Los tallos amargos [The Bitter Stems] (1956)

(On Cable TV, July 2021) I always get a kick out of movies being brought back from the edge of extinction. As Eddie Muller detailed with some relish in his TCM introduction to the film, his Noir Foundation was instrumental in restoring award-winning Argentinian noir The Bitter Stems from a single 35mm negative (plus a soundtrack from a 16mm copy) and brought it to the attention of the English-speaking world. The film “premiered” again in 2016, sixty years after its initial run. Since Muller is a noir expert, we can trust his judgment when he recommends a film and The Bitter Stems is indeed a pure noir from a non-American perspective. Here we have a journalist associating himself with a Hungarian immigrant in order to create a shady correspondence school, only to grow suspicious of his partner when various details don’t add up. A shocking mid-movie murder sends the rest of the film in another direction, all the way to an implacable conclusion. What makes The Bitter Stems fascinating to anyone is likely to be the film’s exceptional cinematography, not only playing in noir motifs, but also bringing in expressionistic dream sequences as a bonus — and that’s not counting the shots in which sagacious lighting changes create a dreamlike effect. Both lead actors (Carlos Cores and Vassili Lambrinos) are quite effective, even if the film around them is often far more remarkable than their acting achievements. It’s quite a rediscovery, and another proof that the cinematic past is not necessarily as set in stone as we may think.