de Patricio Guzmán
“THE BATTLE OF CHILE I-II-III”
272 minutes (1972-1979)
"The Battle of Chile" is a historical documentary that in the seventies and eighties was distributed in 35 countries of the world. It is not a film made from archives; it is a document filmed as the events took place. Its author and director worked with a crew in the middle of the events. The virgin material (16 MM black and white film) was a contribution of the French documentary-maker Chris Marker and the editing was possible thanks to the collaboration of the Cuban Cinematography Institute (ICAIC). Jorge Müller Silva (the film's cameraman) was kidnapped by Pinochet's military police in November of 1974. His whereabouts are still unknown. He is one of the 3,000 that remain ‘disappeared' in Chile today. "The Battle of Chile" has been subject to censorship in Chile and has never been emitted by public television.
SYNOPSIS OF THE FIRST PART ("The Insurrection of the Bourgeouisie", 100'):
Salvador Allende begins a program of profound social and political transformations. From day one, the right organizes a series of wildcat strikes against him, while the White House asphyxiates him economically. In spite of the boycott - in March of 1973 - the parties in support of Allende win 43.4 percent of the vote. The right comes to understand that legal mechanisms will no longer work for them. From then on, their strategy will be the strategy of the military coup. "The Battle of Chile" is a fresco which shows, step by step, these acts that shook the world.
SYNOPSIS OF THE SECOND PART ("The Coup d'Etat", 90'):
Between March and September of 1973, the left and right face off in the streets, in the factories, in the courts, in the universities, in parliament, and in the news media. The situation becomes unsustainable. The United States finances the truckers' strike and foments social chaos. Allende tries to reach an agreement with the powers of the Christian Democracy, but fails. The contradictions within the left-wing increase the crisis. The military begins to conspire in Valparaiso. A wide sector of the middle class supports the boycott and civil war. On September 11, Pinochet bombs the governmental palace.
SYNOPSIS OF THE THIRD PART ("The Power of the People", 82'):
On the sidelines of the large-scale occurrences that narrate the previous films, other original phenomena -- sometimes ephemeral, incomplete -- are also taking place and are picked up by the third part. Many sectors of the population and in particular the social layers in support of Allende organize and start up a series of collective actions: communitarian stores, industrial cordons, farmers' committees, etc., with the intention of neutralizing the chaos and overcoming the crisis. These institutions, in the majority spontaneous, represent a ‘state' inside the State.
REDUCED FACT SHEET:
Direction, production, script: Patricio Guzmán.
Director of photography and camera: Jorge Müller Silva.
Editing: Pedro Chaskel.
Direct sound: Bernardo Menz.
Production company: Equip Tercer Año (Patricio Guzmán).
Shot on: 16 MM in black and white.
Final format: 35 MM (1.85), DVD and Beta Pal.
AWARDS:
GRAND PRIX, Grenoble International Film Festival, France 1975.
JUDGE'S PRIZE, Leipzig Film Festival, Germany 1976.
GRAND PRIX, Grenoble International Film Festival, France 1976.
GRAND PRIX, Brussels International Film Festival, Belgium 1977.
GRAND PRIX, Benalmadena International Film Festival, Spain 1977.
GRAND PRIX, Havana Film Festival, Cuba 1979.
SELECTION OF CRITICS:
“No new Hollywood film on conspiracies or murders can reach the level of suspense that these images create.”
Judy Stone. San Francisco Chronicle, USA 1977.
“’The Battle of Chile’ by Patricio Guzmán is an overwhelming and admirable documentary of a country thrown into chaos with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy.”
Kevin Thomas. Los Angeles Times, USA 1978.
“A capital testimony. To be watched so as to never forget.”
Nouvel Observateur, Parigi 1977
“If it was up to me, I’d declare ‘The Battle of Chile’ a film of ‘democratic interest’ and oblige it to be used as school material.”
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. Mundo Obrero, Madrid 1977.
“Going farther than historical and political analysis, the film is useful for its extraordinary human quality of certain unpublished documents. It’s a film that first addresses reflection, but reaches the center of our hearts.”
Marcel Martin. Ecran, Parigi 1977.
“Two extraordinary moments in the second part: fragments of anthology, it could be said (...). To the sound of the funeral march, the funeral of the Allende’s murdered aide-de-camp. The camera scrutinizes the faces. An incisive commentary invites us to read under the skin of those hermetic faces: the final coup is brewing. The second historical moment: the enormous demonstration on September 4, 1973, a week before the coup...”
Louis Marcorelles, Le Monde, Parigi 1976.
“’The Battle of Chile’: the most impressive thing seen at Cannes and an incredibly valuable documentary for all history.”
Cambio 16. Madrid 1976.
“This film is the first work of art in a new form of analyzing politics... It offers us a history lesson as cinema has never offered it to us... Although diverse and very well-known filmmakers are listed under the rubric of the script, such as Pedro Chaskel, another Chilean director, Julio García Espinosa, a Cuban director, and Chris Marker; the piece is very evidently on account of one single man. Not for the sake of propriety, but rather perhaps because the work of creation, of realization, of editing, are worth that of a Bresson or a Fellini...”
Louis Marcorelles. Le Monde, Parigi 1975.
“Great films rarely arrive unannounced, as with ‘The Battle of Chile’. A documentary filmed in several locations and lasting many hours, about the acts that preceded the fall of Allende... How was a 5-person crew, some without previous experience (...) able to produce a work of this magnitude?... Patricio Guzmán has said in an interview (...) that, during the street fights, he could anticipate what was going to happen and that, situated behind the cameraman, he would say when to move forward, focus on a certain area, lower or raise the camera. That he was so pervaded by the possibilities of the situation that it was as if he were directing the action. He was able to use the methods of fictional filmmaking that he had studied at film school in Madrid in the late sixties...”
Pauline Kael, The New Yorker, 1978 USA.
“Whatever one’s reaction is after watching ‘The Battle of Chile’, it is, irrefutably, an epic film.”
Vincent Camby, The New York Times, USA 1978.
