Viento norte

Watching the waves of the lovely short Mallorca (1934-also reviewed), I started trying to plan what feature film to double bill it with. Discovering that English subtitles have appeared for a Western from Argentina, I got set to ride to the north wind.

View on the film:

Although the jump from mid-shots of people on horses to close-ups visibly being done with a rear screen projection attempting to make it look like the horses galloping, co-writer (with Alberto Vacarezza) / director Mario Soffici & cinematographer Antonio Merayo lassoo a roasting Western atmosphere in stylish disolves and vast wide-shots across the scorching hot Argentina skyline, which are wiped with stark close-ups cowboys in the army sing songs against the wind.

Riding in from a chapter of the book Una excursion a los indios ranqueles by Lucio V. Mansilla, the adaptation by Soffici and Vacarezza quick-draws a poisonous portrait of the returning Gaucho/ cowboy, who charges in to meet his old lover, and in his savageness, ignores her demands to remove his hands, resulting in her son showing the loyalty he has for his parents, by taking the blame/ covering for the blood that comes in from the north wind.