The Probing Eye of Patricio Guzmán
- The Probing Eye of Patricio Guzmán
“He remains one of the most vital, engaged, searching voices in cinema.”—Michael Koresky, Reverse Shot
From July 17 through August 3, the Gene Siskel Film Center presents The Probing Eye of Patricio Guzmán, a retrospective of the work of the Chilean documentary filmmaker whose body of work over four decades has provided a window on living history while shaping powerful meditations on tyranny and its aftermath. The series ranges from his epic trilogy THE BATTLE OF CHILE to his new film NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT, which we present in a week-long run.
Had it not been for the election of working class-friendly leftist Salvador Allende to Chile’s presidency, career plans might have shaped up differently for young Patricio Guzmán when he returned to Chile from Madrid in 1971 with a brand new degree in filmmaking. With the nation’s class divisions reaching the breaking point and political unrest escalating day by day, sitting in cafés and writing scripts was not to be. Attracted to documentaries from his teen years as a result of seeing the work of directors including Chris Marker and Louis Malle, Guzmán gathered a team and took up a camera to begin an unprecedented process of chronicling the fate of democracy in Chile.
With production assistance from Chris Marker and the Cuban Film Institute, THE BATTLE OF CHILE, Guzmán’s raw and harrowing street-level account of the military overthrow of a democratically elected government and the murder of a president made film history. Chile has remained the focus of Guzmán’s work in films including CHILE, OBSTINATE MEMORY; SALVADOR ALLENDE; and THE PINOCHET CASE, as he documents, analyzes, and memorializes events that hold meaning for all the world.
Thanks to Livia Bloom and Icarus Films for assistance in making this retrospective possible.
NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT
Showtimes
Tickets
Chicago premiere!
- NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT
- (NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ)
- 2010, Patricio Guzmán,
- France/Germany/Chile, 90 min.
“A film of rare visual poetry…simultaneously personal, political, and philosophical.”
—Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
“Stunningly beautiful…I don’t know how you can put more into a film, or make one that’s more deeply moving.”
—Stuart Klawans, The Nation
Exploring the mysteries of the cosmos from high to low is the astonishing task Guzmán has set for himself in a film so intensely personal yet so universal in its resonance that it stands as the crowning glory of an already distinguished career. In Chile’s Atacama Desert, 10,000 feet above sea level, astronomers gaze at the expanding reaches of the universe, while in the ancient sands of the desert floor, patient sifting reveals secrets. In imagery gorgeous to behold, Guzmán finds parallels between the sky’s macro palette of stars and the earth’s micro array of human remains, from pre-Columbian mummies and the preserved bodies of nineteenth-century explorers and miners to the bone fragments of “disappeared” political prisoners. In Spanish with English subtitles. HDCAM video. (BS)
THE BATTLE OF CHILE, PART ONE: THE INSURRECTION OF THE BOURGEOISIE
Showtimes
Tickets
- THE BATTLE OF CHILE,
- PART ONE:
- THE INSURRECTION OF
- THE BOURGEOISIE
- (LA BATALLA DE CHILE: LA LUCHA DE
- UN PUEBLO SIN ARMAS-- PRIMERA PARTE:
- LA INSURRECIÓN DE LA BURGESÍA)
- 1975, Patricio Guzmán, Venezuela/France/Cuba, 96 min.
“One of the greatest living-history pictures ever made.”
—Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com
“Utterly unique, awesomely sweeping…a grueling, remarkable documentary of a country hurtling toward chaos with the inevitability of Greek tragedy.”
—Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
In 1972, with film stock donated by French documentarian Chris Marker, young filmmaker Guzmán, fresh from film school in Madrid, abandoned his screenwriting projects and took up his camera to begin recording the politically incendiary developments that would soon tear Chile apart in the wake of the election of president Salvador Allende. In Part One, in the face of mounting danger, Guzmán and his team dare to film the increasingly violent rebellion of the middle class against Allende’s working class-friendly agenda, from actions in the nation’s parliament to all-out fighting in the streets of Santiago. In Spanish with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
THE BATTLE OF CHILE, PART TWO: THE COUP D’ETAT
Showtimes
Tickets
- THE BATTLE OF CHILE,
- PART TWO: THE COUP D’ETAT
- (LA BATALLA DE CHILE: LA LUCHA
- DE UN PUEBLO SIN ARMAS-- SEGUNDA PARTE:
- EL GOLPE DE ESTADA)
- 1975, Patricio Guzmán, Cuba/Chile/France, 88 min.
