Adolfo Arrietta, 1976
Arrietta's cinema is a sort of "primitive" (for want of a better word) environs of mystery, often enveloping the space of the "queer hangout" where faggots, transwomen and transvestites surround one another, bickering, talking, loving, interacting in and with each other and the world. A beautiful chaos, minor narrative threads filled with small ideas of the fantastic or the 'mystical' are launching points for a sort of gestural chaos--it's like a more narrative Jack Smith, but also a far more rewarding version of this easy (and lazy) comparison.
In Tam Tam we spend most of our time inside the space of a party, and it's the small moments the film presents that make the film larger than it is. Close-ups on faces, smoking, performative breakdowns, a brilliant dance scene, an actress's recitation, and the anticipation of a writer who never arrives. A brilliant film that along with Les Intrigues de Sylvia Couski is truly fantastic.
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