Machuca Flashcards
Date of Coup
Sept 11, 1973
Microcosm of Chile in Machuca
St. Patrick’s school as microcosm of Chile
Desegregation efforts in Machuca school
Unified National Education
_____ based on (Gerardo Whelan at St. George’s School)
Father McEnroe
Director/Co-Writer of Machuca
Andres Wood
Wood education
NYU film school
Machuca as a hit
Biggest box office hit (for Chilean film) in Chilean film history
Machuca relating to memory
There are still giant absences/censoring in the media about the dark parts of Chile’s history & movies like Machuca bring light not only to the country’s politics, but also address its dark side.
Machuca compared to other childean film
Machuca is narrative whereas other Chilean films that become successful (with worldwide attention and critical acclaim) tend to be documentaries.
Machuca response
Some of Chile was majorly relieved and sided with the Director’s philosophy of addressing these parts of history to find a sense of much needed closure. Others wanted to blindly continue with the trend of moving forward without looking back, arguing that making a movie that addresses Chile’s dark past only stirs up buried matters.
How does film prefigure end?
The Lone Ranger sparks the conversation about “Cowboys & Indians can’t be friends”; this is what happens in the end. When Machuca’s drunk father tells him what’s going to happen “You will be cleaning toilets while this guy is owning his father’s business.” it forshadows how Machuca’s friend is fine by the end of the movie and Machuca is disappeared.
Machuca engages with memory by presenting the audience with characters who see things in a different light (some are nationalists, some are communists) and occupying the genre of historical fiction. The graffiti does relate to this because you can see public opinion within the framework of what’s being written (the first shot), altered (the second shot), and censored (the final shot of the wall). The film chooses to remember a part of Chile’s dark history that is hard to swallow and therefore often left unspoken of.
Machuca and memory
- How does mise-en-scene (living conditions, decorations, wardrobe, etc.) contribute to characterization and the film’s message?
The mise-en-scene shows us the correlation between the Chilean people’s ideologies and financial situations as well as how their race plays into those politics. In example we see that the white students have nationalist parents and that the protagonist lives in a nice house and goes to an expensive school. On the other hand we see that Machuca lives in slums with other indigenous Chileans that support Communism and solutions toward wealth equality.
- How does filming change during the sequence in which Machuca’s community is raided? Why?
During the raid the filming is desaturated and the color becomes very cold. There are a lot of handheld shots, a lot of long shots, & we feel like we are put in the middle of the action in the first person. The sound becomes more dramatic and the action involves a lot of people and is extremely chaotic, we are yanked from this childhood buddy comedy and thrust into a historically tragic film.
Boy’s friendship is only possible ______________
This friendship is possible in a society that works for social equality (Allende) but it is betrayed in Pinochet’s Chile.
