angel), La mano en la trampa (The Hand in the Trap); the couple made up by Fernando Ayala and Héctor Olivera -El jefe (The Boss), El candidato (The Candidate)- creators of the Aries company and after them, the members of the so called sixties generation, alien to the studio system, which was already too expensive and sluggish. By that time, the most outstanding filmmakers were Simon Feldman with El negoción (The Big Deal), Martínez Suárez with Dar la cara (To Face the Music) René Mugica with Hombre de la esquina rosada (Man at the Pink Corner) -on a short story by Borges-, Lautaro Murúa with Shunco and Manuel Antin with La cifra impar (The Odd Figure), -on a short story by Cortázar-. At the same time, Fernando Birri ran his school of documentary cinema, with two memorable works: Tiré dié and Los Inundados (People in a Flood), where the realistic social charges and provincial humor made a good combination. In these days there appeared another actor, singer and director: Leonardo Favio, who made his debut with an excellent drama, almost autobiographical, Crónica de un niño solo (Chronicle of a Lonely Boy). By late 1960s, some interest began to be aroused by the underground cinema of some advertising directors who experimented with cinema language, mainly the political essay by Pino Solanas and Octavio Getino, La hora de los hornos (The Time of Furnaces), a provocative and innovative work which was forced to be exhibited in clandestine performances as a challenge to the military government.

Much militant cinema was developed by those years. Between 1973 and 1975, with a democratic government and a considerably stable economy, Argentine cinema reached great reviews and box-office success, such as the countryside drama Juan Moreira (Favio), La Patagonia rebelde (Rebellious Patagonia), a story of repression (Olivera), La tregua (The Respite), an office romance nominated for the Oscar (Sergio Renán) and La Raulito (Murúa). But censorship and a new military government put an end to this flourishing period. Recovery would come later, with Tiempo de revancha (Time for revenge, Adolfo Aristarain), Plata Dulce (Easy Money), a satire, and the documentary called La República perdida (The Lost Republic, Miguel Pérez). In 1984, the government of the Radical Party did away with censorship and a filmmaker from the sixties, Manuel Antin, in charge of the INC, promoted the birth of a new generation, which came to be called Argentina Cinema in Freedom and Democracy. Thus, there came Camila (María Luisa Bemberg, another Oscar candidate), La historial oficial (The Official Story, Luis Puenzo, final winner of the Oscar), Hombre mirando al sudeste (Man looking south-east, Eliseo Subiela), Tangos. El exilio de Gardel (Tangos. Gardel's Exile, Solanas), La deuda interna (The Internal Debt, Miguel Pereira) and many others, most by young or previously neglected filmmakers who won a large amount of international awards and distributed his movies almost all around the world. However, the 1989 Argentine economic crisis, with hyper-inflation, also ended the new dreams. Definitely turned into producer-directors depending on state subsidies or foreign co-productions, Argentine filmmakers have placed their hopes on the new Act, passed in 1995, forcing video and television to make financial contributions to Argentine movies. In this way, Alan Parker's Evita may come to finance a good Argentine movie on Eva Perón. In the meantime, there is continuous appearance of young filmmakers, with great creativity and low budgets, like Ciro Capellari (who is by now shooting with the Spanish actress, Angela Molina, in Patagonia), Alejandro Agresti or Jorge Rocca. Paraná Sendrós Print material kindly granted by the Pablo C. Ducros Hicken Cinema Museum.