SERIES
February at the Heights Theater
Postwar Argentina: Juan Peron is in power, and the nation is gearing up for an age of prosperity. Yet bubbling just beneath the optimism are rot, corruption, and murder. Argentinian filmmakers, inspired by their American counterparts, produced razor-sharp crime pictures with shocking plots, brilliant acting, and brooding cinematography that captured the seedy side of Buenos Aires. The five noirs we’ve selected should be international classics but have been nearly lost to audiences north of the equator.
(1956, DCP, 90m, Spanish w/English subtitles) dir Fernando Ayala w/Carlos Cores, Vassili Lambrinos. Reporter Alfredo (Cores) befriends a Hungarian refugee, Paar Liudas (Lambrinos), who’s desperate to bring his family to Buenos Aires. The pair devise a clever get-rich-quick scheme, but once the money starts flowing, Alfredo’s barely checked paranoia rises. This gorgeous noir won the […]
(1953, DCP, 90m, Spanish w/English subtitles) dir Román Viñoly Barreto w/Olga Zubarry, Roberto Escalada, Nathán Pinzón. In Buenos Aires, a serial killer (Pinzón) is murdering children. Soon the police, and the underworld, are working to rid the streets of the madman. This third remake of Fritz Lang’s M focuses on the women of the story, […]
(1952, 35mm, 73m, Spanish w/English subtitles) dir Carlos Hugo Christensen w/Nestor Zavarce, Blanca del Prado. Lucio (Zavarce) is a prankster and class clown whose father is a homicide detective. When one of his classmates tells Lucio about a mysterious stranger, he agrees to keep it a secret—until she vanishes. Soon, more girls are missing, and […]