Luna de Avellaneda (2004)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Juan José Campanella

Writers:

Juan José Campanella (writer)
Fernando Castets (writer)

Release Date:

20 May 2004 (Argentina)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Sport

Plot:

Argentine actor Ricardo Darín (Nine Queens, Son of the Bride) stars in the story of a social and sports...

Plot Keywords:

Club | Casino

Awards:

8 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Ricardo Darín	...	Román Maldonado
Eduardo Blanco	...	Amadeo Grimberg
Mercedes Morán	...	Graciela
Valeria Bertuccelli	...	Cristina
Silvia Kutika	...	Verónica
José Luis López Vázquez	...	Don Aquiles
Daniel Fanego	...	Alejandro
Atilio Pozzobon	...	Atilio
Horacio Peña	...	Julio
María Victoria Biscay	...	Macarena
Francisco Fernández De Rosa	...	Darío
Micaela Moreno	...	Dalma
Alan Sabbagh	...	Ismael
Sofia Bertolotto	...	Yanina, Dario´s girlfiend
Claudia Santos

Also Known As:

Moon of Avellaneda (International: English title)

Runtime:

143 min

Country:

Argentina | Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Brazil:14 | Argentina:Atp | Spain:7 | Chile:TE

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company:

100 Bares

Quotes:

Amadeo Grimberg: O what do you think? That before Newton, apples floated?

A film that panders to its intended audience

As a fan of Hijo de la Novia, I found Luna de Avellaneda to be a complete disappointment. When I voiced my mixed feelings about this film to Argentines, they invariably accused me of not understanding the film because I'm not Argentine. I can argue with them on that since I understood the references they were accusing me of missing (the importance of social clubs in Argentine society, the ill-effects of neoliberal privatizations, etc,etc.) but, at the end of the day, a film needs to speak beyond its intended audience. But this is a problem with the ghettoization of national cinemas - faced with steamrolling Hollywood productions that they can't compete with, local industries attempt to counter-program with self-consciously nationalistic productions that attempt to reach the largest possible domestic audience. It's a lose-lose situation since instead of getting challenging foreign films (at the end of the day, the best antidote to Hollywood) we get films like Luna de Avellaneda (or, even worse, Patoruzito). On the bright side, recent years have witnessed a renaissance in Argentina cinema.

The film itself is structured around a fairly obvious metaphor - the social club clearly is meant to represent Argentina. A once glorious past is faced with a brutal and uncertain future. In this sense, the film taps into the heavy nostalgia that is pervasive in Argentine culture (ie. the tango). That the social club will be privatized is a clear analogy with the brutal effects of neo-liberal policies in the country over the past two decades. The problems with such heavy-handed symbolism is, well, heavy-handed symbolism.

At the end of the day, I don't let Hollywood movies get away with cheap sentimentality, so I certainly won't let foreign films get away with it either.