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| Salvador Allende |
Chile Aldo Francia b.23 Raúl Ruiz b.41 Miguel Littin b.42
Allende and Popular Unity : Ruiz, Littin
Filmmakers in Chile came together in the 60s to support the coalition of left-wing parties, Unitad (Popular Unity). The years leading up to the victory of Salvador Allende in 1970 saw a new wave in both fiction and documentary. “The essays of the Experimental Film Group of the 1950s turned into a cinema of urgency which combined political campaign films with innovation in filmic technique and language to denounce the marginalism inherent in underdevelopment” (Chanan 746). The same spirit motivated features that fully emerged in 1968-9 with the appearance of five films seen by ordinary filmgoers: Littin's El Chacal de Nahueltoro/The Jackal of Nahueltoro, Francia's Valparaiso mi amor, Helvio Soto's Caliche sangriente/Bloody Saltpetre, Charles Elsessor's Los Testigos/The Witnesses and Ruiz's Tre Tristes Tigres/Three Sad Tigers. This was the first time in the history of Chilean cinema that such a level of production had been achieved. Ruiz said that “in Latin America at this time, there was a mixture of avant-gardism and the desire to lay foundations among filmmakers who had long been marginalised. In Chile there was both a feeling of rediscovery and a vanguard attitude: filmmakers were excited at the prospect of making real industry films, but lacking the usual technique they had to adopt an artisanal approach […] There were many options and I wanted to try them all! I was completely free to do what I wanted.” (Coad interview)
The pace of political events encouraged activity rather than theorisation and Coad comments that “there was little sustained discussion of strategies.“ Ideas and practices evolved heterogeneously linked only by a common commitment to 'the process’." Helvio Soto (1930-2001) looked to American and European commercial cinema and television in the belief that their familiarity with audiences would encourage their acceptance as models “that films must entertain if we are to succeed in the social-didactic aims we have mapped out for ourselves.” Patricio Guzman (The Battle of Chile), and his group “with almost military planning and discipline, set about recording 'the process' daily and hourly with the objective of returning it to the various sectors of Unidad as a tool for developing consciousness” (Coad).
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| Aldo Francia |
Aldo Francia (1923-96) dedicated himself to a narrative neo-realist exploration of issues during a time of rapid polarisation. Forming a polarity between himself and Soto, Miguel Littin explored popular memory from which he reconstructed events “creating a film language from its images and iconography.” Carlos Flores made didactic political shorts as did many others, including Ruiz, usually sponsored by the state film body Chile Films, university film departments or political parties, Flores then turning his attention to young people - the pressures on them and their attitudes to 'the process’ “(ibid).
Raúl Ruiz (1941-2011), a committed member of Allende's Socialist Party, based his own method “in the language of the Chilean working class and urban petite bourgeoisie,” while describing the popular culture conceived by most artists affiliated with the Chilean left as 'kitsch'. He proposed a cinema of unity which would seek to consolidate the shared positions of the divided left […] and create subjects for general discussion, but his own films were frequently criticized as obscure and divisive” (ibid). “Ruiz was often seen as the 'enfant maudit' who constantly refused to strike a definite line and who questioned all he saw with a hint of polemicism” (Ranvaud uncr.). He was the only Chilean film-maker who regularly produced films - at least 20,1968-73, including 5 feature length and 5 unfinished films, before going into exile in Europe.