An attempted military coup on June 29, 1973 is thwarted, but relief for the embattled Allende presidency is only illusory. In film footage unprecedented in the immediacy with which it records history unfolding and life and death held in the balance, Guzmán records the right-wing movement as a political bulldozer that will sweep away the Allende government and plunge Chile into chaos. The siege on the presidential palace, Allende’s final address to his people, and the chilling installation of the military dictatorship are woven into a powerfully moving document with a singular place in world cinema. In Spanish with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
THE BATTLE OF CHILE, PART THREE: THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE
Showtimes
Tickets
- THE BATTLE OF CHILE,
- PART THREE:
- THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE
- (LA BATALLA DE CHILE:
- LA LUCHA DE UN PUEBLO SIN ARMAS--
- TERCERA PARTE: EL PODER POPULAR)
- 1978, Patricio Guzmán, Chile/Cuba/Venezuela, 78 min.
CHILE, OBSTINATE MEMORY
(CHILE, LA MEMORIA OBSINADA)
1997, Patricio Guzmán, Canada/France, 58 min.
In Part Three of THE BATTLE OF CHILE, the workers and the poor mount resistance to the economically powerful enemies of the Allende government, creating their own strong web of social services and grassroots distribution of food and goods, even as the professional class and the factory owners lock them out. Followed by CHILE, OBSTINATE MEMORY. History is reclaimed through the power of cinema when, in 1997, Guzmán brings a print of THE BATTLE OF CHILE to Chile, where it had never been seen. The horror of the coup is unleashed for a new generation of Chileans as the screening makes real the events that had only been spoken of in whispers. Both in Spanish with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
MADRID + ROBINSON CRUSOE ISLAND
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- MADRID
- 2002, Patricio Guzmán, Chile, 41 min.
ROBINSON CRUSOE ISLAND
(ISLA DE ROBINSON CRUSOE)
1999, Patricio Guzmán, Chile, 45 min.
In MADRID, Guzmán returns to the city of his student days for an affectionate evocation of a metropolis he clearly loves with a passion for its ancient ways and the hedonistic streak of its people. Food, flamenco, and more food hold the eye in this warm portrait of Madrileños in their natural habitat. Part personal adventure, part film meditation, ROBINSON CRUSOE ISLAND is Guzmán’s exploration of a place he had assumed since childhood to be a fictional creation, the island depicted in Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe, which actually exists off the coast of Chile. Both in Spanish with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
SALVADOR ALLENDE
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Tickets
- SALVADOR ALLENDE
- 2004, Patricio Guzmán, Chile, 100 min.
"Guzmán humanizes one of the last century's most enigmatic and tragic figures, and makes an almost forgotten episode of modern history come vividly to life."
—Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
SALVADOR ALLENDE is an in-depth portrait of the martyred Chilean president, an examination of his legacy in Chile (where he has been largely forgotten), and a very personal consideration of Allende's effect on Guzmán himself, who declares, "Salvador Allende marked my life." Eyewitness reports and on-the-spot footage capture the complex idealism of Allende's character, the excitement of his whistle-stop electoral campaigns, the euphoria of his first months in office, and the tragedy of his downfall. In Spanish with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
THE PINOCHET CASE
Showtimes
Tickets
- THE PINOCHET CASE
- (LE CAS PINOCHET)
- 2001, Patricio Guzmán, Chile, 110 min.
“A beautifully layered mosaic…has the stomach-knotting suspense of a legal thriller.”
—Stephen Holden, The New York Times
This extraordinary documentary has been compared by critics to THE SORROW AND THE PITY, SHOAH, and Guzmán’s own monumental THE BATTLE OF CHILE. It recounts a different but equally compelling battle that took place 25 years after Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s rise to dictatorial power. In 1998, while vacationing in London, the comfortably retired dictator was arrested for crimes against humanity. Counterpointing the convoluted legal and political maneuvers are the stunningly direct testimonies of the survivors of Pinochet’s terror. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
