Best Picture of 1985, Bar None

I don't often quibble with some of the odd things the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does (Grace Kelly's Best Actress win over Judy Garland in 1955 is a good example), but 1985's Best Picture winner is one of them. OUT OF Africa, uncharacteristically for a Sydney Pollack film, was a bloated and unbearably boring biopic of a woman who at the end of the day was just not that interesting, despite a valiant attempt on the part of Meryl Streep in the lead. If I had been given a vote, and had to choose only an American-made film, I would have chosen THE COLOR PURPLE.

But I digress. The best picture that I have ever seen that was made in 1985 was that year's winner for Best Foreign Language film: Luis Puenzo's extraordinary debut film LA HISTORIA OFICIAL, better known to the English-speaking world as THE OFFICIAL STORY. For a first film, the director's hand is remarkably sure here; he knows the characters and the territory, and his handling of the actors produces what in the theatre is often known as "magic."

The film stars Norma Aleandro (in a fierce, towering performance that should have earned her an Oscar) as Alicia Marnet de Ibañez, a history teacher at a Buenos Aires high school, married to a successful businessman (Hector Alterio), raising their adopted five-year-old daughter Gaby (Analia Castro), and living the good life, blissfully, and one suspects later on, perhaps deliberately, unaware of what is happening and what has happened to her country in recent years (the film takes place shortly after the "dirty war" in which many Argentinians were rounded up, imprisoned, tortured, and killed). At first glance it seems incredible that a history teacher could be so blind to recent events, but as one of her students observes early in the film, "History is written by assassins."

Alicia sends the student from the room. But a seed has been planted. She attends a school reunion (I am not sure if it is high school or college; I suspect the latter, but in the end it makes little difference) and is reunited with her old friend Ana (Chunchuna Villafañe, who also delivers an Oscar-worthy performance), who has been living abroad, in exile, for the past seven years.

Ana comes to Alicia's home for dinner; Alicia's husband Roberto is immediately suspicious and uneasy, but does his best to hide it. Later, after Roberto has gone to bed, the two women sit up talking and Ana reveals, in a devastating scene, the torture that she was subjected to because of her relationship with one of the "enemies of the state." During this confession, Ana lets slip that many of the torture victims were pregnant women whose babies were stolen from them and sold to wealthy couples in secret adoptions, to which Alicia reacts almost violently: "Why are you telling me this??"

Ana does not answer, but the seed that has been planted is starting to grow, and despite her love for her daughter, Alicia feels compelled to find out how her husband went about adopting the child.

The strength of her bond with Gaby is displayed in a long, silent scene in which Alicia takes from the closet shelf the clothing the baby arrived in and looks at it with tears streaming down her face. But what has been set in motion cannot be stopped.

I won't reveal any more. This is an exciting film, magnificently acted, written, and directed, and Aleandro's performance is one of the best pieces of work I have ever seen by any actor, male or female, and it is all the more remarkable because so much of it is internal. The camera lingers on Aleandro's face during key scenes as conflicting emotions flash by, one after the other, revealing both her inner turmoil and her resolve to discover the truth at any cost.

A winner all around. And it should have gotten the Oscar. For Best Picture for starters, and also for Aleandro and Villafañe.

Never mess with a middle-aged, Bipolar queen with AIDS and an attitude problem!
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