7/10
Sex, death, and poetry
24 September 2020
The Argentinian film El lado oscuro del corazón (1992) was shown in the U.S. with the translated title The Dark Side of the Heart. The movie was written and directed by Eliseo Subiela.

Darío Grandinetti plays Oliverio, an Argentinian poet. He travels to Montevideo where he meets Ana, played by Sandra Ballesteros. She's a beautiful prostitute. The fall in love--they have to fall in love--but she's very clear about the fact that he pays for every evening spent in her bed.

The movie is not just about a poet, but about poetry. Mario Benedetti, Juan Gelman, and Oliverio Girondo are three poets who are well known in Latin America. Characters in the movie--including Ana--recite their poetry.

That was the problem for me with this film. Prose translates fairly well, but poetry doesn't.

Nacha Guevara is the beautiful actor who portrays Death in the movie. She and Oliverio have long conversations. It's an interesting concept, like the knight playing chess against Death in Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957).

The movie worked well on the small screen. It has a strong IMDb rating of 7.6. If I spoke Spanish, I would have given it a higher rating. I rated it 7.
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