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The Dartmouth
November 29, 2024 | Latest Issue
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Mobina Hashmi
The Setonian
Arts

Argentine director Puerzo masters political cinema

By Mobina Hashmi | April 24, 1996

Argentine director Luis Puenzo's first feature film, "The Official Story," is a masterpiece of political cinema. Set in 1983 right after Argentina lost the Falkland Islands War to Great Britain, the film brings to life the story of the desaparecidos, or the "missing ones," alleged subversives whom the dictatorial regime had mysteriously whisked away. The story Puenzo weaves is an intensely personal one in which the viewer's growing knowledge of the situation and accompanying unease matches that of the protagonist, Alicia. The opening scenes of the film are calm as they depict Alicia's (Norma Aleandro's) comfortable life as a history teacher in her mid-forties, and her husband Roberto (Hector Alterio), a wealthy businessman with influential political connections. At a high school reunion, Alicia meets an old friend, Ana, and they engage in friendly gossip. But when Ana recounts to Alicia the reasons why she left the country and the tortures that followed her midnight abduction by the authorities, it turns into a tale of horror. Alicia initially resists believing her stories until Ana tells her the subversives were kidnapped, tortured and killed, and their babies were often sold or given to couples with the right connections. The brutal purging of dissenting voices that Ana speaks of took place around the same time that Alicia and Roberto adopted their daughter, Gaby. Roberto had arranged the adoption and mentioned the exact details to Alicia.

The Setonian
Arts

Events honor Montgomery Fellow Tavernier

By Mobina Hashmi | April 1, 1996

Renowned filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, a visiting Montgomery Fellow, was honored by a tribute this weekend in a series of film programs, to the delight of film lovers on campus. The events began with a tribute by the Montgomery Endowment, which honored him with the Dartmouth Film Award at a ceremony Friday night. The Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Endowment regularly invites to the College distinguished individuals who have enriched their field of study by their expertise and enthusiasm. The last Montgomery Fellow from the world of film was Andrei Tarkovsky almost 10 years ago. Tavernier's brief stay was a reflection of his busy schedule as a filmmaker, critic, historian and director of the Lumiere Institute. His stay at Dartmouth was part of a two-week tour of five major American cities, including New York and Washington D.C., and Hanover, as co-curator, with Thierry Fremaux, of a program on the films of the Lumiere brothers. Bill Pence, the Hopkins Center's director of film, introduced Mr. Tavernier as one of France's greatest directors whose films are notable for their intelligence and their ability to engage the audience in the lives, emotions and thoughts of the characters on-screen. The program began with a collection of clips from his previous films, most notably, "The Judge and the Assassin," "Clean Slate" and "A Sunday in the Country." Phillipe Noiret, most recently seen on film as the poet Pablo Neruda in "The Postman," stars in the first two films mentioned.

The Setonian
News

Truffaut, Godard films make their mark

By Mobina Hashmi | February 9, 1996

From a little cinema club in Paris in the 1940s came a movement that changed cinema for ever. Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Resnais and Rohmer -- all regular attendees -- got to know each other there. From there they became acquainted with Andre Bazin and began writing for his journal, Cahiers du Cinema and the "New Wave," auteur theory and camera-stylo (writing with the camera) were born. These young men were passionately involved not only with cinema, but also with literature, philosophy, art, music and politics. Each of them went in different directions, but the literacy they brought to film shows in the essays they wrote as critics and in the film essays they "penned" as filmmakers and artists. In 1959, the same year that Bergman made "Virgin Spring," Fellini made "La Dolce Vita," and Antonioni made "L'Avventura," Truffaut and Godard made their first films. Truffaut chose to work with genres, playing with and challenging the rules of each individual genre.

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