Masculinities in Contemporary Argentine Popular Cinema

235 Pages·2012·1.789 MB·English

by  Carolina Rocha (auth.)

Masculinities in Contemporary
Argentine Popular Cinema
Masculinities in
Contemporary Argentine
Popular Cinema
Carolina Rocha
MASCULINITIES IN CONTEMPORARY ARGENTINE POPULAR CINEMA
Copyright © Carolina Rocha, 2012.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-33818-0
All rights reserved.
First published in 2012 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-34117-7 ISBN 978-1-137-01179-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137011794
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rocha, Carolina.
Masculinities in contemporary Argentine popular cinema / Carolina
Rocha.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Masculinity in motion pictures. 2. Men in motion pictures. 3. Motion
pictures—Argentina—History and criticism. I. Title.
PN1995.9.M46R63 2012
791.43965211—dc23 2011042359
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: May 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Armando, Camila, and Clara
Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 Decentered Men 19
2 Absent and Surrogate Fathers 73
3 Violence and Powerless Judges 137
Conclusions 187
Notes 191
Bibliography 207
Index 221
Figures
1.1 Ernesto after racing the train 29
1.2 Hans bonding with Ernesto 3 0
1.3 Ana narrates her story 3 4
1.4 Mario looking at Ernesto 38
1 .5 Mario aware of the consequences of yielding
to Andrada 39
1 .6 Hans included in Mario’s intimate circle 45
1 .7 Ana’s admiring Hans after he wins the race and
proves himself to be a man 47
2 .1 Pedro as first seen by José 7 6
2.2 Pedro protecting José 77
2.3 Pedro inhaling fresh air 9 1
2.4 Ana pointing and shooting at a car 9 8
3.1 Marcos being apprehended 1 71
3.2 Marcos facing the police interrogators 1 73
3.3 Marcos being beaten by the correctional officers 1 76
3 .4 Lombardi returning his registered gun 1 84
Acknowledgments
T
his book would not have been written without the support of my
family, friends, and colleagues. Armando Duarte encouraged me to
undertake this project and shared its progress. In the summer 2008,
I was hosted by Nadia Lie at the University of Leuven, Belgium,
to develop a part of this endeavor. I am thankful to her research
team for welcoming me and providing me feedback. Along the way,
I have been very fortunate to count on the unconditional support
of Georgia Seminet and Cacilda Rêgo. I am indebted to Naomi
Lindstrom, David Sheinin, and Hugo Hortiguera who carefully read
parts of this manuscript. Ana Ros, Natalia Jacovkis, Beatriz Urraca,
Fernando Reati, and Marcos Campillo Fenoll offered valuable com-
ments. David Desser and Bob Cagle were also important consultants.
My enormous gratitude goes to Carolyn Hutchinson for her editorial
help. I am very grateful to the anonymous reader for his/her insight-
ful and generous comments.
Diana Paladino, Adrián Muoyo, Gabriela Copertari, Raquel Flotta,
Ana Laura Lusnich, and Parana Sendrós helped me to secure permis-
sions to include images. I appreciate the permission granted by Adolfo
Aristarain to use still photographs from his film. Gabriela Caballero
from Arena Films was very helpful providing still pictures of Caballos
salvajes . Thanks also to María Ferrari, from Argentina Sono Film,
who facilitated the permission to include pictures of La furia .
My colleagues Debbie Mann, Joaquín Florido Berrocal, Jeff
Sklodow, and Charles Berger were very supportive. Parts of this proj-
ect were completed thanks to a research grant from the Graduate
School of SIUE. Associate Dean Christa Johnson and the staff of the
Graduate School, Patience Graybill Condellone and Teri Gulledge,
have also been extremely encouraging. Deidre Johnson was amazing
in locating and returning needed materials.
Versions of some sections of this book have appeared elsewhere
as “Riding against the Wave? Caballos salvajes and Its Critique of
Neoliberal Culture” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 26
xii Acknowledgments
(2007): 167–177; “Crímen/es irresuelto/s en Cenizas del paraíso de
Marcelo Piñeyro” R evista de Estudios Hispánicos 41 (2007): 117–134;
“Middle-Class Rebellion in Two River Plates Movies: A Shadow You
Will Soon Be and T he Last Train” Chasqui 39.1 (2010): 3–13; “Barbaric
Spectacles: Masculinities in Crisis in Popular Argentine Cinema of
the 1990s” in Carolina Rocha and Elizabeth Montes Garces (eds.)
Violence in Argentine Literature and Film (1989–2005): 93–110;
and “Letrados’ Masculinities in Un lugar en el mundo and M artín
(Hache) ” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (2012). I thank the editors for
their permission to reprint this material.
Sam Hasey has been a wonderful and efficient editor. I thank my
family, especially my parents and my sister Evangelina, for their con-
tinued support. Finally, I want to thank my daughters, Camila and
Clara, who were part of every step of this process, checking (almost
daily!) on my progress.
Introduction
I
n U n lugar en el mundo (A Place in the World) (Adolfo Aristarain
1992), a young man trying to figure out his role in society but
unable to integrate himself into the Argentine population chooses
to migrate. An IT engineer walks adrift in the southern plains of
Argentina in U na sombra ya pronto serás (A Shadow You Will Soon
Be) (Héctor Olivera 1994). And as the initial credits roll in C enizas
del paraíso (Ashes from Paradise) (Marcelo Piñeyro 1997), a close-up
of a middle-aged man shows him falling to his death. What happened
to these middle-class male characters who appear to be marginal-
ized, lost, and suicidal? Why are they portrayed as loners who lack the
support of a community? More importantly, why have these distress-
ing narratives about men’s disempowerment appealed to Argentine
viewers? It is my contention that the answers to these questions are
related, for these male characters illustrate the demise of a normative
middle-class masculinity that prevailed in Argentina for most of the
twentieth century—a masculinity that abruptly changed during the
last decade of the century. The changes that Argentine masculini-
ties underwent throughout this period—paralleled by the transfor-
mations that the Argentine State also experienced—were represented
primarily, but not exclusively, in several Argentine films that reso-
nated with local audiences. This book explores the representation of
masculinities as a result of the new economic model that Argentina
adopted in 1989 and that impacted every realm of social and politi-
cal life. I analyze six popular Argentine films produced and released
in the 1990s that exhibit the problematic status of men in society
because of their diminished economic status.
The profound transformations that Argentine society went
through after 1989 affected both genders, albeit to different degrees.
In my analysis, however, I single out men and the social construc-
tion of their gender identity as shown in films—as one of the central
ideas of this study is the strong correlation between the demise of
a certain type of State and the middle-class masculinities associated
with it. The representation of Argentine men in several films is closely
linked to the changes in the political sphere that reconfigured the