Underplayed Gems

The Bitter Stems (1956)

The Bitter Stems poster
Original title
Los tallos amargos
Directed by
Fernando Ayala
Genre
drama film
Country
Argentina
Runtime
1h 30m
Rating
7.1 of 10 from 34 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like this

How it feels

A journalist gets caught up in a scheme that goes wrong. The story follows his descent into paranoia and desperation.

noirtenseclassicmoodysuspensefulmelancholicbleak

What happens

The Bitter Stems (Spanish: Los Tallos Amargos) is a 1956 Argentine film noir directed by Fernando Ayala. It is considered one of the last films of the Golden Age of Argentine Cinema. The screenplay, written by Sergio Leonardo, is based on the novel Los Tallos Amargos by Adolfo Jasca. The film's music was composed by Astor Piazzolla. The film was considered lost until it turned up in a private collection in 2014. A 35mm version was subsequently restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, with funding provided by the Film Noir Foundation and Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Charitable Trust, and premiered in January 2016 at the Noir City Film Festival, before playing in February 2016 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. When the film played at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood later that year, the presenter noted that while the 35mm negative was rediscovered, the soundtrack remained lost, so the restoration used the track from the director's 16mm print. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.