I may not know to much about Argentinean film form but from what I have seen in Bombón: El Perro or in English, Chocolate: The Dog; suggests that when it comes to putting across a story, telling us what's what and engaging the audience through various methods that can be applied to film, they know what they're doing.
Everything about El Perro is simple and straightforward; the film presents us one thing, moves on to the next item and never looks back unless it absolutely has to. The film is set within the vast, open landscape of Argentina and despite the year being 2004, it feels more like 1974 since massive oil extractors pump away at the landscape, people drive around in rickety and beat up old cars and vans; abandoned, disused petrol stations litter the side of the highways and frequent interior scenes set inside old farm houses and run down houses and apartments that dominate the screen for most of the time. The vast, open settings on the outside definitely makes the film feel like a road movie of sorts; taking into account one thing, giving it to us to digest and then moving on. A great example would be the scene in which a little girl is to recite a poem on a town hall stage; we are told all about her problem that she loses her voice when she's nervous and the film pauses for her to show us but after that scene, we never hear of her again.
El Perro's 'genius' if you like, also lies in its use of a seemingly pointless cause and effect routine. The first half an hour consists of Juan Villegas (character and actor name) as he attempts to sell knives, gives someone a lift in his van and visits a petrol station; upon getting home he talks to his daughter he's temporarily living with about his day but what meaningless things we talk to one another in our households about are delivered, and then not given a thought about afterwards in El Perro, those meaningless occurrences and tiny, insignificant details are shown and used for entertainment: "Today I won a can of oil and some shades at the petrol station" says Juan, something that his daughter congratulates him on and then nobody gives it another notion since it's happened, been reported and gone but the film shows us everything that happened during the encounter when it didn't need to. This is El Perro doing what only foreign films it would seem can do; emphasise the unnecessary.
El Perro may have been listed as a comedy but it is more a drama than anything else. There are some humorous moments but there are humorous moments in all of our everyday lives and El Perro is no different since it's that route the film has gone down. What El Perro does is that it remains unpredictable; each event leads onto another that eventually ends up in Juan coming into ownership of a dog. I thought the film might change its tune and go down a different path but it remained the dialogue driven drama I'm glad it did with everyday events such as travelling around, talking to people briefly who you won't see again and meeting up with others you know all linking together to create an actual story revolving around a dog show circuit. For instance, the banker Juan meets tells him the dog could be something special if considered for dog shows; a character who has a major impact on the film's route is there but then never seen again as he is an item that's presented, utilised and then discarded as the narrative progresses; fascinating and effective film-making.
The fact a lot of the film is hand held in its camera work and that the two main characters of Juan Villegas and Walter Donado are the real names of the actors playing them, giving off an extremely neo-realistic edge, is enough evidence to suggest that although you could consider Argentina to be in the 'Americas', El Perro is light years away from Hollywood in terms of look, structure and content. I'd recommend this to anyone who would want to get into foreign cinema.
Everything about El Perro is simple and straightforward; the film presents us one thing, moves on to the next item and never looks back unless it absolutely has to. The film is set within the vast, open landscape of Argentina and despite the year being 2004, it feels more like 1974 since massive oil extractors pump away at the landscape, people drive around in rickety and beat up old cars and vans; abandoned, disused petrol stations litter the side of the highways and frequent interior scenes set inside old farm houses and run down houses and apartments that dominate the screen for most of the time. The vast, open settings on the outside definitely makes the film feel like a road movie of sorts; taking into account one thing, giving it to us to digest and then moving on. A great example would be the scene in which a little girl is to recite a poem on a town hall stage; we are told all about her problem that she loses her voice when she's nervous and the film pauses for her to show us but after that scene, we never hear of her again.
El Perro's 'genius' if you like, also lies in its use of a seemingly pointless cause and effect routine. The first half an hour consists of Juan Villegas (character and actor name) as he attempts to sell knives, gives someone a lift in his van and visits a petrol station; upon getting home he talks to his daughter he's temporarily living with about his day but what meaningless things we talk to one another in our households about are delivered, and then not given a thought about afterwards in El Perro, those meaningless occurrences and tiny, insignificant details are shown and used for entertainment: "Today I won a can of oil and some shades at the petrol station" says Juan, something that his daughter congratulates him on and then nobody gives it another notion since it's happened, been reported and gone but the film shows us everything that happened during the encounter when it didn't need to. This is El Perro doing what only foreign films it would seem can do; emphasise the unnecessary.
El Perro may have been listed as a comedy but it is more a drama than anything else. There are some humorous moments but there are humorous moments in all of our everyday lives and El Perro is no different since it's that route the film has gone down. What El Perro does is that it remains unpredictable; each event leads onto another that eventually ends up in Juan coming into ownership of a dog. I thought the film might change its tune and go down a different path but it remained the dialogue driven drama I'm glad it did with everyday events such as travelling around, talking to people briefly who you won't see again and meeting up with others you know all linking together to create an actual story revolving around a dog show circuit. For instance, the banker Juan meets tells him the dog could be something special if considered for dog shows; a character who has a major impact on the film's route is there but then never seen again as he is an item that's presented, utilised and then discarded as the narrative progresses; fascinating and effective film-making.
The fact a lot of the film is hand held in its camera work and that the two main characters of Juan Villegas and Walter Donado are the real names of the actors playing them, giving off an extremely neo-realistic edge, is enough evidence to suggest that although you could consider Argentina to be in the 'Americas', El Perro is light years away from Hollywood in terms of look, structure and content. I'd recommend this to anyone who would want to get into foreign cinema.