Le côté obscur du coeur

The Argentinian film El lado oscuro del corazón (1992) was shown in the U.S. with the translated title The Dark Side of the Heart. The movie was written and directed by Eliseo Subiela.

Darío Grandinetti plays Oliverio, an Argentinian poet. He travels to Montevideo where he meets Ana, played by Sandra Ballesteros. She's a beautiful prostitute. The fall in love--they have to fall in love--but she's very clear about the fact that he pays for every evening spent in her bed.

The movie is not just about a poet, but about poetry. Mario Benedetti, Juan Gelman, and Oliverio Girondo are three poets who are well known in Latin America. Characters in the movie--including Ana--recite their poetry.

That was the problem for me with this film. Prose translates fairly well, but poetry doesn't.

Nacha Guevara is the beautiful actor who portrays Death in the movie. She and Oliverio have long conversations. It's an interesting concept, like the knight playing chess against Death in Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957).

The movie worked well on the small screen. It has a strong IMDb rating of 7.6. If I spoke Spanish, I would have given it a higher rating. I rated it 7.

Another magic and unmistakable film by the Argentinean director and screenwriter Eliseo Subiela.

This is the story of Oliverio, a poor poet without success and his personal quest to find his perfect woman.

This is a story of non-mainstream art and artists who live their lives fully, with coherence, and unconventionally. This is a movie about the importance of poetry and Art in daily life, and about how perfection can be sometimes found in somebody else's rubbish bin.

In this movie, Subiela has the ability to talk about sex and passion in an explicit way, yet full of lyricism and without vulgarity. He harmoniously mixes the conscious, the subconscious and surrealist elements in an easy to understand way. Subiela creates a reality that is personal and real for dreamer Oliverio, real to him, although unreal to us. Subiela also creates a world of alternatives lives within reality as not everybody lives the same, thinks the same, or approaches reality and the world in the same way.

This movie has memorable poetic dialogs, with the intervention of the late Argentinean poet Benedetti (who plays a small role and recites some poems in German in a brothel), the surreal conversations of Oliverio with Death (played by Nacha Guevara) as if they were two friends or lovers who have known each other forever, or his conversations on Time with a cow. In fact, there are so many magic moments in this film that they are impossible to list here.

The downs of the movie are two to me. The first, is the performance by the leading actor, Dario Grandinetti, who I found painful to watch, as he overacts badly all the time; not even his gorgeous naked body was able to make me forget his performance. The second down is the footage, as the movie is 2 hours long and overcrowded with dialogs of great philosophical depth, which can bring you to desperation and give you a headache. I think that a reduction of the footage and the chopping of some of the scenes/dialogs would have helped the movie to get along in a more fluid way without losing any depth.

This movie is full of magic, onirism, surrealism, poetry, and human depth. It is not easy to watch, but mesmerizing at the same time. However, you just have to be ready to watch it, as this is not a film for lazy watchers!

If not for anything else, Eliseo Subiela's "El lado oscuro del corazon" will introduce the casual viewer to the poetry of Mario Benedetti, Juan Gelman, Oliverio Girondo as well as the director's own compositions. Eliseo Subiela is one of the best Argentine directors of all times, as this 1992 film clearly demonstrates.

Oliverio, the taciturn man we meet at the beginning of the film, takes us on a trip to Montevideo where, one night, he meets the exotic Ana in a night club where prostitutes gather. It's clear the mutual attraction Oliverio and Ana feel toward one another the moment they set their eyes on each other. It appears that, at last, Oliverio has found the elusive woman who can fly with him. These two souls make love, but Ana, being a hooker, reminds Oliverio his time is up. What is even better, Oliverio, an amateur poet, meets his match in Ana, who loves and knows the texts he recites to her as a way of introduction.

Oliverio has had his share of lovers. We see him making love to beautiful women, but none of them qualify as the one to fulfill his life. In a comic touch, Oliverio's bed is divided in two and when he finds a woman is not for him, he rings a bell in the night table and the other half of the bed opens up and the victim falls to an abyss.

In order to survive, Oliverio free lances as well as write poetry which he and his two buddies, Erik and Gustavo trade for food to the friendly restaurant owner who loves to recite the poems to his fiancée. Oliverio is seen walking at night, as well as when he travels to Montevideo when he feels the urge to see Ana, and has long debates with a woman clad in black who is Death personified.

One thing is clear, Oliverio can't have Ana, as she cleverly reminds him. Ana can't afford to be too generous with anyone. Ana obviously loves Oliverio, but she has other priorities that are only revealed at the end of the film. One of the best sequences in the film involves an erotic art exhibit by Erik that is not to be believed.

Dario Grandinetti, the great Argentine actor, plays Oliverio with equal parts of charm and mystery. Mr. Grandinetti makes an invaluable contribution to the success of the film. He is the main reason for watching this forgotten film that is full of poetry and magic. Sandra Ballesteros is seen as Ana. Ms. Ballesteros is an equal match to Mr. Grandinetti. Nacha Guevara plays Death with panache. Ms. Guevara, who is one of the best cabaret and performance artists of Argentina, is a huge talent that Mr. Subiela utilizes to the best results in the movie. As Oliverio's buddies, Andre Melancon and Jean Pierre Reguerraz are perfect.

The popular music by Mario Clavel, Osvaldo Montes, Chico Novarro and Fito Paez blend perfectly in the movie's atmosphere. The dark cinematography by Hugo Colace adds another dimension in our enjoyment of the film. Ultimately, this is Eliseo Subiela's triumph in a movie that is not only beautiful to look at, but to listen to the great poetry the director brings to it for our pleasure.

"El lado oscuro del corazón", is one of the best movies I´ve ever seen. Inspired in the life of Oliverio Girondo, (a great argentinian writer, intelectual father of Jorge Luis Borges, transgressor in the 30´s) it talks about life and love. The desperate search of Oliverio for a woman who could levitate after making love. Oliverio travels alternatively from Buenos Aires to Montevideo and each travel is a fantastic portrait of both cities, meanwhile the fears of Oliverio arise to a climax Don´t miss it, if you like poetry

A film about a poet and his love for a hooker; the poet and his friendship with his artistic friends; the poet and his run-ins with the beautiful Death; the poet and his poems. A poetic film.