Preserving Memory: Fernando Martín Peña on Argentine Cinema

Amelia Bence and Miguel Faust Rocha in Las tres ratas (1946)

Mecha Ortiz and María Duval in Las tres ratas (1946)

Amelia Bence and María Duval in Las tres ratas (1946)

Amelia Bence, Mecha Ortiz, and María Duval in Las tres ratas (1946)

Mecha Ortiz

Amelia Bence

María Duval

Ariel Cortazzo

Samuel Eichelbaum

Jorge Jantus

Three sisters become orphans. The eldest one will undertake the protection of the rest which involves a very hard task . Eventually, she will have to resign to her happiness.

Carlos Schlieper

Las tres ratas

Three Sixty Year Old Rats.

After watching another old Argentinian film, &quot;La serpiente de cascabel&quot; (The Rattlesnake)--1946, and having liked it quite a lot, I was intrigued by this film&apos;s title, &quot;The Three Rats&quot;--1946, especially because the Three Rats were three excellent actresses from that time and at least I could see good acting, even if the movie wasn&apos;t too good.

But this movie is excellent!

The story is taken (and modified quite a lot) according to some critics, from an Ecuadorian writer, but since I never read his novel, I have no way to compare book and film, although I always thought that it is a grave mistake to compare them since both genres are totally opposed making it impossible to follow cinematographically a book word by word. 

As with practically all Argentinian productions, I&apos;m always overwhelmed by a very special quality they have, it consists of a very warm and human feeling, the kind one observes in the Italian cinema too. It feels as if a cozy blanket envelopes our minds and although on writing it may sound ridiculous, that&apos;s the way I feel when watching an Argentinian movie.

I saw the restored version on &quot;You Tube&quot; and found this 60 year old film quite impressive from all points of view: The acting was superb, the direction quite subtle and to the point, the sets excellent and the music well placed. The story, quite absorbent, follows the lives of three very different sisters that after becoming orphans have to deal with the raw realities of life, generally hard and merciless with practically everybody.

And each sister deals with it the best way she knows how to, accepting stoically the consequences, good or bad as they could be. Being poor doesn&apos;t give one many options in life, and poor people cannot afford to have stringent moral standards. Very good movie where we see a world with customs that by now are gone with the wind, as could be decency, straightforwardness, loyalty, solid principles. If you have a couple of hours and nothing to do, watch this movie, it teaches a good couple of things worth knowing. and lifts one&apos;s spirits with a fresh, nice reconciling feeling with life.

After watching another old Argentinian film, "La serpiente de cascabel" (The Rattlesnake)--1946, and having liked it quite a lot, I was intrigued by this film's title, "The Three Rats"--1946, especially because the Three Rats were three excellent actresses from that time and at least I could see good acting, even if the movie wasn't too good.

But this movie is excellent!

The story is taken (and modified quite a lot) according to some critics, from an Ecuadorian writer, but since I never read his novel, I have no way to compare book and film, although I always thought that it is a grave mistake to compare them since both genres are totally opposed making it impossible to follow cinematographically a book word by word. 

As with practically all Argentinian productions, I'm always overwhelmed by a very special quality they have, it consists of a very warm and human feeling, the kind one observes in the Italian cinema too. It feels as if a cozy blanket envelopes our minds and although on writing it may sound ridiculous, that's the way I feel when watching an Argentinian movie.

I saw the restored version on "You Tube" and found this 60 year old film quite impressive from all points of view: The acting was superb, the direction quite subtle and to the point, the sets excellent and the music well placed. The story, quite absorbent, follows the lives of three very different sisters that after becoming orphans have to deal with the raw realities of life, generally hard and merciless with practically everybody.

And each sister deals with it the best way she knows how to, accepting stoically the consequences, good or bad as they could be. Being poor doesn't give one many options in life, and poor people cannot afford to have stringent moral standards. Very good movie where we see a world with customs that by now are gone with the wind, as could be decency, straightforwardness, loyalty, solid principles. If you have a couple of hours and nothing to do, watch this movie, it teaches a good couple of things worth knowing. and lifts one's spirits with a fresh, nice reconciling feeling with life.

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