Lingering Darkness



The dictatorship that came to power in Chile via a coup d’état led by General Augusto Pinochet  on September 11, 1973 is probably one of the most known Latin American dictatorships, though sadly it was far from the only one. Its notoriety is not surprising, given that it was one of the most repressive, with tens of thousands of Chileans "disappeared," tortured and killed, and an estimated 200,000 forced into exile; it was also one of the longest lasting (1973 to 1990); and, what is more, one that had an impact on the military and economic policies in the region for many years to come.  What is surprising is that so few movies have been made about it.  No, the most recent film about the Chilean dictatorship joins a short list of feature films, to which No’s director, Pablo Larraín, has contributed three movies.

The first noteworthy feature film about the coup came rather quickly in 1975, Il pleut sur Santiago  (Rain Over Santiago), a French – Bulgarian drama by Chilean director Helvio Soto staring French greats  Jean Louis Trintignant, Annie Girardot, Bibi Andersson,  and more. The movie’s focus was on the events leading up to the election and overthrow of Salvador Allende, the socialist who became the President of Chile, and on the conspiracies that took place to bring about an end to his rule and his life.

Jean Louis Trintignant in Rain Over Santiago

 There was a Russian–Danish film Noch nad Chili (Night Over Chile), also by a Chilean director, Sebastian Alarcon, in 1977, which didn’t draw too much international attention; and then, in 1982 came Missing, to date probably the best film made about those first months of the dictatorship.

Missing was directed by Konstantinos Gavras, better known as Costa-Gavras, a truly great Greek director (Z, State of Siege, Amen). It presents the events through the narration of the real life story of Charles Horman, an American journalist who was one of the people disappeared by the dictatorship, presumably one of the 40,000 that were held in the Stadium in Santiago after the coup. The remarkable actor Jack Lemmon plays Ed Horman, a conservative businessman from New York who arrives in Santiago to seek out his missing son. Alongside Lemmon, the wonderful actor Sissy Spacek plays Beth, the missing journalist’s wife.

Jack Lemmon in Missing

 Missing won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Costa-Gavras, and Jack Lemmon won the Best Actor award. At the Academy Awards Costa-Gavras won the Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Oscar, and both Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek were nominated in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories.

Now there is Pablo Larraín’s No which has already also won the top prize in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival and was presented to compete in the Foreign Film category at the Academy Awards. No, however, lacks the emotional strength, powerful direction and acting of Missing, but it also lacks depth.

No presents Chile in 1988, when the dictator had been in power for 15 years, and revisits the moment in Chile’s history when 56 percent of the country voted “No” in a plebiscite to oust Pinochet from power.  The film’s focus is on the ad campaign that helped persuade Chileans to cast their ballots against Pinochet. The film uses archival footage and fictionalized characters, being an adaptation of a play written by Antonio Skarmeta, a Chilean novelist whose work was also the basis for the Italian movie Il Postino. Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican actor, plays the central character, the son of an exile and a modern ad man who gets persuaded to make TV commercials for the "No" campaign.

The film has been criticized in Chile for not including the broader context of the “No” campaign and the tremendous and massive grassroots effort to register 92 percent of the electorate, which is what made the electoral results possible.  This is no minor flaw. The film is overall well done and entertaining, with the archival footage (Betacam) blending in very well with the film, which was purposefully filmed using old video equipment. This makes the movie feel like the period it depicts (at least technically), but otherwise and because it does not consider the broader context, it doesn’t quite resonate as being real. It ends up lacking the complexity of this moment in Chile's history.  It was an oversight not to include all the effort displayed by thousands of Chileans to make voting possible so that the ad campaign could contribute to the success of the "No";  also not present in the film is the complex negotiation among the political parties that came together for the campaign –these party leaders are mostly portrayed as naïve and caricature-like folk with  old fashioned views in the movie. Why the director chose to go the simple route we'll probably never know, but it certainly detracts from the movie as a whole.



Gael Garcia Bernal as the modern ad man in No

In any case, it is still a movie worth seeing. No has become part of an unintentional trilogy by Pablo Larraín, in as much as it is one of three films that take place during the Pinochet dictatorship. Larrain’s debut film Tony Manero (2008), although dealing with a serial killer obsessed with John Travolta’s character in Saturday Night Fever, takes place during the height of the dictatorship. Post Mortem (2010) takes place during the last days of President Allende’s presidency and is about an employee at a morgue’s recording office who falls for a dancer who disappears.  In all three films, the main characters feel that the political situation surrounding them is not going to affect them directly, but they end up immersed in the terror and repression of the dictatorship anyway.

Larraín has indirectly spoken to why he’s chosen to make films about this period in his country’s history.  Despite the time that has elapsed, the dictatorship is, for so many, a lingering darkness; in one of his interviews (NPR) Larraín states: "He [Pinochet] died without ever stepping in the courthouse, and [as] a millionaire. So it's quite sad, because we never really achieved justice. And most of the people who actually killed and tortured others in my country, they are still walking on the street. That is why this issue, the whole human-rights violation issue, is still ... an open wound."