Beyond Oblivion

Two years before Vertigo, this fascinating, archly Gothic Argentine drama mined near-identical themes of erotic obsession and necrophilic desire via the story of a wealthy man (director Hugo del Carril) who, shattered by the death of his wife (Laura Hidalgo), retreats to Paris where he meets her exact look-alike in the form of a prostitute (Hidalgo, again) and proceeds to make her over in the dead woman’s image. Based on the classic Symbolist novel Bruges-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach and directed by tango-singer-turned-actor-turned-filmmaker del Carril in heaving, Sturm und Drang style, Beyond Oblivion has been heralded as nothing less than “the greatest Argentine film” by the country’s legendary critic Ángel Faretta. 35mm print courtesy of Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (Argentina).