''El Ayudante'' ( en, The Helper) is a

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

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 ...

drama film directed and written by Mario David on his directorial debut, and starring Pepe Soriano,

José Slavin José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

and Enrique Fava. The screenplay, about a truck driver who befriends a young deaf man, was written by David, based on the book ''El sordomudo'' by the author Bernardo Kordon. The film premiered on 25 March 1971 in Buenos Aires, and was both a box office success and critically acclaimed.

Plot

A truck driver bonds with his new helper, a tall, deaf young man. A warm friendship develops during the transportation, with the driver finding the young man's gestures of situations amusing, including depictions of the body shapes of women they pass. The young man purchases a cigar which they share, and they drink a large bottle of beer together. A middle-aged man wearing a hat hitches a ride on the truck and helps them with deliveries. The man visits an elderly woman and child and later wins a bare knuckle fight for money. Later, the truck driver discovers that the hitchhiker is wanted by the police. The man abducts the deaf young man and presumably kills him. The driver catches up with the hitchhiker and avenges the loss of his partner by beating him to death with a pole at a railway yard.

Cast

* Pepe Soriano as Aristóbulo Maresca *

* Enrique Fava * Carlos Olivieri as Cacho *

Lydia Lamaison Lydia Lamaison (5 August 1914 – 20 February 2012) was an Argentine actress. She appeared in 47 films and television shows between 1939 and 2012. She starred in the film ''La caída'', which was entered into the 9th Berlin International Fil ...

as Elvira * Silvana Roth *

Hugo Astar Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on a ...

María Esther Corán María Esther Corán was an Argentine actress. She starred in films such '' Fúlmine'' (1949), ''El nieto de Congreve'' (1949), ''La melodía perdida'' (1952), ''Marta Ferrari'' (1956) and ''El ayudante'' (1971). One of her best known roles was ...

Production

The screenplay was written by the director Mario David, based on the book ''El sordomudo'' by the author Bernardo Kordon. Cinematographer Aníbal Di Salvo was hired to shoot the film.

Víctor Proncet Víctor is a Spanish masculine given name, equivalent to Victor in English and Vítor in Portuguese. Notable people with the given name include: *Víctor Cabrera (Argentine footballer) *Víctor Cabrera (Chilean footballer) * Víctor Hugo Cabrera, ...

composed the soundtrack. The film's editing was done by

Oscar Pariso Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

Release and reception

''El Ayudante'' premiered on 25 March 1971 in Buenos Aires. The film was both commercially successful and critically acclaimed in Argentina. The critic for the newspaper '' La Nación'' commented: "This calm friendship is described with a cinematographic language of hierarchy, made of silences, nuances and looks. There is an intimacy in the film that does not disdain the neorealist touch ... the film arrives, seizes the attention of the viewer, (in a) work of acute psychological uptake". The critic from the newspaper '' La Razón'' wrote: "Kordon's story gains expressive vigor in the images and verisimilitude in its characters and forms a captivating poetic climate and a lucid realistic testimony". In his book ''Cine argentino: modernidad y vanguardias, 1957/1983'' , Ricardo Manetti describes the film as having a "rather risky theme for a time marked by censorship".

References

External links