Buenos Aires, 1920. Ana, a teenage girl raised in a religious education, grows up in a stifling atmosphere where frustrations, silence, and political tensions unfold. Her father, involved in a financial scandal, associates with a young prostitute who gradually takes advantage of his influence over the family to rape the young girl.
In “La casa del ángel,” Torre Nilsson addresses desire, social and religious repression, and hidden violence within Argentine bourgeoisie. When the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, it caused a shock. At that time, Argentine cinema struggled to compete with Hollywood, and Mexican cinema was in its golden age. Torre Nilsson reinvented his art. Abrupt framing, low-angle shots, shadows that fragment spaces, camera adopting unusual positions – everything is done to break away from traditional norms.
This visual and thematic modernity left a lasting mark on Latin American cinema. The film quickly became a critical and commercial success, but more importantly, a turning point for a whole generation of young filmmakers who, in the 1960s, contributed to the emergence of the “new Argentine cinema.” Just like the French New Wave at the same time, these directors sought to film their society differently, questioning class relations and politics with greater formal freedom. Today, its influence can still be seen in many contemporary filmmakers like Lucrecia Martel.
Nearly seven decades after its first presentation on the Croisette, “La casa del ángel” returns to Cannes in a restored version made from the original 35mm black and white negative and a first-generation internegative preserved in the archives of Argentina Sono Film, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Buenos Aires and INCAA. This restoration reminds us of how some films surpass their own story. With “La casa del ángel,” a whole history of modern Argentine cinema is told.
