Feature film
Gardel: Echoes of Silence
Gardel, ecos del silencio
Pablo Rodríguez · 1997
Synopsis
The ghost of Carlos Gardel is held in the Solís Theatre in Montevideo, as if waiting to settle its accounts with history. The film then traces the course of his life: a childhood in the street, a youth in bars, a turbulent existence before fame, between Tacuarembó, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. Staged scenes and investigation intermingle to argue for a birth in Uruguay, at Tacuarembó, and to make Colonel Carlos Escayola the singer's father.
Context
Produced by Betty Weisz for Grupo Tango's Uruguay and Orsai Films, with a budget of 250,000 dollars, the film draws on the research of María Selva Ortiz, Nelson Bayardo and Eduardo Paysse González. Ricardo Espalter plays Colonel Escayola in it, Carlos Hernández the singer, and Juan Manuel Tenuta heads the cast. The director presented it in Toulouse in March 1997, in the city that the French thesis gives as the singer's birthplace: the controversy erupted within two days, with scuffles in front of the press. It then went on to the Chicago and Gramado festivals.
Who it is for
An hour and twenty minutes, between fiction and documentary, in Spanish, for anyone interested in the tango and the dispute over its origins.
Prizes and reception
Montevideo critics judge it poorly dramatised and disjointed, while counting it among the events of the year for Uruguayan cinema.
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