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| Three Sad Tigers |
In his first completed project Les Tres Triste Tigres/Three Sad Tigers (1968) based on a play Ruiz described as “an interesting melodrama,” Ruiz saw “the chance to make a film in which Chileans would have a chance to recognize themselves, the first in Chile with its characters drawn from the majority class […] a series of small details from the lives of the majority who live from day to day in small jobs that merely allow themselves to survive. For them the dividing line between legal-illegal, permitted-forbidden is very narrow and often disappears […] At no point did I want to create 'portrait characters'. I am absolutely opposed to this new fashion for 'direct cinema' that is sweeping Latin America [which] leads to 'play within the play'. It leads to filming oneself filming oneself filming – a hall of mirrors” (1971). “While steeped in a more melodramatic mould, Tigers reveals an awareness for camera strategy and cinematic expression far beyond that of his contemporaries” (Ruiz Filmography).When he made Tigers, Ruiz acknowledged that he was influenced by the nouvelle vague rather than neo-realism. The idea was “to put the camera not where it would be best, but where it should be, in the normal position […] things are not seen from an ideal standpoint […] The aim was not just to produce the nouvelle vague style.” There was also an attempt to tackle the embarrassment of Mexican melodrama [in the play] by a kind of inversion, as if the camera were in the opposite position, showing the secondary characters, extras waiting for the big scene to take place.”
In La Colonis Penal/The Penal Colony (1971), Ruiz said that he “wanted to devote myself to a personal “irresponsible” film quite divorced from Chilean reality [in a] free interpretation of a story by Kafka […] If I had to defend myself […] I would say it's a metaphor on conditions in Latin America. It takes place on an island in the Pacific 200 miles from the coast of Peru and Ecuador. The place, once a leper colony, later became a penitentiary, then in 1950, a pilot community financed by the UN and finally, in 1972, a free territory. However, in this kind of Latin Switzerland divided into cantons, the prison rules are observed […] a sort of self-ruled penal colony. The inhabitants behave like convicts, have customs of the sub-proletariat […] their language is completely invented. One day a journalist arrives […] and discovers that some terrible things are going on. But these episodes of torture and violence are part of a description she herself has invented for her paper. The island, instead of producing copper, produces news […] paying for everything.” (1973, Filmography).
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| The Expropriation |
Ruiz's last Chilean film, La Expropiacion/The Expropriation (1972), filmed in 4 days in 1971 and completed in Paris, runs 60 mins. “The film tries to explain the aims of Popular Unity by adopting a sort of self-criticism style” (Ruiz). An agronomist has to expropriate an estate. He is received by the landowner with every honour. The two discover they were at the same college and are of the same social class. At night a dance is held in the honour of the agronomist which is attended by the landowner's ancestors, a parade of ghosts who have died in defence of their property. The agronomist adopts the same political tactics as President Allende. Like him, he falls back on sophism [deliberate misrepresentation], using the intrigues invested by the bourgeoisie against the bourgeoisie itself. If the bourgeoisie decide to break with this reality, the agronomist reassures himself, he will call upon the people to help. He talks to the peasants, a real discussion, the film turning to realism, to a denunciation. The peasants tell the viewer that the landowner has hidden the machines explaining why they are forced to take action. The agronomist explains why the law is on his side. The following day the peasants oppose the expropriation. They kill the agronomist. The landowner escapes.Ruiz explained that The Expropriation was not finished in time “because it was considered more of a provocation than a constructive intervention which the party did not want to be widely shown although it was seen by some militants in double-head form. It was made at a time when the far left MIR had become critical of Popular Unity. I was trying to show what happens when general theory is contradicted by reality and social paradoxes emerge from generalisations. When land is given to the peasants they are supposed to be happy but often this is not so and great damage is done, as in La Vendee during the French Revolution […] As in most of my films there was a satirical attitude developed by working with the actors. None of these films was scripted in advance: they were improvised on the day of shooting.” (ibid)
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| Miguel Littin |
On the strength of his first feature, Miguel Littín, a young Chilean-born filmmaker of Greek descent, was named by President Allende in 1970 (he participated in Allende's election) to head and reorganise the state film enterprise, Chile Films. After the CIA coup and death of Allende, Littin made another 11 feature films and 3 documentaries,1975-2014, mainly co-productions, while based in Mexico.El chacal de Nahueltoro/The Jackal of Nahueltoro (1969) is based on an actual case. José who had been adopted into their fold by a recently fatherless family, in a spell of drunken psychosis ends an argument with the mother by chasing her and fatally striking her down with a piece of wood and then proceeds to bludgeon her four children to death, one by one. Later woken up from a drunken nap by a baby's crying José proceeds to crush the baby under his boot. The case deeply affected public opinion. It was fully researched by Littin who was under strong criticism in the press while making the film. He said that the character of José, an illiterate of poor peasant origins, his life reflecting the widespread problem of alcoholism in Chile. His character disappeared becoming immersed in public mythology as he became a cult figure. José entered into a long period of rehabilitation which transformed him and was then executed by firing squad. (Littin interview, Cineaste Spring '71).
