Imagining Argentina (2003)

Director:

Christopher Hampton

Writers:

Lawrence Thornton (novel)
Christopher Hampton (writer)

Release Date:

12 September 2003 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

An extraordinary story of love, compassion and danger.

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Journalist | Disappearance | Psychic | Argentina | Buenos Aires Argentina

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Irene Escolar	...	Eurydice
Fernando Tielve	...	Orfeo / Enrico
Hector Bordoni	...	Pedro Augustín (as Héctor Bordoni)
Antonio Banderas	...	Carlos Rueda
Emma Thompson	...	Cecilia Rueda
Maria Canals-Barrera	...	Esme Palomares (as Marí'a Canals)
Rubén Blades	...	Silvio Ayala
Leticia Dolera	...	Teresa Rueda
Anthony Diaz-Perez	...	Policeman 1 (as Anthony Díaz Pérez)
Luis Antonio Ramos	...	Policeman 2
Carlos Kaniowsky	...	Rubén Mendoza (as Carlos Kaniowski)
Stella Maris	...	Concepta Madrid
Concha Hidalgo	...	Octavio Marquez's Grandmother
Ana Gracia	...	Hannah Masson
Horacio Obón	...	Victor Madrid

MPAA:

Rated R for violence/torture and brief language.

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

Spain | UK | USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Malaysia:18PL (uncut version) | Malaysia:U (cut version) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Czech Republic:15 | Finland:K-15 | Philippines:R-18 | Singapore:M18 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company:

Multivideo

Trivia:

When it became clear that two additional scenes would help the script, a) the quarrel about whether Cecilia should publish her article and b) the flashback scene why the Cecilia and Carlos got married, there was a little competition going on between 'Christopher Hampton' and 'Emma Thompson', who both wrote their versions of those scenes. Emma Thompson's version of the flashback scene finally was agreed on.

An Englishman's Argentina

Imagining Argentina turns out to be exactly the movie suggested by the title... a not-too-literal outsider's take on what the extra-judicial disappearances in 1970s Argentina might have been like. As a result, it will potentially be highly annoying to anyone with any connection to Argentina - not only do the actors contrive to speak in an irritatingly accented English, but several key scenes play (deliberately?) fast and loose with history. This in itself is not necessarily a problem - after all we were warned by the title not to expect a historically literal film - but in my view the resulting mish-mash of the plausible and the implausible is not particularly successful.

That said, the film does fulfil the director's stated purpose of drawing world attention to a dark period of Argentina's history - maybe it's worthwhile just for that.