Victoria was crazy
about the work of Vittorio De Sica, Jean Renoir,
Lawrence Olivier, and Luchino Visconti. She loved
films which set tenderness and humor side-by-side,
films that allowed a viewer “to let tears
flow in the movie theater, to be engulfed by real
life.” Whenever Victoria traveled to New
York she would spend a good portion of her time
at the movies. She was fascinated by Lina Wertmüller,
and recognized her sharp wit while bemoaning that
“she never softens. This strength is her
weakness.” Victoria loved Danny Kaye as
well. If a film failed to please her, however,
she would get up after a half hour, sometimes
moving to a different theater.
During her first visit to the United States in
1930 Victoria met a young director and was won
over by his films. This director was the Soviet
Sergei Eisenstein, who would grow to be one of
the most gifted moviemakers of all time. Victoria
must have sensed his talent, and encouraged him
to visit Buenos Aires and to film a movie there.
Yet in spite of her enthusiasm she was unable
to obtain financing from Argentine officials and
Eisenstein, his attention piqued by the novelist
Upton Sinclair, went to Mexico to film ¡Que
viva México!
At the suggestion of Jorge Luis Borges, Victoria
included film reviews in Sur even before
cinema had acquired the status and prestige it
would later hold. Alfonso Reyes, Borges, María
Luisa Bombal, and Luis Saslavsky commented on
films by Chaplin, King Vidor and Hitchcock. “In
the Sur reviews there is always a thread
tying together the whole analysis, from anecdotes
about the stars to the technical aspects of the
picture,” explains David Viñas. In
a piece she wrote for the 37th issue of Sur to
celebrate the opening of the new Rex theater in
Buenos Aires, Victoria could not help turning
her eye for aesthetics to the sober and moderated
architecture of the brand new building.
Around 1953 Victoria dedicated herself to a further
project: she wanted to have Argentine cinema be
recognized at the international level. This time,
she hoped to invite Vittorio De Sica —whose
Milagro en Milán and Ladrón de bicicletas
had impressed her— but the president of
the cultural commission told Victoria that, as
M.E.Vázquez recalls, he “found the
movie Humberto D appalling.” And thus the
project came to nothing.
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