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| The Jackal of Nahueltro |
Littin chose this particularly heinous and notorious crime to place the spotlight on the evils of capital punishment in the most extreme circumstances similar to Richard Brooks' intent in the film version of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1967). Littin chooses to broadly expand the thesis: that killers like José are the result of a brutal poverty-stricken childhood in a corrupt society, challenging the standard conservative view that people should always be required to take full responsibility for their own actions. To reinforce this, there follows “the taming by education” sequences with a shifting from the protagonist's eyes dirtward, to a more dignified gaze. This is combined in a narratively simple but relatively complex time-shifting structure in the blurring of the distinction between fiction and documentary involving scenes from José's youth and inquisition, and the filming of the murders.As has been said of El Chacal, when such a murderer in vulnerability rivals that of his victims it is proof of the filmmaker's talent. It struck a chord with audiences; at the time it was the most widely seen motion picture film in Chilean history.
In Littin's Latierra prometida/The Promised Land (1973), a rich socialist José Duran gives up his wealth and becomes leader of a socialist Chile. Duran in the film is based on Marmaduke Grove Vallejo who created a short-lived Socialist Republic of Chile in 1932. In a time of economic crisis, social tension and turmoil the film follows an itinerant band of unemployed workers and landless peasants through the Chilean countryside. The army intervenes taking power, massacring the people who fight back. The film broaches a variety of issues including both a celebration and critique of popular culture and of indecisive leadership. Intense emotional involvement alternates with distancing devices introducing a critical perspective. Mythical motifs are mixed with revolutionary imperatives. Allegorical and legendary dimensions sometimes mysteriously contrast, sometimes fuse, with a more realistic mode in the presentation of historical events.
Littín saw the film as what he termed a 'political activator', set in the thirties but informed by the internal problems facing Chile under the Popular Unity government such as the problem of popular education and politicisation, the need to decisively expropriate the entrepreneurial and landowning classes, as well as the role of the army and religion. Julianne Burton comments that one of the major strengths of the film is how these themes merge organically from the narrative. Completed in Cuba after Allende's overthrow, The Promised Land never fulfilled Littin's conception of it as a “political activator” in the arena for which it was intended. “ In Chile,” Burton concludes, “its technical mastery […] would have been fused with the contextual urgency which informs all militant Third World cinema viewed in its place of origin. What is essentially a critical curiosity […] would there have become a weapon in the struggle.”
Patricio Guzman’s extraordinary mix of observation and investigative reporting, a record of the months leading up to the coup in 1973, The Battle of Chile (1975) is in three parts, edited from the extensive footage smuggled out immediately after the coup, edited in Cuba at ICAIC. “Chileans became the leading practitioners of a cinema of exile in Latin America and Europe.” According to one count they made 176 films 1973-83, including 56 features. Chanan comments that “the political imperatives of the Popular Front period underwent a gradual transformation as the overtly militant gave way to a personal and ironic stance,” in the case of Ruiz, a continuation of his cinematic provocation in Chile, a continuum, not so well received, at least initially, by the community in exile.
