Argentina (Zonda: folclore argentino)
directed by Carlos Saura
Opens at Lincoln Plaza Cinema in NYC on June 17 and the Laemmle Royal in L.A. on July 1

A fascinating feast for the eyes, ears, heart and brain from Carlos Saura, the Spanish director of Carmen, Ay Carmela, Tango and the Flamenco trilogy. In sparely staged theatrical settings filmed in a barn-studio in Buenos Aires’ La Boca barrio, Saura surveys the diverse range of traditional Argentinian folklorical music and dance forms, as performed by an excellent selection of the country’s past and current masters. The story of how much Argentina’s mottled topographies and political histories have informed and shaped its music, dance and visual sensibilities –– and how these styles’ original versions continue to evolve –– is intriguing, both scholarly and sensuous.

Beginning with a tribute to Salta province’s revered folkloric ensemble Los Chalchaleros, Saura offers a 20-part path through lesser-known-than-tango regional music/dance forms such as bailecito, copla and zamba, all of which seem to share both a deep nostalgia and a heat unlike the image one might associate with the more coolly compressed tango culture. These songs’ stories celebrate a longing for place of birth, how so very good it would be to return and eventually die there; the choicely unhackneyed poetry of the lyrics describes the very particular kind of warmth their comforting sun gifted them from birth, or the gathering of the grapes for the good of us all, or the very soul of the soil –– and how the rich just seem to get richer and richer.

The choreographed live performances include screenings-within-the-film that bring back iconic and politically/culturally controversial Argentinian singers such as Mercedes Sosa and Atahualpa Yupanqui, along with recitals of traditional folk songs from revered vocalists such as El Chaqueño Palavecino, Soledad Pastorutti ("La Sole"), Liliana Herrero, Luis Salinas and the folk group Metabombo. Dancers include Ballet Nuevo Arte Nativo de Koki and Pajarín Saavedra. The visual frugality of their settings has much to do with the precise passions of these performance tableaux. Captured immaculately clean by Argentine cinematographer Félix Monti, the film’s token use of light, shadow and mirrors burnishes gold, yellow and orange, an inviting yet edgy effect, somehow, especially when Monti’s probing camera super-close-ups on the rather severe intensity of the performers’ faces and bodies.

This is a film for musicians to grok very closely, too, and to savor. There’s a useful scholarliness to its highlighting of a lot of relatively arcane rhythms and melodic gambits as played by solo, duo and groups, including a ripping solo chacarera on prepared piano, and a malambo where a drum troupe accompanies two men twirling boleadoras (balls attached to rope that graze the floor in percussive rhythm). Listen, watch and learn.
–– John Payne