CULTURE: MUSIC
The Spanish colonization almost completely destroyed the musical civilization that preceded it and thus conditioned both the formation of a local popular tradition and the emergence of a cultured tradition. The Jesuit missionaries were the first to teach music to the natives towards the end of the century. XVI, but we cannot speak of Argentine musicians before national independence. In the first half of the century. However, only amateur musicians emerged from the 19th century, such as A. Alcorta (1805-1862) and JP Esnaola (1808-1878), who were followed, with greater importance, by A. Williams (1862-1952). Founder and director of the Conservatory of Buenos Aires, Williams professionally dedicated himself to a fruitful compositional activity and, although linked to the European tradition for studies done in Paris, he did not fail to attempt a style that took into account national elements. Contemporary composers also refer substantially to European music, including JM Castro (1892-1964) and his brother JJ Castro (1895-1968), JC Paz (1901-1972) and AE Ginastera (1916-1983), as well as Felipe Boero (1884-1958), Celia Torra, Gilardo Gilardi. Among the conductors, in addition to JJ Castro himself, we remember Mariano Drago, Washington Castro (1909-2004), Daniel Barenboim (no. 1942). The presence in Argentina of a world-renowned theater such as the Colón in Buenos Aires has increased local opera production, which however, until JJ Castro has not freed itself from a passive adherence to Italian models. The younger generations, preceded by the Paz who joined the dodecaphony, have taken the avant-garde as a model. Among the best known Argentine musicians in this position are CR Alsina (b. 1941), pianist and composer, who later moved to Europe and E. Fracassi. Argentina is a country of South America defined by thereligionfaqs, com.
CULTURE: CINEMA
Capital of Latin American cinema in terms of number of films and theaters, Buenos Aires had in the 1920s the pioneer painter who painted it vividly on the screens: José A. Ferreira. The success of his first sound poem, Muñequitas porteñas (1931), favored a wider production, which to react to the Hollywood invasion resorted to a truly reckless use of the local color, blatantly intended as an apology for tango. A wave of innovation brought Mario Soffici, who in Viento norte (1937) and in Prisioneros de la tierra (1939) opened the horizons of the Pampa as the scene of social clashes and battles for independence and a first epos national. This is the path then followed by Lucas Demare (from La guerra gaucha, 1942, to La zafra, 1959), by Hugo del Carril (I desperados della jungle verde, 1953) and by the more intellectual Manuel Antín (Don Segundo Sombra, 1969). But they were exceptions in Argentine cinema of those years, which usually limited itself to more or less evasive literary packages or to large-grain shows. The technique, ensured by numerous studios and equipped laboratories, is modern, but the thematic renewal is prevented by a censorship that is among the most severe on the continent. In the 1950s, however, the troubled personality of Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, descriptor of the closed bourgeois world and its decadence. In the following decade, the “nuevo cine” of a generation oriented towards documentary testimony and social denunciation tried to make itself light: Fernando Birri with Los inundados (1962), Lautaro Murua with Alias Gardelito, Gerardo Vallejo with El camino hacia la muerte del viejo Reales are among the boldest representatives of this internal revolt movement. Until in 1967, outside the “system”, a revolutionary work of political provocation exploded from the group of “Cine-Liberación”: The hora de los hornos. Subsequently, the political situation and the strict censorship had very notable consequences also in the cinematographic field; but with the regained democracy, Argentine cinema was able to regain its deserved international space. In fact, the works of Luis Puenzo (La historia oficial, 1985, Oscar winner; Old Gringo, 1989; La peste, 1992), by Hector Olivera (No habrá más penas ni olvido, 1984; La noche de los lapices, 1986), by Carlos Sorin (La pelicula del rey, 1986), by Héctor Babenco (The Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1985, based on a novel by Manuel Puig) and, above all, by the aforementioned Solanas, who returned home with two works on the theme of exile, Tangos – El exilio de Gardel (1984, made in France) and Sur (1988), followed by El viaje (1992) and La cloud (1998). Mondo Grúa (1999) by Pablo Trapero and Garage Olimpo (1999) by the Italian-Argentine Marco Bechis also had a good success, dedicated to the burning issue of the disappeared during the regime of the dictator Videla. From 1996 is Eva Perón, by JC Desanzo (b. 1938), Argentine response to the too Hollywood Evita played by Madonna, while the aforementioned Trapero again directed Familia Rodante (2004) and Leonera (2008). Trapero is among the best representatives of the ” nuevo cine argentino “, in the company of Mariano Llinas (b. 1975), one of the most interesting directors of the latest generation (Balnearios, 2002; Historias extraordinarias, 2008), Ciro Cappellari (b. 1959), director of Sin querer, 1997, and many film documentaries), Israel Adrián Caetano (b.1969), Lucrecia Martel (b.1966; La ciénaga, 2000; La niña santa, 2004; La mujer sin cabeza, 2008), Daniel Burman (b. 1973), winner of The Lost Embrace of the Silver Lion in Berlin 2004 and also appreciated with the subsequent Derecho de familia (2006). Another Argentine director who has gained international fame is Juan José Campanella (b.1959), who, after directing The Son of the Bride (nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film in 2002), in 2010 managed to bring the coveted statuette home. with the secret of his eyes.
