Notas para una película

In the first shot, we see a sea covered by fog. Suddenly, we hear a knock on a door. That same sound, apparently disconnected from the image, will return just before the end when we see a bridge. NOTAS PARA UNA PELÍCULA starts and finishes with a desire to explore and disassemble. Interrogating landscapes, deconstructing history and dismantling the relationship between cinema and reality are all one and the same gesture for Ignacio Agüero. His latest film is at once a deep dive into the history of Chile (by way of the deconstruction of the writings of a Belgian railway engineer living there from 1889 to 1899), a series of encounters with different people, especially the Mapuche, and a playful reinvention of what a period movie can be. In a continuous circular pan, an actor in costume reads aloud, while the director intervenes. Past and present, fiction and non-fiction, onscreen and off-screen space; everything keeps rotating while the camera moves. We hear about the adventures of Gustave Verniory, but “there’s no train, no station, no rails”. As in the best of Latin American modern cinema, a lack of means serves as a creative force. In order to excavate another history, Agüero must tear cinema apart and feast on the leftovers. (Victor Guimarães)

In the presence of Ignacio Agüero.

Ignacio Agüero: AQUÍ SE CONSTRUYE (1977, K), NO OLVIDAR (1982, K), COMO ME DA LA GANA (1985, K), CIEN NIÑOS ESPERANDO UN TREN (1988), SUEÑOS DE HIELO (1993), NERUDA, TODO EL AMOR (1998, K), AQUÍ SE CONSTRUYE (O YA NO EXISTE EL LUGAR DONDE NACÍ) (2000), LA MAMÁ DE MI ABUELA LE CONTÓ A MI ABUELA (2004), EL DIARIO DE AGUSTÍN (2008), THE OTHER DAY (2013), COMO ME DA LA GANA II (2016), NUNCA SUBÍ EL PROVINCIA (2019)