General Information

Original Title

La batalla de Chile

Author/Creator

Guzmán, Patricio, director.

Language

Spanish.

Subtitles

English

Published

Chile, 1975.

Physical Description

DVD (262 minutes)

Contents/Summary

Summary

On September 11, 1973, the Socialist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, was ousted from office in a bloody military coup headed by General Augusto Pinochet. Over nine months, Patricio Guzmán and five colleagues chronicled on film the political events that led up to that day. The bombing of Casa de la Moneda, in which Allende was killed, would be the tragic finale of this classic documentary that Guzmán completed in exile with the help of the French master Chris Marker. Screened here is the original version, consisting of two parts. Part 1: “The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie” examines the escalation of opposition to the Socialist government, following the unexpected victory of the Left in the by-elections of March 1973. Faced with the impossibility of stopping socialist rule through the ballot, the Right takes its opposition to the streets. Part 2: “The Coup d’Etat” opens with the failed coup attempt of June 1973 that nonetheless paved the way for the inevitable final confrontation. Guzmán documents the internal discussions on the Left and the implacable strategy of the Right that led to the September 11 coup. Patricio Guzmán later added a third section to the film: The power of the people (1978), dedicated to cameraman Jorge Muller, a member of the original team, who was detained and disappeared by the military. 23 years after the coup, Guzmán returned to Chile to show La batalla de Chile for the first time in his own country and to create a documentary about this experience, La memoria obstinada (1997).

Subjects

Genre

Documentary films

Bibliographic Information

Title Translation

The Battle of Chile

Note

The edition includes a 16-page booklet including a new introduction to Patricio Guzmán's work by Cecilia Ricciarelli, and Pauline Kael's review of the film. Plus! a 22-minute interview with Patricio Guzmán conducted by Brazlian film critic José Carlos Avellar

Holdings

Item Type	Current Location	Call Number	Status	Shelving Location	Public Note
DVD-ROM	OSA Film Library	FL Record 4075	Available	-	Donation of Zsuzsanna Zádori.