Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film
Political considerations that have affected the fortunes of
the industry cluster around two important periods: the
Peronista period (1946–1955) and the neofascist period
of military dictatorship (1966–1973; 1976–1983). While
Juan Domingo Pero´n (1895–1974) was never a dictator
in the proper sense of the word, he was a strong-arm
populist who used the film industry to propagate the
ideology of his movement. Peronista ideology is often
rather confusing and contradictory, and it is not always
easy today to point to specific ways in which it is present
in films from the period. One of the most important
films made under the aegis of Peronism was Las aguas
bajan turbias (Roiling Waters, Hugo del Carril, 1952).
Pero´n also used the industry to reward supporters and
punish adversaries by, for example, insisting on positions
for the former and the severance of the latter. Eva
Duarte, Pero´n’s mistress, is a well-known beneficiary of
this practice, although when Pero´n married her in 1946,
he demanded the destruction of the negative and prints
of the 1945 film that was designed to be a vehicle for her
career, La pro´diga (The Prodigal Woman). The title was
far too problematical, given the accusations of Pero´n’s
opponents against his wife; it means ‘‘woman of easy
virtue’’ and the film tells the story of a woman with a
shady past who becomes a philanthropic landowner. It
was saved from total destruction thanks to a secretly held
copy, and was eventually released in 1984 to damning
reviews.
The icon of the ways in which Pero´n punished his
adversaries was Libertad Lamarque (1908–2000), who—
legend has it—was driven from the sound stage and from Argentina in a spat with Eva Duarte. Lamarque had a
long and successful career in Mexico and elsewhere,
returning to Argentina only after Pero´n’s fall in 1955.
Many other Argentine actors also sought their fortune in
Hollywood, most notably Fernando Lamas (1915–1982),
who was married to the swimmer Esther Williams
(b. 1922) and who served as the all-round Latin lover in
such films as The Merry Widow (1952) and The Girl Who
Had Everything (1953).
During the neofascist period, filmmaking was
severely curtailed, as was the distribution of US films,
by the Axis-sympathizing governments prior to Pero´n
and then by Pero´n during his regime. Nevertheless,
Buenos Aires remains almost fanatical about film, and
foreign films have always played an important general
cultural role in Argentine society, as well as serving as
closely studied models for Argentine filmmakers.
It is important to note that private, semi-clandestine
film clubs allowed for some distribution of films that
could not have been shown publicly during the neofascist
period. Many films were either banned outright or
severely mutilated, and this had a dampening effect on
production initiatives, with many insignificant films filling the resulting void. In addition to defecting actors,
such as He´ctor Alterio (b. 1929), Norman Briski
(b. 1938), and Norma Aleandro (b. 1936), who figured
prominently in the resurgence of filmmaking in Spain
after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco (1892–
1975) in 1975—precisely the period of the worst phase
of military tyranny in Argentina—major directors such as
Carlos Hugo Christensen (1914–1999) and He´ctor
Babenco (b. 1946), both with extensive directorial
records in Brazil, also worked elsewhere.