The Argentine

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The Argentine

del Toro as Che
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Produced by Laura Bickford
Benicio del Toro
Written by Peter Buchman
Starring Benicio del Toro
Franka Potente
Catalina Sandino Moreno
Music by Alberto Iglesias
Cinematography Steven Soderbergh
(as "Peter Andrews")
Editing by Pablo Zumárraga
Distributed by Focus Features
Release date(s) May 21, 2008
(Cannes Film Festival)
Running time 137 minutes
Country Spain
United States
Language English
Spanish
Followed by Guerrilla
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Argentine is a film about Che Guevara directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Benicio del Toro as Che. The film is in post-production, with a release date of 2008. Soderbergh plans to make two films about Che with the other called Guerrilla. The Argentine will focus on the Cuban revolution, from the moment Fidel Castro, Guevara and other revolutionaries landed on the Caribbean island, until they toppled the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista two years later. Guerrilla will focus on the years following the Cuban revolution. It will begin with Che's trip to the United Nations headquarters in New York City in 1964, until his death in the Bolivian mountains in 1967.

Both films were screened together on May 21 at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival as one motion picture reportedly running over four hours entitled, Che.[1]

Contents

[edit] Development

While researching for both films, Soderbergh made a documentary with interviews with many who fought alongside Che in Cuba and Bolivia.[2] Originally, there was one screenplay but the director realized that it needed to be broken up into two films. The original source material for these scripts was Che's diary from the Cuban Revolution and from his time in Bolivia. From there, he drew on interviews with people who knew Che from both of those time periods and read every book available that pertained to both Cuba and Bolivia.[3]

Both films were financed without any American money or distribution deal and Soderbergh remarked, "It was very frustrating to know that this is a zeitgeist movie and that some of the very people who told me how much they now regret passing on Traffic passed on this one too".[4] Wild Bunch, a French production, distribution and foreign sales company put up 75% of the $61.5 million budget for the two films, tapping into a production and acquisition fund from financing and investment company Continental Entertainment Capitol, a subsidiary of the U.S.-based Citigroup. Spain's Telecinco/Moreno Films suppling the rest of the budget.[5]

Soderbergh shot both films back to back over a 90-day period beginning in May 2007 with most of the dialogue in Spanish. According to an interview in Sight and Sound magazine, the original intention was that the first film "will be shot in 16mm anamorphic" because, "it needs a bit of Bruckheimer but scruffier".[4] Soderbergh ultimately opted to shoot both films on early models of the RED One rather than 16mm film, but otherwise kept to his plan of shooting the first film anamorphic, and the second with spherical lenses.[1] The film was shot in Puerto Rico and, according to actor Edgar Ramirez who portrays Ciro Redondo, the cast "were improvising a lot" and describes the project as a "very contemplative movie", shot chronologically.[6]

[edit] Cast

[edit] Reception

Ten minutes of excerpts from The Argentine were screened in Soderbergh's presence at 2008 Berlin Film Festival with some buyers saying that it had "the makings of a modern classic".[7] The film was screened with Guerrilla on May 21 at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival as one motion picture reportedly running over four hours entitled, Che.[1] Soderbergh has said that he would like to see both films released within a week of each other.[4]

[edit] Cannes reaction

Both films have been pre-sold to several major territories, including France, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Italy, Japan (Nikkatsu), and Twentieth Century Fox has buying the Spanish theatrical and home video rights.[5] Early reviews of the two films were mixed.[8]

James Rocchi, praised it as "bold, beautiful, bleak and brilliant", and called it "a piece of entertainment that delivers excitement, pathos and pure film making passion; it's a work of art worth thinking about and arguing about, one that opens up possibilities and encourages you to think and feel without telling you how you should think and feel".[9]

Todd McCarthy was more mixed in his reaction to the films in their present form, describing them as "too big a roll of the dice to pass off as an experiment, as it’s got to meet high standards both commercially and artistically. The demanding running time also forces comparison to such rare works as Lawrence of Arabia, Reds and other biohistorical epics. Unfortunately, Che doesn’t feel epic - just long".[10]

Anne Thompson wrote that Benicio del Toro "gives a great performance", but predicted that "it will not be released as it was seen here".[8] Glenn Kenny wrote, "Che benefits greatly from certain Soderberghian qualities that don't always serve his other films well, e.g., detachment, formalism, and intellectual curiosity".[11]

Peter Bradshaw, in his review for The Guardian, wrote, "Perhaps it will even come to be seen as this director's flawed masterpiece: enthralling but structurally fractured - the second half is much clearer and more sure-footed than the first - and at times frustratingly reticent, unwilling to attempt any insight into Che's interior world".[12]

In his review for Esquire, Stephen Garrett criticized the film for failing to show Che's negative aspects, "the absence of darker, more contradictory revelations of his nature leaves Che bereft of complexity. All that remains is a South American superman: uncomplex, pure of heart, defiantly pious and boring".[13]

