CINEMA: Argentina Cries over ‘Evita’

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 25 1997 (IPS) - The movie “Evita’ has unleashed passions across the country, for and against the film’s Director Alan Parker, equal to those that swept Argentina when Eva Peron was alive.

There are those who say simply that the film is mediocre, underserving of ideological critique. Then there is the Peronist leader who called for a boycott of ‘Evita’ – even without having seen it. And there are other politicians opposed to Peronism who claim to have enjoyed the film as art, without focusing on its version of history.

‘Evita’ has been on public release for more than a week, but the furore over its showing looks likely to run as long as the movie is shown. The Peronists called on Argentines to adopt a passive resistance to the movie – stay away and thus avoid swelling the 120 million dollars box-office revenues it has already grossed in the United States and Europe.

Some reaction has gone further. Cinemas had to be evacuated due to the spraying of toxic gases. Cinema canopies have been destroyed by stones and there have been street protests both for and the women who portrays Evita Peron – the pop star Madonna.

“Alan Parker, lying rat, in the service of the British crown,” read one sign at the entry to a movie theatre. The cinemas were guarded as if they were hosting presidential summits: 20 uniformed police officers per screening room, who scared some off but piqued the curiosity of the most daring.

But the curiosity of the Argentine public won out. Many of the first to see it said they did not expect to see the true story of Eva Peron, that for now continues to be a Mission Impossible, but [perhaps a good musical from the director of ‘The Wall’.

But there has been little praise even from those who trooped to the cinbema with such flexible/non-ideological expectations.

‘Evita’ was filmed in Argentina and Hungary. It narrates the life of the second wife of Juan Peron – three times president of Argentina – her humble origins, how she became the most powerful woman in Argentina in the middle of the century, and her early death from cancer at age 33.

During filming one year ago, Madonna’s appearance here sparked controversy. The walls lining the roads bore “invitations” to her to go home, but Parker tried to keep things calm by giving assurances that his version of the life of Eva Peron would make Argentina proud.

But this does not appear to have happened. After debuting in the United States in December, ‘Evita’ finally was shown in Argentina in February in 85 cinemas throughout the country – which only occurs with expected box-office hits.

Parker stood alone with the stars of his Film – Madonna, Johnathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas – in facing reporters who asked him such questions of his film as “why the summer clothing of those attending Eva’s funeral, which took place in the winter.”

Parker did not do much to calm things down. He called Vice- President Carlos Ruckauf “ignorant” for calling a boycott against the film, and later seemed to contradict himself, by claiming to have read nearly 30 books on Eva Peron, but defending his version by arguing that it was not a documentary.

Some commentators said Eva Peron would be laughing from her tomb, because another attempt to tell her real story had failed – in spite of the millions invested.

Evita is a movie version of the rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber that paints an ambitious Eva, a social-climbing prostitute with few scruples. Those characteristics are present to some extent in the first part of the film.

Madonna’s gives a “fragile” performance according to critics in and “neither earns the love nor the hatred of the spectator.. she lacks Eva’s passion,”

Hollyoowd critics, seemed to agree as neither Madonna or other involved in the movie have been nominated for this year’s Acedemay Awards – although Madonna did win a Golden Globe award for her performance.

“My movie does a good job in reflecting the life of Eva Peron,” said Parker. “People, particularly in Argentina, tend to look at its political shortcomings, not its artistic problems, and ‘Evita’ is not a documentary but an artistic endeavour with a modern focus.”

Film director Fernando ‘Pino’ Solanas, who directed ‘Sur’ and ‘El Exilio de Gardel’ (Gardel’s Exile) could not stay out of the fray and declared while the acting was good, the movie “falsified history.” But Solanas, after all, was a supporter of Peron.

Heating things up further, Parker took stabs at the version of Argentine film director Juan Carlos Desanzo, ‘Eva Peron’, which was debuted with less pomp in 1996 and has been showing for 18 weeks now. Local critics have praised Argentine actress Esther Goris’ interpretation of Eva.

“My film cannot be compared with Desanzo, which in Europe is considered a telefilm,” saiid Parker.

Desanzo, an admirer of the English filmmaker, acknowledged that his version cost infinitely less than the staggering 55 million dollars poured into ‘Evita’, plus the eight million for the copyright of Webber’s opera. But, he added, his version is truer to history.