From the beginning to the 1970s
In July 1896, the emissaries of the Lumière brothers arrived in Buenos Aires for the first Argentinean screenings. The first director to put Argentina on film was in fact a Frenchman, Eugene Py, who made a short film called La Bandera Argentina in 1897. The first film to include professional actors was La Revolución de Mayo in 1910. The first big success was Nobleza gaucha in 1915. Talking movies allowed the film industry to develop films with singing and dancing, which were based on the tango wave and the popularity of musicians and singers such as the legendary Carlos Gardel. In this spirit, in 1933 the successes Tango and Los Tres Berretines were released. The rise of Argentine cinema is due to the three great directors of this golden age: Romero, Soffici and Torres Rios, who departed from an overly conventional production to adapt literary works to the screen. After the Second World War, Argentine cinema began to decline in the face of the expansionism of the North American competitor and the vagaries of Argentine politics, expressing itself under the most liberal governments, but remaining muzzled under the military dictatorships. In this difficult period, however, it is worth noting that in 1954 the country created the International Film Festival of Mar del Plata, which over the years acquired greater and greater prestige by receiving the greatest international stars. In 1968, the Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA) was created, a public institution dependent on the Ministry of Culture, to subsidize Argentine film production. The military government of the 1970s did not encourage Argentine production, and it is difficult to point to good films. Some experimental works, such as La Hora de los hornos by Pino Solanas and Octavio Getino (in reality a provocative political essay that was not allowed in theaters and had to be seen underground), sometimes made it through the sad years that passed.
From 1980 to the early 2000s
In 1984, Argentine cinema finally experienced an international triumph thanks to Luis Puenzo's Official History, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. The film makes a terrible observation of the misdeeds of the military power. The following year confirmed this revival with Tangos, the exile of Gardel by Fernando Solanas, which won the Palme de la Dirección at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1986, Héctor Olivera followed in Puenzo's footsteps, also returning to the years of dictatorship, to address the theme of student repression in his moving film La Noche de los lápices. In 1988, Fernando Solanas, once again, made a dark and haunting film, Sur(The South). We finally discover these directors who depict their country while creating a personal universe. But the economic crisis of 1989 once again put a strain on the Argentine film industry. Foreign productions appeared en masse. Co-production became a watchword in the profession. However, since the mid-1990s, there has been talk of a "new Argentine cinema", a term frequently used to refer to a generation of filmmakers who strive to represent their country while adopting a universal cinematographic language, far from commercial considerations. Perhaps the first work to launch this trend was Martin Rejtman's Rapado, in 1996. When Adrian Caetano and Bruno Stagnaro's Pizza, birra, faso hit the screens in 1998, the trend was confirmed. One of the great successes of these years of renewal is Garage Olimpo (1998, Marco Bechis), which deals with the military dictatorship by telling the story of one of its disappeared. That same year, Mala Epoca featured Paraguayan, Bolivian and Peruvian immigrants: a world that had been absent from Argentine screens until then. In 1999, Martin Rejtman directed Silvia Preto, confirming Argentina's cinematographic boom. That same year, Argentina created an independent film festival that was a great success: the Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (BAFICI).
The New Wave of the 21st century
The 2000s brought a batch of works centered on Argentina's complicated history. The filmmakers focus on painful themes such as the economic crisis(Memorias del Saqueo by Fernando Solanas, 2003) and its impact on the middle classes(Los Guantes Mágicos by Martin Rejtman, Tan de repente by Diego Lerman, Bolivia by Adrian Caetano), the Falklands War and its veterans(Iluminados por el Fuego, by Tristan Bauer) and still the dictatorship(Buenos Aires 1977, by Adrián Caetano). Some filmmakers have a desire to make rather minimalist, even contemplative films, such as director Lisandro Alonso and his works La Libertad (2001), Los Muertos (2004), Jauja (2014), as well as Carlos Sorín, who made Historias mínimas (2002), Bombón el perro (2004), El Camino de San Diego (2006) and La Ventana (2009). But it would be wrong to try to reduce the works of the Argentine "New Wave" to a few specific criteria, as they are full of personal visions. This is the case of Lucrecia Martel who, with La Ciénaga(2001), La Niña santa (2003) and La Femme sans tête (2008), developed a subtlety and mastery that the international critics praised very early on. Also Lucía Puenzo and the works XXY (2007) and El Niño Pez (2009), which address the theme of the search for sexuality. In 2013, the director returns with the remarkable Wakolda. Let's not forget Rodrigo Moreno and El Custodio noticed in Berlin in 2006 or Lucía Cedrón and her work Agnus Dei (2008). In another register, Pablo Trapero confirms his status as an emblematic figure of Argentine cinema and regularly shakes up the screens of major international festivals, such as Cannes. Trapero never ceases to reinvent himself and releases very different works such as El Bonaerense (2002), a well-handled pamphlet against the police in the Argentine capital, Journey with the Family (2004), a lighter comedy, Nacido y Criado (2006), an amnesiac escape in a harsh Patagonian winter, and La Leonera (2008), a moving film about motherhood in prison.
