VALENTIN (Argentinian/Spain, etc. 2002)Wednesday, 1st April 2009Mini Season Presentation - Not part of the main season (See also "Winged Migration")
VALENTIN: Directed by Alejandro Agresti from his own screenplay. Photography (Colour): José Luis Cajaraville. Music: Paul M. Van Brugge. Length 82 mins. With: RODRIGO NOYA (Valentin), CARMEN MAURA (Grandmother), MEX URTIZBEREA (Rufo), JULIETTA CARDINALI (Leticia), ALEJANDRO AGRESTI (Vicente).
"VALENTIN" The companion piece to Winged Migration Valentin also belongs to the real world but in a very different sense. It tells the story of an eight year old boy, the eponymous hero of the piece played by Rodrigo Noya, who is living in Buenos Aires in the late 1960s. He resides with his grandmother (the celebrated Carmen Maura daringly taking on a role older than her years) but inevitably misses his mother who had mysteriously disappeared. The father, Vicente, does appear from time to time, but these occasional visits usually centre on Vicente introducing to his young son some new woman in his life who might just possibly become Valentin’s step-mother. One such is Leticia (the appealing Julieta Cardinali). However, when it comes to finding friends, Valentin has to look either to children of his own age or to a sympathetic adult like the piano teacher, Rufo (Mex Urtizberea).
Such material could yield a sombre work, but that is not what the writer/director Alejandro Agresti, an experienced film-maker unknown in this country, is after. From the very start the bright colour photography of José Luis Cajaraville and the popular style music score by Paul M. van Brugge point in another direction. A key element here is to present Valentin as the film’s precociously knowing narrator; he has been described as ‘gloriously cute’ and to prove it he wears large horn-rimmed spectacles in addition to being so fascinated by outer space that he fantasizes about becoming an astronaut. Given this approach, Valentin can properly be described as a feel-good movie. I need hardly add that this is a very dangerous course to take and could have resulted in Valentin becoming schmaltzy and unbearable. Yet, against the odd, it works – and there are two reasons why. First, there’s the connection with real life. This is at heart an autobiographical film reflecting one year in Agresti’s own childhood. This means that we have the irony of Agresti playing the role of the father when that character is based on his own father. He has said of this: “There’s one scene in the film in which my father is shouting at me, hurting and humiliating me with his words. I could not do the scene, each time I felt emotionally blocked. I remember too vividly what my father did to me. It took me quite some time before I finally managed it.”
Fortunately for us, what this means is that, despite creating a feel-good movie, Agresti roots his film in real pain and in the insecurity of a child parted from his mother whose seeming rejection of him is quite as hurtful as the neglect by his father. This balances the excessive sweetness of most films of this type. But equally crucial to making the film work is the second key to the film’s success: Rodrigo Noya. This child actor faced with a role that could have been no more than a cute fabrication proves totally oblivious to any such possibility. He believes fully in the role that he is playing and he makes us believe too. The film’s conclusion may have something of a fairy tale feel to it, but who could possibly want to deny this Valentin his happy ending?
