Evita, quien quiera oír que oiga (1983) User Reviews

The life of an ambitious woman

[hof-4 · 6/10 · 27 April 2014]

Evita, quien quiera oír que oiga (Evita, they who want to listen let them listen) is a documentary about Eva Perón, "Evita" (the title refers to one of her speeches). Born out of wedlock in 1919 in Los Toldos, a small town lost in the great plains of Buenos Aires Province, she grew up in genteel poverty in nearby Junín. She moved to Buenos Aires in 1934 and became a radio and theater actress, later a movie actress (the curious can find her movies in You Tube). In January 1944 she met Juan Domingo Perón and married him in 1945; in 1946 he became President of Argentina. Evita became much more that a mere First Lady; she was one of the most famous and powerful women in history.

The documentary consists of interviews with people that knew her and with historians, writers and journalists (among them the American Jack Anderson). This is combined with newsreel footage and episodes from Evita's infancy, adolescence and early career reenacted by actress Flavia Palmiero.

This is the first film credited to director Eduardo Mignogna. He went on to direct some of the best Argentine movies of the last two decades, among them Sol de Otoño (Autumn Sun, 1996), El Faro (The LIghthouse, 1998) and Cleopatra (2003). All are available in the rental services.

A story about youn a young Evita and her fractured legacy

[feza78 · 5/10 · 5 April 2019]

This documentary film was the opera prima of director Eduardo Mignogna. A teenage Eva Perón leaves her hometown and embarks on a train trip to Buenos Aires. The film connects fragments of this journey with footage from the '40s and' 50s, along with interviews of different personalities who met Eva Perón.The approach used is intelligent. The life of Eva Duarte told through testimonies and documents of the time, during the train trip of the teenager Evita (Flavia Palmiero) from Junín to the city of Buenos Aires. Then we have very valuable testimonials from people who knew her personally or who lived with her at certain moments of her life. It begins with the memories of her school teacher, "since she was a child she liked to act and they asked for it from other schools". Or her childhood friend, who says she never saw her again. We listen from the sociological analysis of Juan José Sebrelli and Juan Pablo Feinman, to the psychological ones of Arnaldo Rascovski. Intellectuals such as the writers Silvina Bullrich, Ernesto Sábato and Dalmiro Sáens and also politicians such as Arturo Mathov, Jorge Abelardo Ramos and Antonio Caffiero. The beauty of each painting frame, which at times reminds us of Italian neorealism, is undeniable. However, the narrative may seem a little bit fractured and this non lineal structure sometimes distracts the audience. There is a sense of urgency in the documentary inserts that splashes the drama of the story, cutting a certain air of poetry that may be excessive in the reenacted scenes. Can a group of reenacted scenes ruin everything a movie built up to a certain moment? The answer is not easy to answer. Without going into details, suffice it to say that the bitter taste of that decision of the director persists even after the final sequences that recover what the film seemed to be at first.