Los Rubios
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Los Rubios | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical Poster |
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| Directed by | Albertina Carri |
| Produced by | Marcelo Cespedes Barry Ellsworth |
| Written by | Albertina Carri Alan Pauls |
| Starring | Analía Couceyro Albertina Carri |
| Music by | Gonzalo Córdoba Charly García Ryuichi Sakamoto |
| Cinematography | Catalina Fernández |
| Editing by | Alejandra Almirón Catalina Fernández Carmen Torres |
| Distributed by | Primer Plano Film Women Make Movies |
| Release date(s) | April 23, 2003 (Buenos Aires) |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | Argentina United States |
| Language | Spanish |
| Official website | |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Los Rubios (English: The Blondes) is an Argentine and American, 2003 documentary, directed by Albertina Carri, and written by Carri and Alan Pauls.[1]
The award winning film documents the search of director Albertina Carri as she investigates what happened to her family during Argentina's "Dirty War."
The themes: Why did they disappear? Why were they murdered? Film critics have called the work an autobiographical semi-documentary work.
It was filmed in black-and-white and in color.
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[edit] Synopsis
The film deals with a child, whose parents were among the tens of thousands of Argentines who were murdered during the military junta's Dirty War, who years later has to contend with the pain barely remembered.
In this case the child is director Albertina Carri.
She returns with her film crew to the house she lived in the 1970s and interviews the neighbors about her parents and what happened.
The movie's title comes from an elderly woman's insistent (and, as it turns out, wrong) recollection that Carri's family members all had blond hair.
Carri tries to determine the following in the doc: Who were the Carri's? How did they disappear? Were they blonde or brunette? Were they heroes or merely a fiction of those who remember them?
In addition to appearing on camera herself, Ms. Carri is played by the actress (Analía Couceyro).
![Publicity image of participants in the documentary.Courtesy of Women Make Movies, [1]](../../../upload/thumb/6/69/Rubiosimage994.jpg/400px-Rubiosimage994.jpg)
[edit] Background
[edit] Basis of film
The film is based on the real political events that took place in Argentina after Jorge Rafael Videla's reactionary military junta assumed power in March 24, 1976. During the junta's rule: the parliament was suspended, unions, political parties and provincial governments were banned, and in what became known as the Dirty War between 9,000 and 30,000 people deemed left-wing "subversives" disappeared from society.[2]
[edit] Style
The documentary has, what some critics have called, an odd style. For example, director Carri appears on film as herself in some scenes, but also uses an actor to portray her in other scenes. A.O. Scott writes that the film "is not so much a documentary as a fictional film about the making of a documentary, or perhaps a documentary about the making of a fictional film about the making of a documentary."[3]
[edit] Critical reception
The documentary received mixed reviews in the media.
Critic A.O. Scott, writing for The New York Times, believes the odd style of the documentary made its impact less forceful. He wrote, "The film's open-ended, recursive structure is central to Ms. Carri's intellectual agenda, which is to emphasize the deceptive, indeterminate nature of the truth...Too much of the film is in a mood of chin-scratching detachment, and this creates a vacuum in which its powerful, confrontational moments lose their force, the trauma of the past pushed nearly out of reach."[4]
Critic Kevin Jack Hagopian thought the film's message is important. He wrote, "Los Rubios is absurd, tragic, and sometimes, hilarious. It seeks not to eulogize the disappeared in solemn, self-important terms, but to make them as alive and real in the cultural sphere as they are in the political arena, a Borgesian lesson in the ultimate fiction: that of ultimate certainty."[5]
[edit] Cast
- Analía Couceyro as Albertina Carri
- Albertina Carri as Herself
- Santiago Giralt as Himself
- Jesica Suarez as Herself
- Marcelo Zanelli as Himself
[edit] Awards
Wins
- Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema: Audience Award, Albertina Carri; New Cinema Award, Albertina Carri; Special Mention, Albertina Carri; 2003.
- Clarin Entertainment Awards: Clarin Award; Best Documentary, Albertina Carri; 2003.
Nominations
- Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema: Best Film, Albertina Carri; 2003.
- Gijón International Film Festival: Grand Prix Asturias; Best Feature, Albertina Carri; 2003.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Los Rubios at the Internet Movie Database.
- ^ The Vanished Gallery.
- ^ Scott, A.O. The New York Times, film review, "Personally Political: Fallout From the 'Dirty War'," April 7, 2004.
- ^ Scott, A.O. Ibid.
- ^ Hagopian, Kevin Jack. New York State Writers Institute, State University of New York.
[edit] External links
- Los Rubios at the cinenacional.com (Spanish).