From 2010 to the present
Since 2010, Argentine filmmakers are making their mark in the world's biggest festivals. Starting with Juan José Campanella, already famous for works such as El Mismo Amor, la Misma Lluvia (1999), The Bride's Son (2001) or Luna de Avellaneda (2004), who won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2010 with El Secreto de sus ojos(In her eyes). Like Luis Puenzo's Official History, the film deals with the period of the military dictatorship, although more indirectly, denouncing the denial of justice and the total impunity enjoyed by any indicator of the regime. The same year the film Carancho by Pablo Trapero was selected at the Cannes Film Festival in the section Un Certain Regard. In 2012, Trapero returned to Cannes in the same category with Elefante Blanco. In 2016, his film El Clan is selected in the race for the Oscars. The year before, it was the excellent sketch film Relatos salvajes(The New Savages) by Damián Szifrón, which was nominated for an Oscar. In 2017, Lucrecia Martel returns with Zamapresented at the Venice Film Festival (out of competition) and Santiago Mitre releases the political thriller El Presidente, selected in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2018, Cannes selected Luis Ortega's The Angel (also in the Un certain regard category), produced by the Almodóvar brothers. The work deals with the young Argentine serial killer Carlos Robledo Puch "The Black Angel", responsible for the deaths of eleven people in the 1970s in Buenos Aires. The year 2018 also marks the release of La Flor by Mariano Llinás. The work wins the title of the longest film in the history of the Argentine 7th art, as it lasts 814 minutes. Shot over a period of 10 years, La Flor is divided into six episodes (divided into four parts), each of which exploits a different cinematographic genre. In 2020, The Intruder(El Prófugo) by Natalia Meta, selected in the official competition at the Berlin Film Festival, and Mamá, mamá, mamá by Sol Berruezo Pichon-Rivière, also selected at the Berlinale in the Generation Kplus category, will be released.
Internationally
Thanks to a climate that is always favorable (even in winter) and cities such as Buenos Aires, whose major asset is its resemblance to European cities, Argentina is one of the preferred countries for foreign film shoots. Several successful films have been shot in Argentina, such as Moonraker in 1979, where the famous James Bond confronts the Shark in the Iguazú Falls, located between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. We will find the Iguazú Falls in the drama Open Heart (2012) by Marion Laine, with Juliette Binoche or the blockbuster Black Panther (2018) by Ryan Coogler. In 1986, the filming (camped in Argentina) of the second opus of the Higlander saga(Highlander - the return, Russel Mulcahy) had budgetary difficulties: Argentina was in a very dark economic period and the construction of the film sets was very expensive. In 2004, the Buenos Aires of the 1970's is in the spotlight in Christopher Hampton's Disparitions. More recent films shot in Argentina include Diversions (2015, Glenn Ficarra) and the historical thriller Operation Finale (2018, Chris Weitz), about the hunt for Nazi Adolf Eichmann by Mossad agents in Buenos Aires in the 1960s. In 2019, Fernando Meirelles' acclaimed The Two Popes, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, is released. This British work in co-production with Italy, the United States and Argentina receives several Oscar nominations (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay) as well as the Golden Globes (including Best Drama) in 2020.
