"Isabel Sarli squeezes more sexual frisson into the space between breathing in and breathing out than most of us could spread over a lifetime of ordinary love-making."
-New York Times
Django Nudo welcomes the Smut Peddler and this week’s guest Adrián García Bogliano, and then leaves for a well-deserved birthday vacation!
Smut and Adrián have an in-depth conversation about the week’s theme: the king and queen of Argentinian sexploitation cinema – Armando Bó and Isabel Sarli. Their film "Fuego" (1969) was a major influence for John Waters (especially Pink Flamingos, 1972), which he talks about here.
The Mexican-Argentinian film director Adrián García Bogliano knows a thing or two about Sarli/Bó and about the modern history of Argentina, as his parent escaped the military junta in the country for Spain, where Adrián was born. He then grew up in Argentina, when the country got a democratic government, and in his youth, he was fascinated by the goddess Isabel Sarli.
She was the former Miss Argentina (1955), met the director Armando Bó, who cast her in her first film in 1957, "Thunder in the Leaves", which contains Argentina’s first frontal nudity in a film. They became lovers (while he was still married) and made 27 amazing erotic melodramas or comedies together, until his death in 1984. She only did two films with other directors. Cultpix shows: "The Female" (1962/1968). The film was exported to the USA, where it was dubbed, re-cut, and got new sex scenes.
This week’s theme has 10 films by Bó, starring Sarli. Adrián discusses some of her most famous films like "Carne" (1968) and "The Naked Temptation" (1966) which was a major inspiration for his own "I’ll Never Die Alone" (2008), as well the couple’s venture into a kind of horror film "Bewitched" (1976).
Adrián explains about the Bó family, where Armando’s son Victor starred against Isabel, and had sex scenes with her, while his dad was still married to Victor’s mom. Victor’s son, Armando Jr, is in turn an Oscar-winning screenwriter in Hollywood today.
They also discuss the films in relationship to the dictatorship of the country. Isabel had met with President Perón, and the clothes designer in her films also dressed Eva Perón. So, there were mixed emotions about Armando Bó’s films, both from the leadership and from the audience.
Adrián has theories of why the voluptuous Isabel never made it abroad (like stars like Sophia Loren or Brigitte Bardot), one being that she only worked with Armando Bó as a director, not for the lack of offers, even from abroad.
Their career is also interesting, as the films changed with the times; where she in the 60’s was mainly a victim in the films, being abused and/or raped, in the later films her characters were much more empowered, taking charge of their lives.
The other films in the theme week are: "Heat" (1960), "The Hot Days" (1966), "Nude in the Sand" (1969), "Tropical Ecstasy" (1970) and "The Insatiable Widow" (1976).
Thank you, Adrián, for all your great insights, stories and analysis of this amazing phenomenon.