Argentine Cinema and Immigrant Filmmakers: The Use of Subversion in Mario Soffici’s Viento Norte
| Autor: | LEE, Susan Savage |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Issue: 55 185-205 Journal of American Studies of Turkey |
| ISSN: | 1300-6606 |
| Popis: | Even from the world of film’s early inception, themes of country, nation, and national identity appeared in Argentine movies shownin elite theaters and impoverished barrios. One of the first films in Argentina, La Bandera argentina (1897), for example, by the French-Argentine director Eugene Py, showcased images of the Argentine flag aswell as scenes from the city center, Buenos Aires. Although the cinematography was rather simplistic, at the same time, this film exploredthe country, setting the stage for future filmmakers to do the same.While films like Py’s provided an accessible entry point into Argentinelife and cultural identity, outside of the movie houses, not all citizensfelt welcomed.The 1930s, known as the Infamous Decade, because of JoséFélix Uriburu and Agustín Justo’s military regimes, affected film content while placing minority filmmakers in precarious positions offscreen. The preoccupations of working class and minority audiencesguided which movies they watched, at the same time, the conservativegovernments attempted to censor what they considered to be “lowbrow” culture. This content, like the tango and melodramas, drew immigrants and the working class to movie theaters. To combat the difficulties posed by politicians like Uriburu and Justo during the Infamous Decade, Soffici turned to mainstream genres, such as the gauchesque.His film, Viento norte (1937), a gauchesque loosely based on LucioMansilla’s Una Excursión a los indios ranqueles (1870), was one ofhis most successful productions. In Viento norte, Soffici uses Mansilla’s gauchesque narrative to reach both mainstream and marginalizedaudiences.Although scholars have looked at Soffici’s later films or casually mentioned his early movies in brief analyses, to date, Soffici’sViento norte has remained largely ignored. Viento norte holds an important position in film history because of Soffici’s subversion of thegauchesque, a genre associated with nationalism and national identityformation in the twentieth century. In addition to this, analyzing Soffici’s contribution to film in this era helps further illuminate the difficulties that immigrant filmmakers faced during the Infamous Decade. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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