Richard Corliss had problems with Del Toro's portrayal of Che: "And Del Toro — whose acting style often starts over the top and soars from there, like a hang-glider leaping from a skyscraper roof — is muted, yielding few emotional revelations, seemingly sedated here . . . Che is defined less by his rigorous fighting skills and seductive intellect than by his asthma".[14]

In his review for Salon.com, Andrew O'Hehir praised Soderbergh for making "something that people will be eager to see and eager to talk about all over the world, something that feels strangely urgent, something messy and unfinished and amazing. I'd be surprised if "Che" doesn't win the Palme d'Or . . . but be that as it may, nobody who saw it here will ever forget it".[15]

[edit] Soderbergh answering critics

On shooting in Spanish:

“ You can't make a film with any level of credibility in this case unless it's in Spanish. I hope we're reaching a time where you go make a movie in another culture, that you shoot in the language of that culture. I'm hoping the days of that sort of specific brand of cultural imperialism have ended.[16] ”

On the length:

“ The further you get into it, it felt like if you're going to have context, then it's just going to have to be a certain size.[16] ”

On the unconventional structure:

“ I find it hilarious that most of the stuff being written about movies is how conventional they are, and then you have people ... upset that something's not conventional. The bottom line is we're just trying to give you a sense of what it was like to hang out around this person. That's really it. And the scenes were chosen strictly on the basis of, 'Yeah, what does that tell us about his character?'[16] ”

[edit] Awards

Benicio Del Toro was awarded the Prix d'interpretation masculine (or Best Actor) for his performance in both films and in his acceptance speech dedicated his award "to the man himself, Che Guevara and I want to share this with Steven Soderbergh. He was there pushing it even when there [were lulls] and pushing all of us".[17] Che's widow Aleida March, who is president of the Che Guevara Studies Center, sent a congratulatory note to del Toro upon hearing the news of his award.[18]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Wells, Jeffrey. "Lawrence of Latin America", The Huffington Post, April 28, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-05. 
  2. ^ "Soderbergh plans Guevara double bill", The Guardian, October 31, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-05-06. 
  3. ^ "Che - Interview of Steven Soderbergh", ScreenRush, February 13, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-05-06. 
  4. ^ a b c Taubin, Amy. "Degraded Dupes Steven Soderbergh", Sight and Sound, March 2007. Retrieved on 2008-05-06. 
  5. ^ a b Thompson, Anne. "Buyers waiting for Che", Variety, May 19, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-21. 
  6. ^ "Edgar Ramirez talks about working on The Argentine and Guerrilla for Steven Soderbergh", Collider.com, February 10, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-02-11. 
  7. ^ Hopewell, John. "Wild Bunch blazes sales trail", Variety, February 10, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-05. 
  8. ^ a b Thompson, Anne. "Cannes: Che Meets Mixed Response", Variety, May 21, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-22. 
  9. ^ Rocchi, James. "Cannes Review: Che", Cinematical, May 21, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-22. 
  10. ^ McCarthy, Todd. "Che", Variety, May 21, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-22. 
  11. ^ Kenny, Glenn. "The Revolution By Night: Steven Soderbergh's Che", indieWIRE, May 22, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-22. 
  12. ^ Bradshaw, Peter. "Che", The Guardian, May 22, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-22. 
  13. ^ Garrett, Stephen. "First Look from Cannes: A Review of Steven Soderbergh's Che", Esquire, May 22, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-22. 
  14. ^ Corliss, Richard. "Soderbergh and Tarantino: Warrior Auteurs", Time, May 22, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-22. 
  15. ^ O'Hehir, Andrew. "Soderbergh's spectacular Che-volution", Salon.com, May 22, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-22. 
  16. ^ a b c "Got 4 hours to kill? Steven Soderbergh can help", CNN, May 23, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-22. 
  17. ^ Hernandez, Eugene; Brian Brooks. "Laurent Cantent's The Class Wins the Palme d'Or", indieWIRE, May 25, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-25. 
  18. ^ Che's Widow Congratulates P.Rican Actor Prensa Latina, May 29 2008

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Films by Steven Soderbergh

sex, lies, and videotape (1989) • Kafka (1991) • King of the Hill (1993) • Underneath (1995) • Gray's Anatomy (1996) • Schizopolis (1996) • Out of Sight (1998) • The Limey (1999) • Erin Brockovich (2000) • Traffic (2000) • Ocean's Eleven (2001) • Full Frontal (2002) • Solaris (2002) • Eros (Equilibrium) (2004) • Ocean's Twelve (2004) • Bubble (2006) • The Good German (2006) • Ocean's Thirteen (2007) • The Argentine (2008) • Guerrilla (2008)
v • d • e
American films of the 2000s
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