Borges Film – Un amor de Borges

Un amor de Borges
A Love of Borges’

2000, Argentina, 92 min.
Latin Media: DVD

Crew
Directed by Javier Torre
Screenplay by Javier Torre and Isabel de Estrada
Music by José Luis Castiñeira de Dios

Cast
Jean Pierre Noher – Borges
Inés Sastre – Estela Canto
Inda Ledesma – Leonor Acevedo
Mónica Galán – Victoria Ocampo

Synopsis

Rotten Tomatoes: Dedicated to his father, director Leopoldo Torre Nilsson (The Seven Madmen), Javier Torre’s Un amor de Borges is a poignant look at a troubled, struggling writer and his life-affirming muse. Based on a true story, the film follows the 46-year-old Jorge Luis Borges, a childlike man firmly under his mother’s control, as he falls in love with 26-year-old Estela Canto, a communist writer translating an Agatha Christie mystery into Spanish. Borges dreams of being a successful writer, coming alive only when he talks to Estela about Yeats, Shakespeare, Shaw—and his own slowly maturing work. As Estela helps expand Borges’s limited world, his mother insists he end the relationship immediately—especially when Borges dedicates his next story, the soon-to-be-famous “The Aleph,” to Estela.

More details are offered by the IMDB:

Estela Canto y Jorge Luis Borges se conocieron en 1944. Estela era mujer culta, inteligente, bella e inquietante. Trabajaba como locutora de radio, traducía textos de inglés y quería ser escritora. Borges era un hombre tímido, apegado a su madre, conservador, empleado en un modesta Biblioteca pública. Todavía era un desconocido para el gran público. Comenzaron una relación muy especial. Una joven liberada, precursora del feminismo, y un hombre tímido que pedía permiso a su madre para salir, para invitar a Estela a bellas elucubraciones intelectuales, en caminatas nocturnas por San Telmo o Parque Lezama. Se sucedieron episodios amorosos, dudas, consultas a amigos, intrigas, dolor. Alternaron con artistas y escritores de la época. Y se enamoraron. O al menos Borges se enamoró, mientras su madre y su hermana se oponían. La relación duró cinco años, hasta que Estela abandonó a Borges que quedó sumido en el dolor y logró recomponerse después de mucho tiempo, dedicándose solitariamente a escribir y dictar conferencias.

This has been kindly translated by Borges-List member who wishes to add, “I take no responsibility for the schmaltzy prose or for the accuracy of the anecdote!”

Estela Canto and Jorge Luis Borges met in 1944. Estela was a cultivated, intelligent, beautiful, and disquieting woman. She worked as a radio announcer, translated texts from English, and wanted to be a writer. Borges was a shy man, attached to his mother, conservative, and worked in a modest public library. He was as yet unknown to the greater public. They began a very special relationship. She was a liberated young woman, an early feminist; he was a shy man who asked his mother’s permission to go out, to invite Estela to intellectual salons and nighttime walks through San Telmo or Lezama Park. Passionate episodes, doubts, consultations with friends, intrigue, and painful scenes took place. The pair associated with the artists and writers of the period. And they fell in love. Or at least Borges fell in love, while his mother and sister opposed the relationship. It lasted five years, until Estela abandoned Borges and he was left in pain, only managing to pull himself together after a long time, dedicating himself to solitary writing and giving lectures.

Comments

Normally I’m not wild about “romantic biopics” that exploit an author’s personal life, but Un amor de Borges was more enjoyable and less sensational than I expected. Jean Pierre Noher’s performance was mesmerizing, capturing Borges’ awkward movements and halting speech patterns, but never calling attention to his “acting.” There was a genuine chemistry between Noher and his co-star Inés Sastre, and the relationship between Borges and Canto was suitably complex. I’m less comfortable with the film’s portrayal of Borges’ mother, who is clearly the villain. The film’s score was also a bit much, the kind of faux-classical that arthouse films use to signal importance, yet merely transform quiet emotion into sentimental melodrama.

Rotten Tomatoes has this to say:

Jean Pierre Noher is extraordinary as Borges, walking and talking as if on eggshells, hesitant in his every movement, his eyes filled with an evocative loneliness even as the gift of sight is slowly taken away from him. Noher, who resembles a cross between Chazz Palminteri and Nathan Lane, won Best Actor awards at the Biarritz and Santo Domingo Film Festivals for his marvelous work. Inés Sastre is outstanding as Estela, a defiant, fiercely independent woman who wants more out of life than Borges is able to give. And Inda Ledesma is perfectly villainous as a mother who is unwilling to let her grown son do anything on his own—while also playing a crucial role in the development of his magnificent talent.

Un amor de Borges has won numerous awards, including the Kikito award for the best Latin film, the critics’ award at the Granado Festival in Brazil, the Best Film Award at the XVI Trieste Film Festival, and Best Director at the Miami International Festival. Clarín magazine reviewed the film favorably:

Javier Torre exhibe un oficio muy ceñido, mientras consigue hacer cine de época sin excesivo costo. Pero, aunque es una típica obra de autor, no existiría sin estos intérpretes. Por lo menos, la mayoría de ellos: Jean Pierre Noher ha trabajado como orfebre para entregar un Borges casi minimalista—sin excesivas mutaciones, que tampoco estaban en el guión—aunque asombrosamente cálido. En sus antípodas, Inés Sastre aporta sólo su belleza y el físico del rol; por excepción comunica algo. Con el elenco secundario el nivel vuelve a ser alto. Si bien Leonor Acevedo, en manos de Inda Ledesma, asume nivel protagónico; de hecho, esa mamá dominante, acicateando permanentemente al hijo para que no se desvíe de su destino de grandeza, es el tercer vértice del triángulo. Acertados Claudio Gallardou (Patricio Canto) y Gigí Rua (Elvira de Alvear), y espectacular la Victoria Ocampo de Mónica Galán.

Additional Information

Un amor de Borges
You can watch the entire film on YouTube, although the soundtrack is marred by a constant, irritating buzz. [Spanish]

IMDB Page
The Internet Movie Database features a profile of Un amor de Borges. 

Wikipedia Page
Wikipedia hosts a page on Un amor de Borges. [Spanish]

Author: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 28 August 2024
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