By Benjamín Harguindey The Ardor (El Ardor) spawns from Argentina’s National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA) and Brazil’s National Cinema Agency (ANCINE) renewed Film/Audiovisual Co-production Agreement, which produces two movies a year since 2011. The director is Argentinian Pablo Fendrik, whose Blood Appears (La sangre brota) won at the 61° Cannes Film Festival … Continue reading
By Benjamín Harguindey It’s hard to define the genre to which Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes) belongs, but it’s probably something along the lines of dark satire. Writer/director Damián Szifron gathers an ensemble cast of A-listers and allots them an episode each, totaling six in all. While there’s no narrative connection between each episode, they share … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey The Games Maker is a 3D film shot in a co-production between Argentina (Pampa Films, 70% owner), Canada (Sepia Films) and Italy (DAP Italy). Integrally shot in Argentina over the course of 11 weeks during the winter season of 2013, it was based on an Argentinian novel, helmed by Argentine … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey Friday 4th saw the Argentine premiere of San Telmo Productions’ documentary Goals for Girls, about women’s association football in Argentina, where it is continually ridiculed and discredited. Directors Gabriel Balanovsky and Ginger Gentile were introduced by BAFICI director Marcelo Panozzo and engaged in a brief Q&A session after the screening along … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey The Mystery of Happiness (El Misterio de la Felicidad) is Daniel Burman’s newest film, an Argentine-Brazilian dramatic comedy shot on location and starring Guillermo Francella and Inés Estévez. The movie opened January 16th to a decent reception of near 200,000 spectators and is currently going on its third week of … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey Director Alberto Lecchi is one of Argentina’s trusty filmmaking craftsmen and after a 5 year pause he’s back with a thriller going by the token name of Alone With You (Sola contigo, 2013), in which your average creepy, distorted, voice-behind-the-phone gives protagonist María Teresa 5 days to live before she’s … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey Wakolda goes to places few Argentine movies dare: that of postwar Nazi collaborationism, sanctioned by the government and, in the interest of this movie, society overall. It is both a critique and an acknowledgement of a society that was willing to trade moral ground for Nazi know-how and personal benefit. … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey Catalan filmmaker Patxi Amezcua makes his Argentine debut with 7th Floor (Séptimo, 2013), his second movie, an Argentine-Spanish co-production and vehicle for two of the highest-grossing actors in each country’s market, Ricardo Darín and Belén Rueda. They play a marriage on the rocks whose two kids vanish without a trace while … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey There are two fatal flaws to León’s Heart (Corazón de león, 2013). The first is more than evident: here’s a movie about not discriminating, whose sole source of comedy is discriminating its dwarfish protagonist with off-key camera angles and sight gags. The second flaw is that this here is a … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey This is probably the genre Argentine cinema does best – con movies. Unlike the much beloved Nine Queens (Nueve reinas, 2000), which involved petty criminals and their petty scamming, “Vino Para Robar”is a Hitchcockian kind of caper film, set in the exotic vineyards of Mendoza and starring a couple of … Continue reading
Filming in Argentina: The blog of San Telmo Productions 