Cinema
El húsar de la muerte
Pedro Sienna · 1925
Synopsis
Chile, after the defeat at Rancagua in 1814: the guerrilla Manuel Rodríguez fights the royalists. He defies them with a message, recruits patriots, among them the young “Huacho Pelao”, escapes capture under disguises and falls in love with Carmen de Aguirre. Sienna himself plays the role opposite the governor Casimiro Marcó del Pont, played by Piet Van Ravenstein, and the Fundación Futuro notes the anecdotes and ingenious special effects of these adventures of the Reconquista.
Context
Produced by Andes Film and photographed by Gustavo Bussenius, the film was shown on 21 November 1925 at the University of Chile, then released three days later in four cinemas in Santiago; El Mercurio hailed in it the first great historical work of national cinema. Regarded as lost until 1959, it was restored in the sixties by Sergio Bravo, with Sienna and a score by Sergio Ortega, then in 1995 with a score by Horacio Salinas. It was declared a historic monument in 1998, a distinction no other film in the country has received.
Who it is for
A silent adventure film of about sixty-five minutes, with its original intertitles; no French or English version.
Prizes and reception
A popular and critical success from its release, and one of the few Chilean silent films to have survived to our day.
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