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Michael Chanan “New Cinemas in Latin America” World Cinema ed. G. Nowell-Smith pp 746-7
Michael Coad “Great Events and Ordinary People” Afterimage 10 Autumn 1981
__________ “ Between Institutions: interview with Raul Ruiz Afterimage Autumn 1981.
Donald Ranvaud “Latin America 1: Chile” Framework 10 Spring 1979
Benoît Peeters “Annihilating the Script: A Discussion with Raul Ruiz” Raul Ruiz: Images of Passage eds. Helen Brandis, Adrian Martin, Grant McDonald 2003
Various “Ruiz Filmography” Afterimage Autumn 1981
Justin Stewart “The Jackal of Nahueltoro” Reverse Shot May 28 2006
Julianne Burton “The Promised Land” Film Quarterly Fall 1975
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Previous entries in this series can be found if you click the following links
Sixty Years of International Art Cinema: 1960-2020 - Tables and Directors Lists to Accompany Bruce Hodsdon's Series
Notes on canons, methods, national cinemas and more
Part One - Introduction
Part Two - Defining Art Cinema
Part Three - From Classicism to Modernism
Part Four - Authorship and Narrative
Part Five - International Film Guide Directors of the Year, The Sight and Sound World Poll, Art-Horror
Part Six (1) - The Sixties, the United States and Orson Welles
Part Six (2) - Hitchcock, Romero and Art Horror
Part Six (3) - New York Film-makers - Elia Kazan & Shirley Clarke
Part Six (4) - New York Film-makers - Stanley Kubrick Creator of Forms
Part Six (5) ‘New Hollywood’ (1) - Arthur Penn, Warren Beatty, Pauline Kael and BONNIE AND CLYDE
Part Six (6) Francis Ford Coppola: Standing at the crossroads of art and industry
Part 6(7) Altman
6(8) Great Britain - Joseph Losey, Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz, Richard Lester, Peter Watkins, Barney Platts-Mills
6(9) France - Part One The New Wave and The Cahiers du Cinema Group
6(10) France - Part Two - The Left Bank/Rive Gauche Group and an Independent
6(11) France - Part Three - Young Godard
6(12) France - Part Four - Godard:Visionary and Rebel
6 (13) France Part 5 Godard with Gorin, Miéville : Searching for an activist voice
6(14) France Part 6 - Creator of Forms - Bresson
6 (15) France Part 6 - Creator of Forms - Jacques Tati
6 (16) - Part 6 - Creator of Forms - Carl Th Dreyer
6 (17) - Italy and Luchino Visconti
6(18 - Italy and Roberto Rossellini - Part One
6(19) - Rossellini, INDIA and the new Historical realism
6(20) - Rossellini in Australia
6 (21) - Italy - Michelangelo Antonioni
6 (22) - Italy - Federico Fellini, Ermanno Olmi
6 (23) - Italy - Pasolini, Rosi
6 (24) - Interregnum - Director/Auteur/Autoren
6 (25) West Germany
6 (26) - Alexander Kluge Part One
6 (27) - Alexander Kluge Part Two
6 (28) - The Young German Cinema: Reitz, Schlondorff, von Trotta
6(29 ) West German Cinema - Fassbinder
6 (30) West German Cinema - Straub & Huillet
6(31) - New Spanish Cinema
6 (32) - Bunuel in the 60s
6 (33) Nordic Cinemas - Bergman and Widerberg
6 (34) - Scandinavia - Sjoman, Zetterling, Troell
6 (35) - East Germany - Konrad Wolf, Frank Beyer
6 (36) - East Central Europe - Poland
6(37) - East Central Europe - Hungary Part One
6 (38) East Central Europe - Miklos Jancso
6 (39) East Central Europe - Czechoslovakia
6 (40) East Central Europe - Yugoslavia
6 (41) - The Soviet Union
6 (42) - Asia - Japan - Part One
6 (43) - Japan - Part Two
6 (44) - Japan - Part Three - Shohei Imamura
6 (45) Asia - India Pt 1 - Satyajit Ray
6 (46) Asia - India Pt 2- Ghatak, Dutt, Sen, Parallel Cinema
Asia - 6 (47) China (To be published shortly)
6 (48) - Brazil Pt 1- Cinema Novo, dos Santos, Rocha
6 (49) Brazil Pt 2 - de Andrade, Diegues, Guerra
6(50) - Latin America - Argentina
