Camila | |
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Film Poster
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Directed by | María Luisa Bemberg |
Produced by | Lita Stantic |
Written by | María Luisa Bemberg Beda Docampo Feijóo Juan Bautista Stagnaro |
Starring |
Susú Pecoraro Imanol Arias Héctor Alterio |
Music by | Luis María Sierra |
Cinematography | Fernando Arribas |
Edited by | Luis César D'Angiolillo |
Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
Country | Argentina |
Language | Spanish |
Camila is a 1984 Argentine drama film directed by María Luisa Bemberg, based on the story of the 19th-century Argentine socialite Camila O'Gorman. The story had previously been adapted in 1910 by Mario Gallo, in the now considered lost film Camila O'Gorman. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, marking the second time an Argentine film was nominated for this award.
The film opens with the statement, "In memory of Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutiérrez."
Argentina, c. 1827. Ana Perichon de O'Gorman is brought from imprisonment in a Brazilian convent to house arrest where she is confined to her room in the hacienda of her estranged son, Adolfo O'Gorman. Adolfo, who despises his mother for having had an adulterous affair decades earlier, treats her with unveiled contempt. Camila initially does not want her grandmother to live with them in the house. Upon meeting her granddaughter, Camila O'Gorman, Ana asks whether she enjoys love stories. Camila responds that she doesn't know any.
In 1847, a 23-year-old Camila (Susú Pecoraro), has become a pole of Buenos Aires society. Secretly, Camila has been raised on her grandmother's stories about her affair with former Colonial Viceroy Santiago de Liniers and their surviving love letters. Just as secretly, Camila reads French romance novels and books by political refugees like Esteban Echeverría.
She is courted by Ignacio, a wealthy man in society with whom she is not in love with. Her fellow socialites, who see marriage as a business arrangement, urge her to not let Ignacio get away. In reply, Camila bursts into tears as she describes her longing to marry for love and for a husband she could feel proud of. Her socialite friends are stunned.