Wind with the Gone

This is one of the greatest movies I´ve ever seen. If you like cinema, you´ll like it as much I did. It´s funny, but it´s also touching. It´s a movie about people who see movies, but essencially a film about people... and movies.

a taxista in buenos aires one day gets bored with her life there and heads south in her taxi with no particular destination in mind other than keep heading to the extreme south of patagonia. so begins the film. the windswept plains and rolling hills, bleak and deserted create an atmosphere of delicious melancholia. she ends up the village at the end of the world, where the only contact people have with the outside world is via cinema -- a man on a motorbike comes there every couple weeks with a film whose 16 mm reels are all mixed up. the entire village gathers in the cinema in the plaza every evening to watch the film in a different order each night, and over time, most of the characters have become a bit eccentric as well. much of the film is about the lives of the people in the village. one day some trucks arrive and put up a TV tower. Henceforth the once bustling plaza, center of activity and coherence in the village is now empty, with the glow of TV in every window.. and maria soledad, the taxista decides its time for her to move on somewhere else.. a classic exposition of the argentine melancholy temperament. i wish i could buy the DVD somewhere.

Tragic comedy is THE Argentine genre. All the characters are amazing great. The plot is ingenious, funny and original. Argentina's magic is captured in every scene. Lastly, but not least, the idea of Dumont's three inventions is a wonderful one.

The first time I got acquainted with the work of Alejandro Agresti was his movie 'Buenos Aires Vice Versa', a quite stunning movie about day-to-day life in Argentina. His next movie 'La Cruz' proved a more funny effort, but with 'El viento se llevo lo que' (in Dutch 'Door de wind gejaagd') Agresti paints a portrait of an isolated village in Argentina, whose only contacts with the outside world (i.e. the capital) are the movies that are brought in by motor. The cinema is like the central place to be. The village is populated by a bunch of very eccentric people with their own little histories. The arrival of a young woman and an old, renowned actor (who featured in most of the movies the village people have seen) set the place ablaze and very soon things start happening... Very good acting, warm characters, beautiful panoramic views of the landscape and some nice humor make up for a nice viewing experience. And underneath it all the attentive viewer can detect some cultural and political criticism too, which adds some bonus value to this movie.

The film is about Soledad a cab driver that get tired to drive in Buenos Aires and decided to get out of the city and end on small town who is completely isolated from the rest of the country. The only contact with the reality outside the town are the movies and these are old and mixed. There are really strange characters on the movie. It's really worth to watch it.