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 ...
film released on 7 August 1968, directed by
Nicolás Sarquís
Nicolás Sarquís (March 6, 1938 – April 19, 2003) was an Argentina, Argentine film director and screenwriter. His first full-length film was ''Palo y hueso'' (1968), filmed in black and white. He died of lung cancer in 2003.
Filmography
*1965 ' ...
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, premiering there on August 7, 1968.
Plot
The film tells the story of an old peasant who buys a young woman to live with him, but later realizes that she is sleeping with his son.
The young people try to escape, but their bus is stopped by a river that has flooded. The old man follows and finds them, pleading with them to return. They agree, but the son insists that the old man relinquish the woman.
The film has several memorable moments. One is the beautiful sequence of images of the couple walking down the road and waiting patiently for the bus in the rain. Some of the intensity of the movie may be due to the way in which it reflects the spirit of rebellion of the 1960s.
As with all his films, ''Palo y hueso'' demonstrates Sarquis' enormous vocation for themes rooted in a microworld of men and women, creating tense narratives with the rigorous quality of epics.
Miguel Ligero as Don Arce
*Ramón 'Moncho' Beron as Rolon
*Ramón Franco as Domingo's friend
*Juanita Martínez as Rosita
*Melchor Soperes as the Parishioner
Production
''Palo y hueso'' was Sarquis' first full-length film, shot in black and white.
It was also only the second to be shot by cinematographer Esteban Courtalon.Julio Lencina, another well-known cinematographer, was first assistant cameraman. Lencina went on to work with E. Stagnaro,
Ricardo Wullicher
Ricardo Wullicher (born 21 May 1948) is a film director from Argentina. He is best known for his 1976 thriller ''La casa de las sombras (House of shadows)''.
Wullicher was born in Buenos Aires. His 1972 movie ''Quebracho'' tells the story of "La F ...
,
Mario Sábato
Mario Sábato (born February 15, 1945) is an Argentine film director and screenwriter. He is the son of the famed writer Ernesto Sábato.
He worked mainly in the Cinema of Argentina best known for his children's comedy films.
Filmography
* '' Y ...
, Valladares and others as director of photography.
The movie, released in Santa Fe on 4 June 1968, cost just 5,500,000 pesos ($15,715) to make.
The film is based on the 1965 short story of the same name by
Juan Jose Saer
''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...
.
Saer was a well-known writer who was also a movie buff, and taught History of Film and Film Criticism and Aesthetics at the
Universidad Nacional del Litoral
The National University of Litoral ( es, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, UNL) is a public university in Argentina. It is based in Santa Fe, Argentina, Santa Fe, the capital of Santa Fe Province. It has colleges and other academic facilities i ...
in Santa Fe.
Saer began teaching at the Film Institute of Santa Fe (Instituto de Cine de Santa Fe) in 1962. Several of his students made films from his novels. Patricio Coll made ''Cicatrices'' (''Scars''),
Raúl Beceyro
Raúl Beceyro (born 1944) is a movie director, critic and photographer from Argentina.
He is known for the movie ''Nadie Nada Nunca'' (No, No, Never – 1998) that he produced and directed, based on the novel of the same name by Juan Jose Saer. Th ...
made ''Nadie, nada, nunca'' (''Nobody, Nothing, Never'') and Sarquis made ''Palo y hueso''. (Both Coll and Beceyro assisted with ''Palo y hueso'').
The film's realist approach shows the influence of Sarquis' teacher
Fernando Birri
Fernando Birri (March 13, 1925 – December 27, 2017) was an Argentine film maker and theorist. He was considered by many to be the father of the new Latin American cinema.
Biography
Birri was born in Santa Fe, Argentina. After being involved in ...
, who had won several international awards.
The film featured music by
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...
.
Reception
The film fell short of the director's ambition.
It was submitted by
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...
, but failed to be nominated. The film also failed to gain much attention in the Argentine cinemas. However, Sarquís' later film ''La muerte de Sebastián Arache'' (1977) was recognized as a major work based on the strength of its images and the poetic sense conveyed in the movie.
Later reviewers have praised ''Palo y hueso''.
When it was presented at the
Fribourg International Film Festival
The Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF) is an annual film festival in Fribourg, Switzerland. It is focused on selected films from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Grand Prize is the main award of the Fribourg International Film Festival ...
in 2001, a reviewer described it as "a very singular and personal work in the Argentinean panorama of that time. Austere sets, bare dialogues and a simple drama underline the tensions linking the three characters whose lack of perspective is perceptible".
The reviewer went on to detect the influence of filmmakers such as
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet (; 18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008) was a French writer and filmmaker. He was one of the figures most associated with the '' Nouveau Roman'' (new novel) trend of the 1960s, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and C ...
or
Marguerite Duras
Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) ea ...
, but felt that the tight psychological characterization, disciplined acting and stark sets were more reminiscent of
Kenji Mizoguchi
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952), ''Uget ...
or
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...