Los Tallos Amargos (1956)
Los Tallos Amargos (1956), The Bitter Stems, Argentine film noir directed by Fernando Ayala.
This highly regarded little seen noir won Argentina’s Silver Condor Awards for Best Picture and Best Director in 1957, but is a film that remains virtually unknown to the rest of the world.
Hard to comprehend as The Bitter Stems has enthusiastically been labeled one of the finest noir-drenched crime films of the 1950s (and maybe ever).
The Bitter Stems was hailed by American Cinematographer as one of the “50 Best Photographed Films of All-Time” (by cinematographer Ricardo Younis, who studied under the great Gregg Toland A.S.C.)
A deep-seated inferiority complex leads a Buenos Aires newspaper reporter into a seemingly innocent correspondence-school scheme with a clever Hungarian expat. But as the money flows in, so do rising suspicions, true motives surface with stunning and tragic results.
Los Tallos Amargos was considered lost until it turned up in a private collection in 2014. A 35mm version was subsequently restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, with funding provided by the Film Noir Foundation and Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Charitable Trust, it was shown at a special premier in February 2016 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York,and the film played at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood later in the year.
Despite the restoration the film has been unavailable with English Subtitles for the home enthusiast, BUT If you are a bit of a... Movie Detective.com... you will discover that just yesterday this exciting new release with eng.subs in a no frills DVD+R format was announced!
Happy Viewing...