Film noir, as much a movement or a sensibility as the crime genre or dark melodramas, flourished in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s but was not limited to American movies. France, England, Germany, Japan, and other countries had their own similar movements.
In the past couple of years, thanks in part to Argentine film archivist and historian Fernando Martin Pena and Film Noir Foundation founder Eddie Muller, a strong film noir tradition in classic Argentine cinema has been revealed through forgotten classics that have been rediscovered, restored, and exhibited in film festivals around the world. The 1957 thriller The Bitter Stems (Los Tallos Amargos) is one of the most accomplished and compelling of these films. Film studies professors looking to show their students an example of international film noir should screen The Bitter Stems in their classrooms.
Set in the journalism world of Buenos Aires, it follows the odyssey of Alfredo Gaspar (Argentine movie star Carlos Cores), a disillusioned journalist who partners with a Hungarian immigrant (Vassili Lambrinos) to create a phony mail order journalism school. Alfredo has no moral qualms about the multiple scams involved in their enterprise but starts to suspect that his partner has also been scamming him. He soon acts on his paranoia.
Adapted from an award-winning novel by Adolfo Jasca, The Bitter Stems unfolds in a clever flashback structure centered on an ominous train ride to the countryside as Alfredo's inner monologue sets the tone of suspicion and vengeance. Director Fernando Ayala weaves in the flashbacks with inventive and evocative transitions. He drops in nightmarish, expressionist dream sequences that reveal Alfredo's stormy mind and, with cinematographer Ricardo Younis, creates striking images of a suitably seedy, shadowy world. The film noir also features a distinctive soundtrack by Astor Piazzolla, who adds jazz and tango to a traditional symphonic score. It's a terrific thriller with a dark heart and tormented psychology and, true to the title, it ends with a bitter but satisfying twist of poetic justice.
The film won Argentina's equivalent of the Academy Award for best picture in 1957 and was chosen as one of the best-photographed movies made between 1950 and 1997 in a survey by the magazine American Cinematographer, but had been publically unavailable for decades until it was restored in 2016 by the Film Noir Foundation and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. It makes its home video debut in a Blu-ray and DVD set, featuring an introduction by Eddie Muller, an interview with Fernando Martin Pena, a video profile of composer Astor Piazzolla, and commentary by film historian Imogen Sara Smith, plus a booklet. Recommended.