''Alfonsina'' (

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

:Alexandra) is a

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudra ...

directed by

Kurt Land Kurt Landesberger (19 February 1913, Vienna, Austria – 13 July 1997 New York City) was an Austrian born Argentina, Argentine film director of the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Vienna, Land moved to Argentina in the 1930s and began as a film editor ...

and written by

José María Fernández Unsáin José María Fernández Unsáin (10 August 1918 – 18 June 1997) was an Argentine film director, screenwriter, and playwright. Biography Although he studied medicine, Fernández Unsain chose literature as his career. He was exiled to Mex ...

. The film stars

Amelia Bence Amelia Bence (born María Amelia Batvinik; 13 November 1919 – 8 February 2016) was an Argentine film actress and one of the divas of the Golden Age of Argentine Cinema (1940–60). Born to Belarusian Jewish immigrants, Bence began her c ...

as the poet

Alfonsina Storni Alfonsina Storni (22 May 1892 – 25 October 1938) was an Argentine poet and playwright of the modernist period. Early life Storni was born on May 29, 1892 in Sala Capriasca, Switzerland. Her parents were Alfonso Storni and Paola Martignoni, w ...

and actor

Guillermo Murray Guillermo Murray (15 June 1927 – 6 May 2021) was an Argentine actor.Goble p.358 He also directed three films. Selected filmography * '' Alfonsina'' (1957) * ''Planet of the Female Invaders'' (1966) * ''La venus maldita'' (1967) * ''The Chines ...

Plot

The film opens with a wide shot of

waves Waves most often refers to: *Waves, oscillations accompanied by a transfer of energy that travel through space or mass. * Wind waves, surface waves that occur on the free surface of bodies of water. Waves may also refer to: Music * Waves (ban ...

breaking ominously on the seashore, accompanied by Alfonsina's poetry. Another scene has Alfonsina looking into a fish-bowl and saying "I wonder what it would be like to live under the sea". There is also an important scene where Alfonsina announces the news of her illness performed in a very different way from a

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

film.

Cast

as Alfonsina Storni * Alberto Berco * José De Angelis *

Dorita Ferreyro Dorita Ferreyro (March 31, 1916 – December 7, 2011) was an Argentine film actress.Posadas, Landro & Speroni p.269 She is also often credited as Dora Ferreiro. Ferreyro appeared in more than fifty films and television programmes during her career ...

* Domingo Mania *

Alejandro Rey Alejandro Rey (February 8, 1930 – May 21, 1987) was an Argentine-American actor and television director. Career Early work Rey was born in Buenos Aires and studied acting under Hedwig Schlichter and Milagros de la Vega. He became known a ...

* Marcela Sola

Production

stars as the Argentine

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

was an Argentine poet and journalist who made a successful career in the rough macho world of reporting. Kurt Land was originally from

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, so he has a romantic atmosphere somewhat similar to

Ernst Lubitsch Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...

. This style of movie-making was dated even in 1957, but Alfonsina shows style in the voice over editing of the poetry reading.

Release

The film premiered in 1957. It was one of the first and few Argentine films shot in widescreen CinemaScope in the 1950s and 60's.

References

External links

* 1957 films 1950s Spanish-language films Argentine black-and-white films Argentine biographical films Films directed by Kurt Land 1950s biographical films 1950s Argentine films {{bio-film-stub