Chilean film chronology

By: ExperimentoFilm

Not a pretty picture. Chile’s film industry went into decline in the late 1940s and hundreds of early films are lost or out of circulation. Much of what is available is mediocre at best. Good documentary and fiction work started to emerge in the late 1950s (with 1967-1973 being the key years of New Chilean Cinema) but the 1980s was the most barren period, as filmmakers went into exile after the US-backed 1973 Pinochet coup and support for film dried up. The most internationally famous Chilean directors (Jodorowsky, Ruiz, Guzmán and Amenábar) made their names abroad – Littin, Caiozzi and Wood are probably the best known Chilean directors in Chile itself.

Chilean films which are well known outside Chile:
The Battle of Chile (1975), The Frontier (1991), Machuca (2004), Tony Manero (2008), The Maid (2009)

Chilean films which are well known in Chile:
The Big Chamorro Circus (1955), Largo viaje (1967), Three Sad Tigers (1968), Jackal of Nahueltoro (1969), Valparaiso My Love (1969), Little White Dove (1973), Julio Begins in July (1977), Johnny 100 Pesos (1994), Gringuito (1998), The Sentimental Teaser (1999), Coronation (2000), Taxi para tres (2001), Ogu and Mampato in Rapa Nui (2002), Sex with Love (2003), Subterra (2004), Machuca (2004), The King of Idiots (2006), Violeta Went to Heaven (2011)

Directors:
Pedro Sienna (1893-1972)
Jorge Délano ‘Coke’ (1895-1980)
Eugenio de Liguoro (1899-1952)
José Bohr (1901-1994)
Tito Davison (1912-1985)
Rafael Sánchez (1920-2006)
Patricio Kaulen (b.1921)
Naum Kramarenco (b.1923)
Aldo Francia (1923-1996)
Sergio Bravo (b.1927)
Claudio Guzmán (1927-2008)
Alejandro Jodorowsky (b.1929)
Helvio Soto (1930-2001)
Pedro Chaskel (b.1932)
Alvaro Covacevich (b.?)
Rolando Klein (b.?)
Raúl Ruiz (1941-2011)
Patricio Guzmán (b.1941)
Miguel Littin (b.1942)
Silvio Caiozzi (b.1944)
Carlos Flores del Pino (b.1944)
Marilú Mallet (b.1944)
Valeria Sarmiento (b.1948)
Cristián Sánchez (b.1951)
Ignacio Agüero (b.1952)
Gonzalo Justiniano (b.1955)
Andrés Wood (b.1965)
Alejandro Amenábar (b.1972)

Mainstream Hollywood product remains pretty much dominant in Chilean cinemas, though locally made biopics and sex comedies (often influenced by talk radio and reality TV) sometimes do find an audience. Young auteurs like Alejandro Fernández Almendras (b.1971), Alicia Scherson (b.1974), Sebastián Lelio [formerly Campos] (b.1974), José Luis Torres Leiva (b.1975), Cristián Jiménez (b.1975), Pablo Larraín (b.1976), Matías Bize (b.1979) and Sebastián Silva (b.1979) have started doing interesting work during the last decade which has got some international festival recognition. There are also genre-minded guys like Ernesto Díaz Espinoza (b.1978), Jorge Olguín (b.1977) and Nicolás López (b.1983) who no doubt would like a Hollywood career like Alexander Witt or Oscar-nominated cinematographer Claudio Miranda (rather than being another Cristián Galaz, Boris Quercia or Marcelo Ferrari). We shall see.

Actors:
Eugenio Retes (1895-1985)
Antonio Prieto (1926-2011)
Luis Alarcón (b.1930)
Nelson Villagra (b.1937)
Sergio Hernández (b.1957)
Alfredo Castro (b.1962)

Actresses:
Rosita Serrano (1914-1997)
Bélgica Castro (b.1921)
Malú Gatica (1922-1997)
Chela Bon (1930-2010)
Valentina Vargas (b.1964)
Leonor Varela (b.1972)

Writers:
Alberto Blest Gana (1830-1920)
Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957)
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)
María Luisa Bombal (1910-1980)
Nicanor Parra (b.1914)
José Donoso (1924-1996)
Antonio Skármeta (b.1940)
Ariel Dorfman (b.1942)
Isabel Allende (b.1942)
Luis Sepúlveda (b.1949)
Diamela Eltit (b.1949)
Pedro Lemebel (b.1952)
Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003)
Alberto Fuguet (b.1964)

Cinematographers:
Héctor Ríos (b.1927)
Jorge Müller Silva (?-1974?)
Claudio Miranda (b.?)

Composers:
Alfonso Leng (1894-1974)
Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt (1925-2010)
Luis Advis (1935-2004)
Sergio Ortega (1938-2003)
Jorge Arriagada (b.1943)

Non-Chilean films of interest:
State of Siege (1972, Costa-Gavras)
The Embassy (1973, Marker)
The Tiger Leaps and Kills but It Will Die… It Will Die (1973, Álvarez)
La spirale (1976, Mattelart, Mayoux, Meppiel and Marker)
Missing (1982, Costa-Gavras)
Sweet Country (1987, Kakogiannis)
Terre sacrée (1988, Pacull)
Death and the Maiden (1994, Polanski)
11 09 01 September 11 (2002, the Loach segment)
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004, Salles)
Quantum of Solace (2008, Forster)

Threads:
What’s your favorite chilean film?
Movies from Chile and other Latin American Films
Cuales piensan que son las mejores películas chilenas?

Other lists:
pelis chilenas (ainosattoram)
Cine Chileno (Mauro)
cine chileno (David Germán Ordenes)
EL NOVISIMO CINE CHILENO (Gonzalo Maza)
¡Viva Chile, mierda! (Agustina)
Chile (paulo machado)
Cine//B_3: 10 películas chilenas en competencia. (antonino)

More regional lists:
Argentina In Mubi (Lucas Granero)
Unheard Voices: Cinema of Bolivia (kuxa kanema)
Uruguayan Cinema (Kolar)
América Latina: Los Andes (América Latina The List)

Spanish-language audiovisual resources:
Cine chileno online (Chilean films for free)
Historias del cine chileno (in-depth interviews with Chilean filmmakers)
pacpero’s YouTube channel (some films with English subtitles)