Chile

INDUSTRIAL EXPERIMENTS

Following early artisanal efforts based mainly in Santiago, a period of intense filmmaking activity in the silent 1920s, in ten cities, resulted in more than fifty films up to 1930. These films included documentary and fictional portrayals of historical figures, such as communist leader Luis Emilio Recabarren (whose funeral was filmed by Carlos Pellegrini and Luis Pizarro in 1924) and independence guerrilla fighter Manuel Rodríguez (in El Húsar de la muerte , [ The Deadly Hussar , Pedro Sienna, 1925), alongside fictional genre films ranging from patriotic reconstructions and melodramas to urban comedies. The transition to sound, inaugurated in 1934 by US-trained Jorge Délano (b. 1895) with Norte y sur (North and South), did not lead to an industrial boom but rather a decline in production (about one feature per year up to 1940). The creation of the Corporación de Fomento a lán (CORFO) in 1938 by the Popular Front government briefly reversed the downward trend by providing 50 percent of the development capital for Chile Films, a studio complex built in 1942 and inspired by the import-substitution model then thriving in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. In contrast to the current pattern of export-based industrialization in much of the developing world, this was a model of industrial development, popular in mid-twentieth century Latin America, that involved the substitution of costly imports by goods that could be produced locally. Thus, new production was based on the prior existence of a domestic market, rather than on external demand for products that were then protected by strong tariffs. Included in this category were basic industrial machinery, household supplies, oil, minerals, wood products, and non-durable goods such as shoes and textiles. The Chile Films studio folded in 1949, and its long-term effects on the development of Chilean cinema were mixed: it depended on Argentina Sono Films for technical expertise, and it welcomed Argentine directors at the helm of its genre-oriented productions, which have been generally described as "folklorist."

These challenges were overshadowed by the lack of interest in Chilean films in the Spanish-language market at large, where Argentina, Spain, and Mexico prevailed. The 1950s brought another dry spell, with only eight features by national directors (who had formed the production organization Diprocine to safeguard Chilean screens against Argentine hegemony) and five by foreign directors. By the early 1960s, 75 percent of film distribution was US-owned, and commercial screens were almost wholly devoted to non-Chilean product. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to speak of a "star system" along the lines established during the Mexican Golden Age; nevertheless, the popular theatrical comedians Lucho Córdoba and Olvido Leguía were featured in 1940s film comedies directed by Eugenio de Liguorio (1894–1952), followed by Ana González, Carloślez, and Chela Bon in musical comedies directed by José Bohr (1901–1994) and others. National composers found an outlet for their talent in commercial genre films, and Ecran magazine strove to provide honest critical assessments of national cinematic progress.